Critique of "Tiny, Smiling Daddy"

Mary Gaitskill’s story “Tiny, Smiling Daddy” elicits a cathartic response from its readers through its precise descriptions of emotional states and deft plot revelations. Instantly, sympathy is evoked for Stew when he learns of the article his estranged daughter, Kitty, has written about him. Unable to read the article immediately, Stew is described as feeling “helplessness move through his body the way a swimmer feels a large sea creature pass beneath him.” This sentence conjures a visceral feeling in the reader by pinning a concrete image to an emotion. Such instances appear throughout the story, such as when Stew is driving to the store and feels acutely aware of other people and what they may think of him. “It was as if there were a tentacle plugged into the side of the car, linking him with the random humans who picked up the magazine.” Such visuals help the reader to experience Stew’s feelings.

            Yet one of the strongest elements is the way Gaitskill handles revelation. For nearly the entire story, Stew is the recipient of most of the reader’s sympathy, as Kitty is portrayed as an incorrigible and ungrateful teenager who spurns her parents’ love. For instance, Stew once overhears her calling her mother a stupid bitch, despite all the “lullabies and special times.” However, at the very end, Stew remembers his reaction when Kitty tells him she is a lesbian. “You mean nothing to me. You walk out that door, it doesn’t matter. And if you come back in, I’m going to spit in your face.” Delivering this line at the end flips the reader’s sympathy from Stew to Kitty and changes the perspective of the entire conflict. The reader is finally given a logical reason for Kitty’s behavior, and abruptly becomes disgusted with Stew. Therefore, when in the final sentence Marsha “moved and sat away from him on the couch,” indicating that Stew is alone in his life, the reader finds this fitting. This twist shows how integral plot revelation is to a story.