Adrienne's Relationship with Her Father: Is it all that bad?

Adrienne Rich gives us the impression that her relationship with her father brought largely hurt her and did not benefit her. However, I strongly disagree. Adrienne Rich's father instilled in his daughter the importance of education. "...where the father walks up and down telling the child to work, work harder than anyone else has before? -But I can't stop seeing like this more and more I see like this everywhere" (108). Maybe in the beginning, she did not enjoy her father forcing her to work hard in her studies, but as she got older, maybe she started to value working hard in her studies more. Although Rich may have been disillusioned with her father earlier in life, she has to credit him for fostering this interest in academics and poetry to him. "His investment in my intellect and talent was egotistical, tyrannical, opinionated, and terribly wearing. He taught me nevertheless, to write and rewrite: to feel that I was a person of the book, even though a woman; to take ideas seriously" (232). Even after she becomes disillusioned with her father later in life, she still has to admit that he is largely responsible for her career. Maybe the relationship she had with her father wasn't so bad after all.