A Boy Named Sue

A Boy Named Sue: analysis

Introduction

"A Boy Named Sue" is a comic story told in the voice of a tough, rough-talking man. His father left the family when he was small. Before leaving, the father gave him a girl's name, Sue.

The name brings the boy years of teasing and fights. As a grown man he hunts his father down to kill him. After a wild brawl, the father explains why he chose the name. The poem is about names, fathers and sons, toughness, and an unlikely kind of forgiveness.

Summary

In the first stanza, the speaker says his father left home when he was three. He left only "this old guitar and a bottle of booze." The worst thing he did was name his son Sue.

In the second stanza, the name makes people laugh. The speaker has to "fight my whole life through." Girls giggle and he blushes. Boys laugh and he hits them.

In the third stanza, he grows up "quick" and "mean." He wanders from town to town in shame. He vows to find the man who named him and kill him.

In the fourth stanza, he arrives in Gatlinburg in mid-July, thirsty. In an old saloon he sees his father dealing cards at a table.

In the fifth stanza, he knows his father from an old picture and a scar. The father is now old and gray. The speaker introduces himself and says, "Now you're gonna die."

In the sixth stanza, he punches his father, who pulls a knife and cuts off part of his ear. They crash through the wall and fight in the muddy street.

In the seventh stanza, the speaker says this was one of his toughest fights. Both men reach for guns, and the speaker draws first. The father smiles.

In the eighth stanza, the father explains. He knew he would not be there to help. He gave his son the name so he would have to "get tough or die."

In the ninth stanza, the father says his son has the right to kill him. He adds that the son should first thank him for his toughness.

In the last stanza, the speaker throws down his gun. Father and son call each other "pa" and "son." He says he now sees things differently. If he has a son, he will name him "anything but Sue."

Themes and meaning

Names and identity sit at the centre of the poem. A single word shapes the speaker's whole life. It brings shame, laughter and endless fights. The poem asks how much a name decides who a person becomes. The father claims it is "that name that helped to make you strong."

A second theme is the relationship between an absent father and his son. The father is gone by line 1 and leaves almost nothing behind. The son's anger drives most of the poem. The meeting turns from an attempt at murder into a reunion. The line "called him pa and he called me a son" marks a real change.

A third theme is toughness in a hard world. The father says, "this world is rough." The son's life has been a series of fights, and the poem does not hide the violence. The father's plan works in one sense, since the son has "gravel in your guts." The poem can be read as praising that toughness, or as showing its high cost.

Forgiveness is the fourth theme, and it is left open. The son gets "a different point of view" and does not kill his father. Yet the last line says he would never repeat the choice. Readers can take this in two ways. He may accept the father's reasons but reject the method. Or the ending may hint that the father's explanation is an excuse he made up on the spot.

Tone

The voice is loud, boastful and colloquial. The speaker talks like a man telling a story in a bar. He uses words like "ain't," "gonna" and "helluva." Each stanza begins with a relaxed "Well" or "Yeah," as if he is spinning a yarn.

In the early stanzas the tone is bitter and self-pitying. The line "life ain't easy for a boy named Sue" is a complaint. The tone hardens into threat as he vows to kill his father.

The fight is told with comic exaggeration. The father "kicked like a mule and bit like a crocodile." The humour takes the edge off the violence.

The tone softens when the father speaks. The son is "choked up" and at a loss: "What could I do?" The last line brings back the joke. It lets the story end on a laugh rather than on sentiment.

Form and structure

The poem has 10 stanzas and 62 lines. Most stanzas have 6 lines, while others have 5 or 7. Line lengths range widely, from 7 to 17 syllables. The rhythm is loose and song-like, with about four strong beats in many lines. It is not a regular metre.

The stanzas often pair rhyming lines, as in "joke" and "folks" or "red" and "head." A recurring rhyme on the sound of "Sue" ties the story together: "through," "brew," "do," "view." Some line breaks fall in odd places, such as line 5 ending on "was." These breaks hide rhymes inside lines, like "hid" and "did." The effect is of a sung or spoken story set down on the page.

Poetic devices

refrain line 12

life ain't easy for a boy named Sue The phrase gives the poem its title and returns at key moments. It sums up the speaker's grievance in a single, catchy line.

parallelism line 14

My fist got hard and my wits got keen. The two halves of the line are built the same way. The balance shows body and mind toughening together.

hyperbole line 16

I made me a vow to the moon and the stars The grand vow is larger than life. It shows how seriously the speaker takes his revenge.

metaphor line 25

I knew that snake was my own sweet dad Calling his father a snake shows his hatred. Setting it beside "sweet dad" makes the phrase bitterly ironic.

enjambment line 23

sat the dirty, The sentence runs over into the next line before we learn who is sitting there. The pause builds suspense before the father appears.

alliteration line 37

in the mud and the blood and the beer The repeated "b" sounds and the chain of "and" pile up the mess of the brawl. The words "mud" and "blood" also rhyme.

simile line 39

He kicked like a mule and bit like a crocodile. The animal comparisons make the old man seem wild and dangerous. They also make the fight comic.

metaphor line 53

the gravel in your guts Gravel stands for grit and courage. The rough image fits the father's idea of toughness.

repetition line 55

What could I do? What could I do? The repeated question shows the son is at a loss. His anger has nowhere left to go.

irony line 62

anything but Sue After accepting his father's reasons, the son still refuses to repeat them. The ending undercuts the father's lesson with a joke.

Words worth knowing

honky tonks

Cheap bars, often with loud country music.

stud

Stud poker, a card game. The father is dealing cards at the saloon table.

mangy

Scruffy and dirty, like a dog with a skin disease. It is an insult here.

brew

A beer.

a-gouging

Gouging, meaning jabbing at the eyes or face in a fight. The added "a-" is an old spoken form.

gravel

Used here to mean grit, courage or toughness.

Context

The archive's records give this poem as sung by Johnny Cash, with the year 1969. It is a song lyric as well as a poem. That helps explain its loose rhythm, its refrain and its storytelling voice.

What readers have said

• One reader saw the poem as about parents and children, where a parent's hurtful choice may be meant for the child's good. Hellur, 2005
• A retired English teacher said the humour lies in the absurdity of keeping the name, but that names do shape self-image. Bill Jennings, 2005
• A reader with a unisex name said a name does not define you, while admitting they would fight whoever gave them a bad one. Taylor Smith, 2006
• A reader named Billie Sue said people often wonder whether they are a boy or a girl, and agreed that such a name makes you tough. Billie Sue Johnson, 2006
• One reader asked why the slang and rough words were needed, calling them a fill for a lack of vocabulary. Spongy Bull, 2006
• A reader pointed to a book about the Scopes trial that mentions a real lawyer whose father named him Sue. Fred, 2005