why is the father unhappy with the son .

In the poem “Father to Son” by Elizabeth Jennings, the father is unhappy with the son because the son is unlike his father in most aspects and has his own thoughts and interests in spite of having been brought up in the environment and with the values that the father provided him with. The father is unable to understand his own son, as there is a break in the communication link between their generations. The father tries to continue the relationship based on what he knew of the son from his youngest years, but the son has changed over the time and they now speak to each other as strangers. Most of the time, there is only an awkward silence between them. It is indeed a tragedy that the father is unable to have a close relationship with his own son.