A boy named Sue can be summed up by the title alone, but it can be dissected much deeper to find a much more metaphorical meaning. The poem starts out discussing how a boy at the age of three became fatherless when his dad left him and his mother with nothing but an old guitar, an empty bottle of booze, and the branded name of Sue. Throughout his life, everyone ridiculed him, until he learned that he had to be strong on his own. Because his father deserted him at such an early age, and he had no father figure to take his place, he had to find out the tough way how hard life really was. He finally decided that he needed to search for his father in the towns which he fled to, to escape his identity. He guiltlessly thought of murdering his father for the shame and pain that he had brought to him. After searching in every bar and honky-tonk, in every town he'd been to, he finally found his father in a saloon in Gatlinburg. Although he found his dad, it was purely by coincidence. He found him because he needed to quench his thirst with an alcoholic beverage. While entering the saloon, he noticed a man dealing poker at a table across the bar. Instantly he realized that the one man he was looking for was sitting there staring at him face to face. Without regard for his own safety, he quickly cracked his father in the face with a bar chair. Quickly, his father sprang up, with a knife, and took a slice out of his ear. His heart beating rapidly and his father's disregard for his presence made his blood turn deathly cold in an instant. Crashing into the street, clinched together, the man and his father flung themselves at each other in a mangy battle for pride and vengeance. Although he had fought tougher men, the thought of his own father putting up the fight made him recap all of his earlier fights. Not recalling a time when he had fought someone so insistent, Sue quickly drew his gun before the old man could muster hi...