Andrew Hudgins' diction, point of view and tone used in "Elegy for My Father, Who is Not Dead" convey feelings of fear, jealousy and uncertainty in the possibility of an afterlife. The speaker, discussing the future death of his father, is forced to confront his own convictions as to the finality of death. All religions have a belief in a "life after death" in some form. Hudgins' is pessimistic as to any form of a life hereafter. He is attempting to understand his father's beliefs and the effect of the poem on the reader is to question one's own faith and beliefs in a life hereafter.

The speaker has apparently placed serious thought on his father's death and is attempting to alleviate his own fear of losing his father. An impression is given early that the matters of death and a life after death have been debated. The speaker is aware that "One day I'll lift the telephone/and be told my father's dead...." (1-2) He is seeking to find an answer