Aunt Jennifer's Tiger Poem Analysis

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After reading both, Sharon Olds, "Rite of Passage" and Adrienne Rich, "Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers" the two poems are not very similar. In the “Rite of Passage”, the narrator, known as the mother (Olds), is witnessing difficult children, and rage at her son’s first birthday party. On the other hand, “Aunt Jennifer’s Tiger”, focuses on the struggles in an unhappy marriage. The poems both included messages that deal with relationships shared with individuals, closest to you. Although, both poems do not share a common similarity, I have identified an issue among the two poems. “Trust can never be regained fully” is an issue that can be identified amongst the two poems.
In both poems, disputes and disagreements were evident. For instance, the poem “Rites of Passage” primarily focused on what a mother observed during her son’s birthday party. Olds observations centered on how young boys actions result into violence when dealing with one another. The set of boys who ranged in the age of six or seven, lacked a sense of innocence and …show more content…

For Olds, watching her son take a role of maturity is quite impressive. Although the birthday party consists of young boys, aging from six to seven they are mentioned in the poem and referred to as “men.” “Short men, men in first grade”, shows that Old is referring the term “men”, to the male guest, as well as her son. “Hands in pockets, they stand around, jostling, jockeying for place, small fights, breaking out and calming” this evidence appoints that Olds son cleared up the uncomfortable setting of his birthday party, and turned the party into a moderate “celebration of his life”. The observation of that Olds viewed of her son’s birthday party, shows that the celebration of her son’s life, will only result into him being an older man, and taking more mature roles. The “relationship cannot be repaired to an original” mommy’s precious little guy, mother and son

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