Death Of A Young Son Figurative Language

"Death of a Young Son by Drowning" takes the reader on a journey of what it feels like to watch your son struggle to live as he battles inner demons and ultimately ends up succumbing to them as he commits suicide, told from a mother's perspective. Margaret Atwood creates an atmosphere of melancholy and loss through use of figurative language, extended metaphors, and various rhetorical strategies.

Woven throughout are several similes and metaphors, and an extended metaphor is strewn about almost the entire poem, lasting from lines 2-21. For the duration of those lines, the son's tough journey through life is compared to a restless, difficult journey through rough water. "He, who navigated with success / the dangerous river of his own birth"

(1-2) is a metaphor for his life. This dangerous river is the path he is taking and the direction his life is going. Opposed to those who flow freely through life and go through their lives easily, this boy is in a constant battle against his inner demons, unhappiness, and pain. Living is difficult for him, hence the "dangerous river" referenced in line 2. He must fight to find a reason to stay alive. However, in line 1 he is said to navigate with success, from which we can gather that he could be displaying a fake persona to those around him to seem as if life is going okay for him.
His mother continues to go on and make a metaphor for her own life as well: "on a voyage of discovery / into the land I floated on" (4-5), comparing her life to land, metaphorical for stability. Her son is in water, conforming to bad habits, thrashing, being thrown about in the uncalm water, trying to venture toward happiness and stability- the land on which his mother is afloat. He is searching for the land that his mother has already found and floats upon. Land represents stability and the rough water represents the unstable parts of life, which her son is experiencing. As the stanza continues, in line 6: "but could not touch to claim." suggests that such stability seems unattainable and out of reach for her son. No matter how visible or close it seems, he can never grasp it or claim such happiness of his own.
Atwood plunges deeper into the river/life metaphor as she compares his head to a bathysphere in line 11. Bathyspheres, a spherical submarine-like contraption lowered into the ocean on a cable, were once used to see deep into the ocean. He is now completely underwater at this point, his only eyes being the "thin glass bubbles" (12) in which he looks out of. "There was an accident; the air locked," (21) describes what could be an air malfunction within the bathysphere, which would cause one to drown, but further represents the final breaking point for her son. He is drowning at this point, there is no air; it is his drowning as it really happened.
In line 17, the mother claims "After the long trip I was tired of waves." Waves can be held as a metaphor for the hardship she now feels in her life after he son's suicide.

Her "foot hit rock" (18), metaphoric for "rock bottom". She is at her lowest point. Her "dreamed sails collapsed" (18-19), metaphoric for how her dreams and aspirations died with her son. She is worn down and tired. The sails of her ship described in lines 26-27 are torn and tattered. On an actual ship, sails are what keep the ship going. Here, hers are worn and ragged. Her son has died and this means no more smooth sailing for her. What had previously kept her going no longer exists on earth, and the tradition of a son carrying on the family values and name is no longer

valid.
Similes are also used within the work to bring depth and a different aspect to the words that are there. In line 17: "he was hung in the river like a heart." signifies the limp and lifeless body of her son in the river, just as a heart is suspended in the body. A heart is a fragile body part, thus it shows how small and insignificant he seems compared to the rushing waters surrounding him.
The final simile drives home the whole piece as she finishes the poem: "I planted him in this country / like a flag." which signifies the burial of her son and the reality of it all weighing in.

It almost simplifies the act of burying someone, making it impersonal. It is hard for the mother to accept the finality of it all, it is inconceivable to her how he was ambiguously placed in the ground, just as a flag is. It is chilling how nonchalant it seems to bury him. However, the "flag" is symbolic of his grave/resting place. Flags serve as a representation of something, and this child that she has buried will always be a part of her, a representation of her. The flag is also symbolic of his gravestone, which serves as a reminder and representation of him- his life and where his body is laid to

rest.
Imagery is sprinkled about the poem, creating vivid images such as: "he swirled with ice and trees in the swollen water" (9) and "swamped body" (18). Line 9 gives us a vivid image of his helpless body in roaring water. The water is not calm nor serene, but rather swirled with ice- painful, jagged, slippery, and trees- obstacles, sharp, splintering. Both the ice and trees pose threats, as does the swollen water. Though they can cause bodily harm to somebody floating through on the water, they can also be metaphoric for the bad influences her son is becoming associated with. The "swamped body" in line 18 gives us a vivid image of the body that has been found. It signals that the son has died by drowning himself, as his body has retained water and is swollen.
To further the point of bad influences, the following lines in stanza 7: "cairn of my plans and future charts, / with poles and hooks / from among the nudging logs." (19-21) she uses a metaphor of a cairn to show all the weight placed on her son by her and others. His body was mounded with future plans and hopes she had for him, which he cannot fulfill, for he is dead. "with poles and hooks / from among the nudging logs." (20-21) is metaphoric and symbolic of those who may have tormented him along the way, pushing him to commit suicide. Poles and hooks are sharp and hooks especially are often associated with pain. We can gather that these poles and hooks were unkind or hurtful words spoken to him by the "nudging logs", or, bullies. Their harsh words stuck in him like hooks, and were an obstacle for him like poles.
Pathetic fallacy is used in stanza 8: "It was spring, the sun kept shining, the new grass / leapt to solidity" (22-24). This pathetic fallacy personifies the nature surrounding her and focuses on the continuation of life, even after death. Although her son has died, spring still comes, the sun still rises and shines, and new grass still grows- bringing truth to the statement "life goes on". Life does not pause, does not stop for anyone, no matter the circumstances. And even though life does continue, "my hands glistened with details." (24) tells us that she still remembers not only the events of his death, but the memories those hands hold- every time those hands so much as grazed her child is engraved into every crevice of her palm and mind.
Bits of prosody are also used such as consonance to convey and even clearer image of what the speaker is trying to depict. In stanza 3 -sw is repeated in the words "swirled" and "swollen" (9). That sound simply portrays and image in the mind of claustrophobia. You must take a breath just to say those two letters. "H" is repeated in stanza 6: "he was hung in the river like a heart" reiterates the feeling of the body being suspended; lifeless, helpless.
The use of metaphor, simile, and consonance all unite to develop a gloomy and sorrowful atmosphere and tone. These strategies also give us a sense of the mother's feelings towards death and what comes after, how she emotionally has died with him. And though her son was put in the ground as plainly as a flag, her memory of him is still glistening on her hands.