Title: The title of Louise Gluck’s poem, The School Children, generates visuals of a cold and rainy day in September. The leaves are falling, the children climb on their school bus and puddles are being stepped in, a fun and reckless poem. Paraphrase: The kids walk while holding their backpacks. Their mothers worked all morning picking old apples, both red and yellow, like words from a different language. Across to the other shore people wait behind big desks to receive the apples. The nails that the kids hang their coats on are orderly. The teachers teach in silence and the mothers collect all from the orchards to find a way out, bringing to themselves the dead limbs of the trees holding small amounts of ammunition. Speaker: The speaker …show more content…
The speaker is not physically talking, but telling a story, as if their personal opinions are not involved in the tale. This allows the poem to go straight to the point. Shifts: The largest and most significant shift is in fact, the final line of the poem. Beginning with talk of children, teachers and apples, the sudden switch to a gun is unsettling. The final line essentially illustrates the idea that little amounts of apples collected by the mothers are synonymous to an empty gun, quite a shift from the original concept of the poem. Title: After deep analysis, the title The School Children means that these school children are only present because of a detatched system between the teachers and mothers, in which apples are a form of currency for the teachers. The mothers want a better life for their kids, so suddenly they become “school children.” Theme: The theme of The School Children by Louise Gluck is definable by the Tibetan proverb; “a child without education is like a bird without wings.” Even with the distorted education system, the main goal is to educate children. Many schools don’t have an optimal system, but they must aim to educate the young generation, so that brilliance shines on
In her poem “The School Children”, Louise Gluck uses imagery by applying an extended metaphor to show how going to school is similar to going to battle and by describing the mothers’ actions through the use of vivid verbs to portray the disconnection between children and their guardians, despite the sacrifices that mothers make.
Although Prize Giving highlights the superiority of the male Professor over the rest of the girls, there is a role reversal towards the end of the poem where the titian haired girl establishes power over him. Through her sexuality and musical talent, the girl asserts dominance in the final stanza and causes the professor to feel inferior for the first time, which comes as an uncomfortable shock to him (Harwood, pg.29). The poem of Father and Child which was published in Harwood’s 2nd Volume of poems continues to suggest a possible social change through the use of a child. Here, Harwood defeminises the child refusing to sentimentalise little girls by referring to the protagonist as a “wisp-haired judge” despite only being seven. The poem then links this to King Lear through the words “Old king” while reversing the relationship and position of power between father and daughter (Harwood, pg.111). These hints for change arise from the female children rather than the adults showing that although Harwood often represents women as subordinate to men, there is a possibility for change through the new
The school board tried to tell Anne the way things should be ran in the school, even when they were desperate for her to teach their kids in the secluded town they all found themselves in. The school board needed an educati...
...ne in the community warns Baby Suggs family that Schoolteacher is coming. They have all eaten of the ‘fruit’ but it has not brought knowledge, it has dulled it. Stamp paid had “…always believed it wasn’t the exhaustion from a long day’s gorging that dulled them, but some other thing---like, well, like meanness—…” (157). The community will soon confront evil personified by the people’s anger and the Schoolteacher’s hate that has arrived at 124.
By the virtue of their innocence, the children in “Marigolds” are cruel. Lizabeth explains how there are “...no radios, few newspapers, and no magazines”(76). Thus the kids are unaware of the poverty they are living in. They have no knowledge of what is happening in the world and are only exposed of what is around them. They live their lives normally, doing their chores, playing and running around like any kid will do. One day, the kids are bored and ...
"Compressed emotions," that is the explanation a teacher once gave to the ongoing question, "What is poetry?" He said it was someone's deepest emotions, as if you were reading them right out of that person's mind, which in that case would not consist of any words at all. If someone tells you a story, it is usually like a shell. Rarely are all of the deepest and most personal emotions revealed effectively. A poem of that story would be like the inside of the shell. It personifies situations, and symbolizes and compares emotions with other things in life. Louise Erdrich's poem Indian Boarding School puts the emotions of a person or group of people in a setting around a railroad track. The feelings experienced are compared to things from the setting, which takes on human characteristics.
The discussion of children and school also gives well meaning of an organized and well-balanced village the people have put together, one the average parent would want their children raised in. “They tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, and their talk was still of the classroom and the teacher, of books and reprimands (p.445).” The thought of children playing also illustrates of a positive outlook for the rest of the story, a sense of happiness.
Education has always been in existence in one form or another. As each child is born into this world regardless of who or where they are born, life lessons immediately begin. He/she will learn to crawl, walk, and talk by the example and encouragement of others. Although these lessons are basic in the beginning they evolve as the child grows. However, the core learning method of a child does not change. Learning from others, they will watch, listen, and then act for themselves. Thomas Jefferson believed that an education would lead men and women to the ability to be self-governed and become positive contributors to society (Mondale & Patton, 2001). Today, we can see how true this is by the examples of others. Those that are given the opportunity for education are more likely to find jobs and develop skills that not only improve a community, but influence the economic growth of their nation (Ravitch, Cortese, West, Carmichael, Andere, & Munson, 2009, p. 13). On the other hand, if an education is not provided to individuals, they can become a hindrance to that nation’s growth.
Innocence is something always expected to be lost sooner or later in life, an inevitable event that comes of growing up and realizing the world for what it truly is. Alice Walker’s “The Flowers” portrays an event in which a ten year old girl’s loss of innocence after unveiling a relatively shocking towards the end of the story. Set in post-Civil War America, the literary piece holds very particular fragments of imagery and symbolism that describe the ultimate maturing of Myop, the young female protagonist of the story. In “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, the literary elements of imagery, symbolism, and setting “The Flowers” help to set up a reasonably surprising unveiling of the gruesome ending, as well as to convey the theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing the harsh reality of this world.
‘Some idea of a child or childhood motivates writers and determines both the form and content of what they write.’ -- Hunt The above statement is incomplete, as Hunt not only states that the writer has an idea of a child but in the concluding part, he states that the reader also has their own assumptions and perceptions of a child and childhood. Therefore, in order to consider Hunt’s statement, this essay will look at the different ideologies surrounding the concept of a child and childhood, the form and content in which writers inform the reader about their ideas of childhood concluding with what the selected set books state about childhood in particular gender. The set books used are Voices In The Park by Browne, Mortal Engines by Reeve and Little Women by Alcott to illustrate different formats, authorial craft and concepts about childhood. For clarity, the page numbers used in Voices In The Park are ordinal (1-30) starting at Voice 1.
...lict, misunderstandings and even hostility can occur for children, families, and teachers” (Garris, 2006, p. 5). Families’ rules sometime create a dilemma for the children. Children are not able to distinguish which is right or wrong.
The author uses imagery, contrasting diction, tones, and symbols in the poem to show two very different sides of the parent-child relationship. The poem’s theme is that even though parents and teenagers may have their disagreements, there is still an underlying love that binds the family together and helps them bridge their gap that is between them.
Teachers are put in situations that are not fair to them. Parents have become less involved in their children’s educations; they sadly expect schools and teachers to do their job. It is not the schools or the teacher’s jobs to raise the children; it is their job
In the last line of the second stanza, the subject enters dramatically, accompanied by an abrupt change in the rhythm of the poem:
Definitely this system is not going to be successful if schooling and education do not stand in handy on each other: