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In the poem “Rite of Passage” by Sharon Olds, the author, who is a mother, represents the first grade boys at her son's birthday party, where she observes the conflict about her son's loosing innocence and young boy's competing with one another to show off their musculinity. The poem focus around her child's birthday party. As the visitors arrive, Olds described it on line three as, "Short men, men in first grade with smooth jaws and chins". It represents how the young boys need to be men. The hands being in their pockets described the young boys appear to be more grown up. These young boys play war games, small fights, as they think war is a man's thing, yet they have no clue about the revulsions. Olds is calling them by the name of their
age, as she says, "A seven says to a six" it speaks to how enormous and capable they are compared with the others. Every kid tries to be greater than the others in age to demonstrate their masculinity. According to Olds’ lines eight and nine the parent portrays the children peering toward each other up and asking their age, "How old are you? Six. I'm seven. So?." Some even express their predominance as appeared in Olds’ lines twelve and thirteen, "I could beat you, a seven says to a six." The son of the parent who needs consideration and acknowledgment as a strong guy says how: "We could easily kill a two-year-old" (Olds). The young boys don't imply that they would really kill a two year old, yet that say that they could to demonstrate their masculinity. At the end of the poem, the resolution was the young boys like generals stayed relax and go back to celebrate her son’s life.
The poem is written in the father’s point of view; this gives insight of the father’s character and
The informal language and intimacy of the poem are two techniques the poet uses to convey his message to his audience. He speaks openly and simply, as if he is talking to a close friend. The language is full of slang, two-word sentences, and rambling thoughts; all of which are aspects of conversations between two people who know each other well. The fact that none of the lines ryhme adds to the idea of an ordinary conversation, because most people do not speak in verse. The tone of the poem is rambling and gives the impression that the speaker is thinking and jumping from one thought to the next very quickly. His outside actions of touching the wall and looking at all the names are causing him to react internally. He is remembering the past and is attempting to suppress the emotions that are rising within him.
Olds begins the correlation of the daughter’s haircut and the idea of war early on in the poem. The reader is first exposed to the comparison in the line, “that girl with the hair wispy as a frayed bellpull/ has been to the barber, that knife grinder/ and has had the edge of her hair sharpened.” Olds immediately conjures up a frightful image of a barber viciously attacking her little girl’s hair. The image is enforced with the words Olds has placed carefully within the line. Instead of cutting her daughter’s hair, the barber sharpens it like one would a weapon. This haircut is the daughter’s first weapon in the war between mother and daughter. The haircut will be the first detachment of the daughter from her youth, the former “wispy” haired girl has in essence been murdered by the barber. To further emphasize this horrible image, Olds sneaks ...
"Greasy Lake" by T.C. Boyle is a tale of one young man's quest for the "rich scent of possibility on the breeze." It was a time in a man's life when there was an almost palpable sense of destiny, as if something was about to happen, like a rite of passage that will thrust him into adulthood or cement his "badness" forever. The story opens with our narrator on a night of debauchery with his friends drinking, eating, and cruising the streets as he had done so many times in the past. What he found on that night of violence and mayhem would force him to look at himself hard. This is a story of one man's journey from boyhood to maturity.
The author also uses anaphora to stress the point that the poem is about the boxers. Third person pronouns are used repeatedly throughout the first stanza, such as they, their, and them. This gives the reader the idea that the young child is learning though example, not personal experience. This clue is reiterated in the last line which concludes, “The world inspired in its sons” (27). The theme of courage in the face of adversity is a lesson that, according to the author, is meant to be taught by the world.
A rite of passage is defined as a ceremony marking a significant transition or an important event or achievement, both regarded as having great meaning in lives of individuals. In Sharon Olds' moving poem "Rite of Passage", these definitions are illustrated in the lives of a mother and her seven-year-old son. The seriousness and significance of these events are represented in the author's tone, which undergoes many of its own changes as the poem progresses.
The poem also focuses on what life was like in the sixties. It tells of black freedom marches in the South how they effected one family. It told of how our peace officers reacted to marches with clubs, hoses, guns, and jail. They were fierce and wild and a black child would be no match for them. The mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter.
Have you ever wondered what the “rite of passage” means or how would one consider if they had gone through a rite of passage? It could be something big that could change someone’s entire foundation, such as getting married or if that person enters to the next world leaving behind everything from the world that the individual knows of, afterlife. The novella, “The Body” written by Gordie Lachance, elaborates on this one event during his childhood, with his childhood friends, as a rite of passage between himself and his friends. This event is surrounded by the corpse of Ray Brower, a young boy around the same age of Gordie, Teddy, Vern, and Chris. It was an easygoing, playful journey where they believed that at the end of this
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
In the story it states that “ Me, thought the boy, i got only drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield.” The symbols of this paragraph is the drum, it symbolizes of being a shield for the boy. The connection it has with the battle is that the troops march and fight to the beat. Another statement is “ a moth brushed his face, but it was a peach blossom.” this symbolizes that this young man went into the army as a boy because he had no facial
The passage is a representation of the protagonist’s loss of innocence; it represents a transformation from a young and apprehensive girl to a confident woman through a rite of passage.
All people have an experience of ¡°Rite of Passage¡± because it is necessary to be an adult. What is Rite of Passage? It means a ritual or ceremony signifying an event in a person's life indicative of a transition from one stage to another, as from adolescence to adulthood. In the story ¡°Barn Burning¡± by William Faulkner, Sarty, who was the son of barn burner- Abner Snopes, he experienced his Rite of Passage at the end of the story. Although his decision leads to his father¡¯s death, it helps him to independent from his father. I think he made the correct decision not only for himself, but also for his family and society.
Since the existence of the United States Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, recruits have transitioned from civilians to United States Marines through the rite of passage known as recruit training (boot camp). This rite of passage takes a civilian teenager with little life experience and transforms him or her into smartly disciplined, physically fit, basically trained Marines. These Marines come from all over the world and are raised on different morals and ethics, but yet at the end of the 13-week boot camp, all have been indoctrinated with core values like honor, courage and commitment. No matter what their upbringings were or how they were raised, these newly trained Marines are taught to set all differences and personal convictions
I believe the author nails it when she underscores the absurd assumption of the role of men at such a young age by describing them as "short men" with a fascination of superiority over the other. She paints the image when telling us about the boys “smooth jaws and chins” again emphasizing that they aren’t even old enough to grow hair. I believe that the author does a great job at poking fun at the expectation for men to be superior and all together tough or
Every day someone enters into a rite of passage whether it be by starting school, a new job, marriage, a confirmation or communion rites of passage are common place. Two totally different cultures have totally different rituals and rites of passage. The Apache would most definitely have incredibly unique rituals compared to rural Maine and the catholic cultures therein. The best way to see the differences is to compare the two different cultures.