Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley, Behind Grandma's House by Gary Soto, and Manners by Elizabeth Bishop

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Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley, Behind Grandma's House by Gary Soto, and Manners by Elizabeth Bishop For this paper I will be discussing three poems. They are Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley, Behind Grandma's House by Gary Soto, and Manners by Elizabeth Bishop. I will be examining the common theme I found throughout the three poems. I found that to be how the relatives teach lessons to their relation of a younger generation and the different approaches to their teaching. To start off I will discuss the Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley. I believe the way the father taught the son was some what like an apprenticeship. The line "I was your helper, and that first year We worked weekends through most of winter" gave me the impression that it was a watch and learn experience rather than explaining it. Take note of how the father approached the mistakes made by his son. "I fouled up some screens once, …You broke them out with a chair" I feel showed the negative feeling I got when I read the poem. That also makes me believe that it was an apprenticeship. To me parents even if they get upset at something you do, don't go about things in that matter. The son was trying to learn something from his father and rather than explaining and showing the son how to do it correctly or the mistakes he made the father destroys the work. ... ... middle of paper ... ...her was. Out of all the poems I believe this non-violent approach was the most effective. Maybe the others worked in the end, but the poem didn't state it as specifically as this one did. In conclusion, Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley, Behind Grandma's House by Gary Soto, and Manners by Elizabeth Bishop all had a common theme. I found that to be how the relatives teach lessons to their relation of a younger generation and the different approaches to their teaching. They each had their own teaching method and some may have appeared to work better than others. In the end the older relative was always trying to get some type of message across.

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