Philip Whalen had great force in his Buddha belly and threw a man across the room in fun and games once at Ken Kesey's house in Palo Alto. They see war as merely fun and games and don't understand the real life consequences of war. She also compares the birthday cake to a weapon of war, a turret, maybe on top of a tank, like it is on top of the table. I chose to examine this poem for just the above reasons. When Olds used her power of observation she did not see mere children, she saw future bankers and generals. Sharon Olds discovers something about children, captures this in her poetic words and shares it with us in an interesting manner.
This shows the classic trait of a human, greed. Also, they mention cake and I think at about this point the kids would be really hyper worrying about different things than trying to pick fights and push each other. She was thirty-seven when she published her first book of poems, Satan Says 1980. Some of her sentences are descriptive, while others are verbal comments between the children. These lines contradict each other. The poems circle a profound atheism in which the physical body is a document of being; physical experience is the primary mode of forming and physical contact the primary human relationship.
Overall, society has become accustomed to violence and evil and therefore the children are becoming more like men living in the real world. Do they turn on their mothers? They are skipping right passed their best ages in childhood. They clear their throats a lot, a room of small bankers, they fold their arms and frown. This boy's birthday party is his rite of passage into the real world of violence, not where he is no longer that innocent nutmeg freckled boy but rather he is a human being. The imagery that Sharon Olds utilizes in the poem makes the whole poem being metaphorical that much clearer. Unaware that war causes death, the boys play it to celebrate life. Over several volumes, Olds has carved out a unique place in contemporary American poetry.
In the novel there are themes of identity and change. I like it because it is different, it doesn't follow the rules of poetry and the subject matter is interesting. Loss of Innocence in Rite of Passage by Sharon Olds 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. To create such a bond, you have to open up. The tone of this poem is happy the words the author uses and the way she describes her kid gives the sense of love and happiness, while the First graders are saying brutal things to each other. The mother of the birthday boy is apparently treating this as harmless play that the boys are doing, but to them this means much more. There are no other sources li.
Now what is this poem about? One might get the feeling that Sharon Olds is sad about the loss off innocence and that she feels that the future of the little men is already laid out in a disillusioned manner, as they will grow into adults with war on their minds. In this essay I will explain what a rite of passage is and what graduation is. Through use of simile, metaphor, and literal and figurative language, Sharon Olds reveals her disgust of those who make love without love, and also a somewhat aesthetic awe at the majesty of the act. Line three consists of a metaphor; the author is comparing first graders to men. Society often has gender-based norms for appearance and behavior.
The final four lines shows the boys pretending to be generals and are playing war. At the age of 7, most boys do not act so official. It implies that the poem has to do with boys becoming men, which leads me to think the poem is about a young man trying to prove himself. Also, cherish your childhood because you are not going to be a kid forever, because when you get older there comes responsibility as a grown up. Today is his birthday so he is becoming older, presumably 7 or 8, so to the other boys he is surpassing them, becoming a man. War is often glorified by men.
The boys' understanding of the stereotypical muscular, lumberjack war hero is concerning as it sets a precedent for whom they are to become, and who they should act as. Being a good friend I obliged him and analyzed it for homework. These types of literary devices bring out her true thought processes which allow the reader to uncover key themes of the poem. While everyone was distracted with the bewildering whirl of childhood activity, the poet discovered that there is more than meets the eye. The use of the simile comparing the birthday cake to a turret added a new level of depth by comparing the conflict between the seven and the six to a war between two men, showing that while the fight seems trivial to the adult mind, it is everything to the children. My family and I originate from a small town in Guangdong, north of Hong Kong. The little boys at the party should not have any of these characteristics, but that is what the author is insinuating about them.
This showed me that the boys may be young but they want to act like men. In actuality, all are forms of a Rite of Passage. Olds is the speaker of the poem. By cross referencing, one can find more information or contradictions, along with ways to actually speak with individuals from different cultural. Anyway keep up the excellent high quality writing, it's uncommon to look a nice blog like this one nowadays. They act like the one man who is around them the most, their father. After the boy says he is older the other boy gets very defensive, but still believes that older is better.
As a matter of fact, all species do this. Sharon Olds is the narrator of this and she is conveying what she sees and hears. But I love this this poem. Obviously their small fights and threats are nothing more than harmless games in the real world, however their threat in line 22 is. This cake reflects the boys hostility and violent actions. One can almost see the mother perk up her ears.
However, it just may be that all children are bloodthirsty at a certain age. Through out history, including the eighties when this poem was written, being a jockey was considered a noble and wealthy occupation. 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. They are performing these acts that are stereotypically manly in an attempt to prove their masculinity. The boys are only about six and seven, and are acting much older. Reported in an essay, Literary Critic Ann D. The tone comes across sad, ironic and disillusioned about the future of the children, like they are doomed to follow in the war mongering footsteps of their forefathers.