The speaker in Wilbur’s poem is merely a parent trying to settle a restless child, while the speaker in Collins’s poem is a teacher trying to shield his students from the many evils of the world. Children must be protected and soothed, and adults always make their best effort to achieve this. Contradicting images and diction are presented in both poems. In A Barred Owl, the author provides frightening images with words like “darkened” and “terrors” and with the lines “Or dreaming of some small thing in a claw Borne up to some dark branch and eaten raw.” Wilbur presents these gruesome images but manages to downplay them with a simple explanation to the child. Even though these images and diction are scary, the poem still manages to be more settling than Collins’s poem.
Though The History Teacher and A Barred Owl share similar themes, Billy Collins and Richard Wilbur use very different approaches and writing techniques. Both poems are based on the perseverance of child-hood innocence, and tell the tale of adults using white lies to help save children from the harsher realities of life. In The History Teacher, Billy Collins uses unmetered rhyme, and imagery. In contrast, Richard Wilbur uses austere rules to structure A Barred Owl, employing a traditional rhyme scheme, consonance, and iambic pentameter. A Barred Owl tells of a girl’s parents, and how they reassure her with a simple lie, so that she may fall asleep without nightmares.
Thought the poem also talks about how children see the world how they want to see it. If they still want to believe the myths, then they will. Also, the idea that adults will always try to protect children's eyes and prevent them from seeing what the world i actually like, that it doesn't have all those fairytales in it, but yet one day they will and have to find out that the world isn't really like that. The speaker in the poem uses verbal irony to explain the bullies in the history class. When the author separates "and the smart" in line 16, he emphasizes that the children in his class are not smart since they are not learning the correct information.
The aspect of the ‘mockingbird’ in the text occurs frequently. The topic of a mockingbird symbolizes the distorted lives of Boo Radley and Tom Robinson and there lives make the readers lose a piece of innocence through their perspectives. The children are warned that it is a “sin to kill a mockingbird because all it does is sing”. Tom Robinson is an example of a gentle person who has done no harm and only tried to help others however his life is made a mockery from the town’s people and this realization for us makes us loos the innocence we have before reading this. Additionally, Boo Radley has a distorted version of what might have been a normal life but because of his background and individual circumstances such as the knowledge that “he lives with his brother, and Miss Stephanie claims that she saw Boo Radley stab
Through Maycomb’s families and the events that occur with and within them, Harper Lee posits that the ideologies of empathy, prejudice, and justice cause the loss of innocence and are all connected to one another. Although the novel To Kill a Mockingbird has various examples of the themes of empathy, prejudice, and justice, they all contribute to the loss of innocence because these actions and ideas cause one to see beyond the idealistic external appearance of the world. While Scout was discussing with Atticus about what occurred on her first day of school, Atticus tells Scout, “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point
The boys mother finally enters the poem, with her face frowned, most likely due to the mess they had created. If this were a poem about abuse, normally a mother’s love and willingness to protect her child would have intervened and stopped the abuse. Safely assuming that this is an autobiographical poem and that Roethke is reminiscing about his father, when stating “The hand that held my wrist/ Was battered on one knuckle” (Roethke 10), could be over-read or misinterpreted if the reader is ignorant of Roethke’s relationship with his father. Reothke’s
The title “Violent Media is Good for Kids” is extremely blunt and the reader knows exactly what his stance is before they even read it. However the title makes you want to read it because it is going against the social norm and makes you curious as to what Gerard Jones has to say. The words Jones has chosen for his title could have been chosen a bit more carefully. He uses the word “good”, now the reader does not really know what good means just by looking at the title but can assume that he feels positively about violent media and children. Also by using the word “media” in the title it deceives the reader and makes them think that they would be reading Jones talk about all media including; newspapers, movies, magazines, television shows, etc., but all he writes about are violent comics.
One of the reasons why children tell lies is because they learn it from their parents. Fancies and magic fascinates children, and that is the reason why they believe all the lies told by their parents. Children believe stories they are told about Santa, and when they grow up, they believe that it is okay to tell lies with the purpose of striking fantasy. There are also situations that parents encourage children to tell lies. The research established that lies are told to ease situations that are uncomfortable.
Ultima’s owl is basically her source of power which is why Tenorio killed the owl. The significance of Ultima’s owl helps Antonio by comforting, protecting him from evil, and teaching him important lessons for the future. The first significant trait of Ultima’s owl is being able to comfort Antonio when Ultima cannot be there. One way is by, “singing” at night to comfort Antonio and his family. The first night Ultima slept there Antonio had the owl for the first time in which, “It’s soft hooting was like a song….seemed to say that it had come to watch over us.”(13) That same night Antonio had a dream in which the Virgin smiled at the owl’s goodness.
The character Finny from the novel A Separate Peace is similar in this aspect due to his natural rebelling individuality against the teachers of Devon school New Hampshire. This demonstrates both sides towards the students of both works, and their decision not to follow the pressures of conformity and to follow their natural paths and instincts. Both of the pieces of works in this essay demonstrates a high degree of stress and its results on the students. Stress is present throughout the works and apply a “bend till you break” aspect which in one case is an obvious example of the student Elwin Lepllier in A Separate Peace who finds himself no longer fit for the working world after returning from the army with severe post traumatic stress disorder. Without the presence of the severe stress imposed by the challenges of non-conformity this would not have occurred.