Summary Of Behind Grandma's House By Gary Soto

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker, a twelve-year-old girl, is instantly gripped by a strong feeling of lust toward this mysterious seventeen-year-old boy: the paperboy. She even goes on to describe him as a “gift. A fluke from God” as if she believes that she and this boy are destined to be together (2). From her vantage point, the girl instantly notices the boy’s physical characteristics, traits which the young girl appears to admire when she describes the boy’s “bicep in the twilight” (3). This intense, love-at-first-sight reaction to the boy’s arm shows how irrational the girl’s feelings are. She seems to simply lust after the idea of him. The girl has “no memory of language” from their nightly encounters, further showing how this “relationship” was merely visual and very one-sided (6). The boy, potentially, never even notices the girl; and if he does, he does not acknowledge her presence, let alone her strong emotions. The only memories the girl has are from “loitering, lingering far past curfew,” times in which she merely stares at the boy while he completes his daily paper route (7). The girl's depictions of her mother "lost in steam, stirring" and her father "asleep beside his Manhattan, the half-read mail" almost puts the reader directly into the house. The girl, meanwhile, lost her in her emotions, wanders around her yard "without knowing what I longed for" (16). The parents, both focused on other activities, leave the twelve-year-old speaker to do as she pleases in the night.

Throughout the poem, a young boy's curiosity takes control of a relationship with his father, as it reveals his regretful combative past. The boy asks questions repeatedly from many different aspects including, “why we dropped the bomb on those two towns in Japan” “where is Saipan” “Where is Okinawa” “where is the pacific” (Fairchild 5-16). The questions stand as the absences of order and by all means, progress, no answers mean no progress. As the questions continue the speaker describes the father and says “the palm of his hand slowly tapping the arm of a lawn chair,” (Fairchild 7-8). The slow tapping equivalent the slow buildup of anger and fear. Following, the speaker's description of the father’s face as his son continues mindlessly is “wooden” as his eyes freeze “like rabbits in headlights” (Fairchild 6-7). So small and helpless

The poem begins with a painful memory from the speaker’s sixth grade classroom where he was slapped on the head and commanded to sit in the corner for not knowing the difference between

This is a poem that is mainly directed to the violence that was often experienced by children with an African-American ethnicity. The violence was mainly experienced on the streets where a majority of these children lived.

The young man in the poem loses his identity as he develops into the ruthless world of adulthood with its dehumanizing competition of ‘money-hungry, back-stabbing’ and ‘so-and-so.’ These exaggerated words and clichés

The way that we are raised has a huge impact on the people we become. Most of the morals and mannerisms that people display in their adult life are the things that they are taught as children. Hence, matters like racism and prejudices are taught. Children do not come out of the womb being inherently racist, yet, their guardians, friends, and environment instill such hatreds into them. In Countee Cullen’s “Incident” the poet recounts a time where another child’s upbringing scarred him for the rest of his life. The poet blatantly identifies post-slavery racism and its effect on his personal life through the time period the poem had been written. He also achieves this goal by changing the tone of the poem, using dubious details, and demonstrating the power of language.

Robert Hayden’s “The Whipping” is a well-written poem that reveals the disturbing issue of child abuse from the unusual perspective of the abuser and the spectator. The author saw this happen with his own eyes and his account is not meant to be beautiful, but raw and vivid to evoke emotion. This poem is about a young boy who is being beaten with a stick by an overweight woman. A neighbor, the narrator, remembers back to his past while he watches what is going on. Pain, violence and pity are just a few of the themes. The fact that the author is telling this story makes the reader feel closer to the action. This, in turn, makes the reader feel more pain and pity for the poor boy is being whipped; others may feel sorry for the woman who is full of rage; and still others may feel pity for the neighbor

Throughout the poem, the speaker uses specific details that show the conflict between the speaker’s son and his parents. In the first stanza, the speaker recalls exchanges of dialogue between the speaker and his or her son. For example, the speaker’s son exclaims, “I did the problem / and my teacher said I was right!” (Nye 3-4). The child validated his teacher’s opinion but ridiculed his parents’ opinion. This is further explained through more details in a later part of the same stanza. The mother explains how the son believed his parents were “idiots / without worksheets to back us up” (Nye 9-10). The speaker’s son had entrusted his teacher and thought of his teacher as highly intelligent, but believed that way because of foolish reasoning. In addition, the speaker lists examples of minor mistakes the parents made that caused the son to be embarrassed of them. Through distinct details, the speaker describes how the son’s “mother never remembers / what a megabyte means and his dad fainted on an airplane once / and smashed his head on the drinks cart” (Nye 10-12). By choosing to include these particular details, the poet outlines the foundation of the conflict between the son and his parents.

Brown addresses many topics on the surface such as abuse, derogatory terms, bullying, rape, sexism and in order to display and demonstrate the effects she utilised stylistic devices such as metaphors, repetition and tone of voice to highlight her overall message. Through this poem Brown raises awareness and exposes the double standards displayed by society in an attempt to make people talk about the issue.

Another abusive incident which appeals to the sense of touch occurs in the fourth stanza. The father "beat time on [the son's] head" with a "palm caked hand of dirt" (13-14). These lines create a picture of the father as a working man who takes aggression out on his son. Appealing to the sense of touch better illustrates the physical pain the son endures. The sense of touch used in the third and fourth stanza's help to prove that the poem has a negative and abusive theme.

Innocence is for those with inexperienced minds. This naiveté causes one to become easily manipulated or prone to misunderstandings. However, innocence is not synonymous with ignorance. Although one is innocent, he or she can be aware of their unfortunate circumstances and consider positive viewpoints to their situation. Unfortunately, excessive optimism can become problematic since it leads to one accepting their horrific conditions and neglecting to consider other possibilities. This blinding optimism is an issue in William Blake’s short poem “The Little Black Boy” which focuses on a young boy’s perspective as he deals with race and his social position in the South. In the poem, the young boy accepts his inferior social position due to his innocence and external and internal beliefs instilled in him.

The book is mainly about a boy whose named haven't been revealed in the book. His parents died when he was 7 years old in a car incident. When his parents died he was of course devastated but luckily he had quite a good bond with his grandmother, also called “grandmamma”. They were both in Norway at the time when his parents died so they decided to stay there for the best although they did not stay there for a long time as the easter break came to an end. The entire story is focused on the boy and witches. The grandmamma often tells story about the witches, for instance that they hate children, they're bald and they have no nails. It's explained in the book that you'll never really be able to spot a witch since she is most likely to be normal

Our grandma’s house is the one place we can go to celebrate things like holidays or birthdays. So when I was six we went to our grandmas house to celebrate our cousins 4th birthday. The first thing we do as a family is play a family game. So we did play a game but the thing about playing games in my family is that something bad always happens like someone getting hurt or we argue and fight and then we would end the game instantly. So after we played that family game the parents usually just sit around and talk the rest of the time.

The familiar smell of soft cookies and homemade cooking are common thoughts when people think about their grandma's house. Great feasts and family gatherings play a part in everyone's grandmother's home. But when I really think about my grandma's house only one word comes to my mind: fun.

Grandma didn’t want to go to florida. We’re halfway there and she’s going whether she likes it or not. Grandma, blinded by her 93 years of age no longer sees value in the smaller things in life. Her oldest grandchildren frightened by the loss of their dear grandmother devise a scheme to save the poor old grandmother. The children will take their grandma to the silver beaches of the florida coast and wade her into the crystal clear water of the gulf shores in hopes to refill her old bones with the strength of a young woman.