“The Whipping” by Robert Hayden
Whether it be as small as an argument, or as traumatizing as abuse, people struggle with issues involving family at some point in their lifetime. The poem, “The Whipping” by Robert Hayden, tells exactly that. As a young boy, Hayden moved from family to family as a foster child. One family in particular traumatized him to the point where he still has not forgiven them. With each new family, Hayden experienced new forms of abuse. “The Whipping” by Robert Hayden gives insight to the life of a young boy and his struggles with abuse as he travels from family to family. Hayden's "The Whipping" raises many questions among readers: What is the identity of the speaker? Does the poem depict fictional, or real-life, events? What is the role of the mother in the poem?
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Some even believe the young boy does not represent anyone in particular and Hayden is actually the neighbor. However, in the poem, Hayden writes, “My head gripped in bony vise / of knees, the writhing struggle / to wrench free, the blows, the fear / worse than blows” (13-14). This tells what he remembered and exactly how he felt during the beatings. The first-person usage along with the thoughts running in his mind, can only tell that Hayden’s experience in this situation is personal. To support this, James states, “Still, the fourth stanza seems to me to be the most moving because the narrator, obviously remembering his own beatings,” (6). Deborah James says the author writes about himself because
Furthermore, the poet purposefully chooses to take readers on an emotional roller coaster most likely to let readers understand deeper feelings that the child is experiencing. With these sensory details throughout the poem and the use of alcohol (whiskey), it is easy for readers to associate the situation of a father abusing his child.
The imagery used effectively showcases the presence of love in this work. The boy in the poem
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
As a child one of the most traumatic experiences you can witness grow up is seeing your parents abuse one another. Imagine these two towering figures expressing love to each other then simply exploding into massive contorting images of chaos in the matter of seconds. It is not a memory forever recorded and never forgotten. The inability to rationalize the situation or figure out who is right or wrong just wanting it to stop. In the poem “My Mother Woke a Rooster”, award winning poet. Laurie Ann Guerrro reveals the aftermath of physical abuse and her mother’s fighting will to continue to persevere by personifying her mother as that of a rooster.
With many resources and reasons, African slave experience numerous of punishment during their time period of slavery. As they crossed from Africa towards the West Indies their encounters experience of starvation, mistreated, beaten, sexual harassment and torments from Europeans slave’s dealers, owners, master and their own kind. Breaking the law or even working slow was a punishments. Especially for runaways slaves. Two primary sources advertisement that explained the hardship of slavery is document one. Documents one is an “advertisement come from New London (Connecticut) on March 30, 1764” and Documents 2 is a “Broadside advertisement that
In the novel, the main character is mistreated by all the people that are genetically related to him. Child abuse is a serious issue whether the perpetrators are adults or children. Nevertheless, the main character deals with it in healthy and constructive ways instead of reacting violently and gives an example to children dealing with the same issues. Abuse is a challenge that Matt deals with all
“I’d go on my two bare feet. But when, with my brother’s jack-knife, I had cut me a long limber horse with a good thick knob for a head…The willow knob with the strap jouncing between my thighs was the pommel and yet the poll of my nickering pony’s head,” says the main character. He basks in the glory of his younger years, and longs for a time when he was oblivious to all of the evils of the world. Containing many simple phrases, the structure of the poem brings an airy vibe to the mystical imagery. “My teeth bared as we wheeled and swished through the dust again. I was the horse and the rider, and the leather I slapped to his rump spanked my own behind,” reads the poem. Descriptive verbs allow the reader to see the character’s movements. The reader is able to easily understand that the character is comparing himself to his horse which he becomes one with. The poem is written in a first person point of view in which the character is within and beside
This poem focuses on the lynching of a African American male. The speaker of the poem appears to console a woman who appears to be distressed due to the events taking place. In the first four lines of stanza 1, the speaker says:
To ease one’s pain, humans will do anything to escape the negative emotions they feel, even if it is not healthy. In the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, he effectively shows how Saul faces a journey of undoing years of isolation after his traditions and values are ignored by St. Jeromes, a residential school. This experience causes him a large amount of emotional pain. Therefore, Saul copes with his problems by escaping reality itself so he does not need to dwell on his negative emotions.
When a child experiences trauma, it stays with them for the rest of their life. When a child experiences abuse, one of the highest forms of trauma, they can do little to stop it from affecting everything they do. Tobias Wolff’s memoir, This Boy’s Life, Illustrates this. While it can be said that Rosemary, the mother of Jack, was in many ways responsible for his life, she herself can not solely be blamed. The trauma and abuse she experienced as a child contributed greatly to her choices, and her son’s life. This shows that adversity in Rosemary’s life lead to her not being able to act normally, and this caused the life of her son.
The play “Poof” by Lynn Nottage is a story that briefly but directly shows the emotions that abused women can go through during their lives. In the story, the main character feelings go from fear, to relief, to freedom, after “magically” making her husband disappear.
The imagery shows that since the character is young and responsible, he works to support him and his family. We are first introduced to the image of the young boy working as a young adult. Then, in the first 9 lines, the author describes the setting of the poem using imagery such as, “sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it,” “Five mountain ranges one behind the other,” “under the sunset far into
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.
In “Bring Back Flogging”, the author, Jeff Jacoby suggests that people should adopt some of the Puritans tactics to punish criminals instead of putting them in prison. In order to present his claim, Jacoby is based in the use of irony, logos, and ethos. According to Jeff Jacoby a moment of humiliation is better than a couple of years behind the bars. I do not agree with Jeff Jacoby’s argument because the examples he gives and the way he refers to the topic incite to violence, also during the development of the subject he is too contradictory with his own opinions, and his arguments are unclear.
Hayden utilizes diction to set a dark and solemn tone throughout the poem. Like the various examples of imagery, there is also a strong use of underlying symbolism. In the first stanza, the words “cold” (1. 2) and “fires blaze” (1. 5) are used, which introduces a conflict. This is emphasized in the second stanza when the word “cold” (2. 1) is used again, later followed by the word “warm” (2. 2). In the last stanza, the father eventually “had driven out the cold” (3. 2). Yet the father had not ridden the house of the cold air until the end of the poem, which symbolizes how it took his son several years later to recognize the behaviors in which his father conveyed his love for him.