Analysis of "Rite of Passage" by Sharon Olds (Blog #9)

"Rite of Passage"

As the guests arrive at our son’s party   

they gather in the living room—

short men, men in first grade

with smooth jaws and chins.

Hands in pockets, they stand around

jostling, jockeying for place, small fights

breaking out and calming. One says to another

How old are you? —Six. —I’m seven. —So?

They eye each other, seeing themselves   

tiny in the other’s pupils. They clear their   

throats a lot, a room of small bankers,

they fold their arms and frown. I could beat you

up, a seven says to a six,

the midnight cake, round and heavy as a

turret behind them on the table. My son,

freckles like specks of nutmeg on his cheeks,   

chest narrow as the balsa keel of a   

model boat, long hands

cool and thin as the day they guided him   

out of me, speaks up as a host

for the sake of the group.

We could easily kill a two-year-old,

he says in his clear voice. The other   

men agree, they clear their throats

like Generals, they relax and get down to   

playing war, celebrating my son’s life


The poem is about boys and they're games of make believe at a birthday party. The story is told from the point of view from one of the parents of the birthday boy (perhaps the mom?). They continue to talk about the boys (the short men) that arrive for the son's birthday and how they compare in age and aggressiveness. The boys assess their capabilities to beat each other up. The boys play and one announces that they could beat up a two year old. The other boys agree (in a manner like war Generals) and they continue to play war in honor of the son's birthday.

  This poem reminds me so much of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. There's a hyperbolic tone that exaggerates the literal circumstance of the piece. Young boys, just out of their kinder years, play war and threaten to slaughter young toddlers. The poem praises the glorification and glamorization of war by placing the new burden on the shoulders of young boys. Boys watch their fathers and male role-models talk about war and death. Naturally, the young boys want to act mature and older, so they play war to feel like genuine adults. A giant game of make-believe all around. And with a title like "Rite of Passage" the poem is about the endless cycle that this vicious accidental teaching and how it "turns boys into men" by using praise of war. 

There's no rhythmic structure to the poem. However, there's clear and distinct beginning, middle, and end (the CYCLE). The beginning is the arrival of the young male guests, with an emphasis on their youth and innocence. The middle is the boys talking about age and evaluating their strengths over one another ("I could beat you up"). The end is the gathered boys, guided by a leader that shouts "We could easily kill a two-year old", in agreeance of their strengths over the little ones below them. The poem, with its clear storytelling structure, displays and exemplifies the cycle of boys turning into men through war and violence. The hyperbolic exaggeration of the ages of the boys is used to shock (?) the reader and to make the cycle more prominent, demonstrating the dangers of when the cycle leaks into the lives of kinder-aged boys. The final two lines serve as an attempt to be optimistic about the violent boys (they continue to play make believe to celebrate the son's birthday), but, in fact, it only makes the poem darker and more cynical. It serves as a message to most likely preserve the youth and innocence of our children.