At first glance, one might believe that prose and poetry could not be more different. However, looking more closely, one could see that prose and poetry do share certain elements in common. Often, prose and poetry share subjects and themes in common. An example of a theme seen in both prose in poetry is “loss of innocence”, which is seen in T.C. Boyle’s Balto and Gerard Manley Hopkins’s Spring and Fall. The story Balto shows its protagonist going through her own loss of innocence while dealing with a charge of drunk driving against her father. The poem Spring and Fall takes the form of an adult warning a child about the loss of innocence she will go through as she gets older. While both Balto and Spring and Fall share the theme of “Loss of
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Another way Boyle shows Angelle’s loss of innocence is through the story/plot distinction. In the plot, Boyle shows Angelle is losing her innocence by how much more mature she is than the reader would expect a twelve year old to be. For example, she realizes the full issue of the family’s car being impounded, “…and the car had been impounded, which meant nobody could use it, not her father or her mother when she came back from France, or Dolores the maid or Allie the au pair” (Boyle, 56). While most twelve year olds would be expected to be simply sacred by the situation of the car being impounded, Angelle is able to see past that. She realizes that because the car is impounded nobody can use it, and that means their household has no personal means of transportation. Her being able to process almost the whole situation, with the exception of how much money it will cost to get the car un-impounded, shows that she is wise beyond her years and that she has gone through some loss of her innocence to be able to come to the conclusions she has. However, the reader can tell that Angelle is going through the process of losing her innocence instead of fully mature because of details the reader can gather from the story. In Balto, the …show more content…
One way Hopkins shows this theme is by use of symbolism. The second line of the poem uses beautiful imagery that when looked at closely represents a child’s loss of innocence: “Márgarét áre you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving?” (Hopkins, 1-2). “Goldengrove” suggests an imaginary world full of beautiful things, a world that a child would easily be able to imagine. The next words suggest that the beautiful imaginary world is “unleaving” or the trees in Goldengrove are losing their leaves as winter approaches. This gives the reader the image of a once beautiful and pure gold tree losing its beauty and youth as it loses its leaves. The tree losing its leaves is a symbol for a child losing his or her innocence. As a child grows older, they lose their youth and beauty, which represent innocence, because of the cold nature of the real world, just as the tree loses its leaves because of the coldness of the oncoming winter. Another way Hopkins shows the theme of loss of innocence in his poem is in his use of enjambment. An enjambment in a poem is the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line or stanza. Hopkins uses enjambment several times in his poem, one example being, “Leáves, like the things of mán, you / With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?” (Hopkins, 3-4). Hopkins is making the point that a child, because of his or
Another way Boyle shows Angelle’s loss of innocence is through the story/plot distinction. In the plot, Boyle shows Angelle is losing her innocence by how much more mature she is than the reader would expect a twelve year old to be. For example, she realizes the full issue of the family’s car being impounded, “…and the car had been impounded, which meant nobody could use it, not her father or her mother when she came back from France, or Dolores the maid or Allie the au pair” (Boyle, 56). While most twelve year olds would be expected to be simply sacred by the situation of the car being impounded, Angelle is able to see past that. She realizes that because the car is impounded nobody can use it, and that means their household has no personal means of transportation. Her being able to process almost the whole situation, with the exception of how much money it will cost to get the car un-impounded, shows that she is wise beyond her years and that she has gone through some loss of her innocence to be able to come to the conclusions she has. However, the reader can tell that Angelle is going through the process of losing her innocence instead of fully mature because of details the reader can gather from the story. In Balto, the …show more content…
One way Hopkins shows this theme is by use of symbolism. The second line of the poem uses beautiful imagery that when looked at closely represents a child’s loss of innocence: “Márgarét áre you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving?” (Hopkins, 1-2). “Goldengrove” suggests an imaginary world full of beautiful things, a world that a child would easily be able to imagine. The next words suggest that the beautiful imaginary world is “unleaving” or the trees in Goldengrove are losing their leaves as winter approaches. This gives the reader the image of a once beautiful and pure gold tree losing its beauty and youth as it loses its leaves. The tree losing its leaves is a symbol for a child losing his or her innocence. As a child grows older, they lose their youth and beauty, which represent innocence, because of the cold nature of the real world, just as the tree loses its leaves because of the coldness of the oncoming winter. Another way Hopkins shows the theme of loss of innocence in his poem is in his use of enjambment. An enjambment in a poem is the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line or stanza. Hopkins uses enjambment several times in his poem, one example being, “Leáves, like the things of mán, you / With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?” (Hopkins, 3-4). Hopkins is making the point that a child, because of his or