What is the significance of age? “Rite of Passage” reveals it determines one's strength and dominance within boys. The poem is set at a young boy’s birthday party with many other boys his age around the age of 6 or 7, who are in first grade. As mentioned in the poem “short men, men in first grade” (3), a “stereotypical man lies within the youngest boy” because the tough and competitive attitude is present. Furthermore, these boys at the birthday party begin to intimidate each other by using their age as a reason for their superiority over another. “One says to another How old are you? - six - I’m seven. - So?” (7-8). Age seems to be a deal breaker of dominance. The older boy believes that the older you are, the more power you have, which is
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As boys become influenced by the people around them and as they realize how society desires them to be, they start learning at a young age when they are first exposed to others in school, that in order to be a man you must be tough. This poem portrays how boys have the tendency to overpower one another, as shown in the poem when the 7-year-old claims that he can beat the 6-year-old up even though they are roughly the same age and are blinded by the fact that they have to be the “strongest” and the “best” of them all. Moreover, boys start to get into fights in order to prove their strength to others. They begin at a young age because they are preparing themselves for the future and how they are required to be. The boys believe that as first graders they are already considered to be part of adulthood by the reference in the poem to other boys as men. However, they are all vulnerable but they try to intimidate others to mask that vulnerability because they do not want to become the target. As boys age, they realize the power and strength they possess, which is why the 7 year old believes that his age has made him more powerful than anyone younger than him. At the young age of 6, these boys see everything as a competition and they all want to become the leader among all men which is why they all try to prove their strength and dominance to each other through fights. Moreover, they
As boys become influenced by the people around them and as they realize how society desires them to be, they start learning at a young age when they are first exposed to others in school, that in order to be a man you must be tough. This poem portrays how boys have the tendency to overpower one another, as shown in the poem when the 7-year-old claims that he can beat the 6-year-old up even though they are roughly the same age and are blinded by the fact that they have to be the “strongest” and the “best” of them all. Moreover, boys start to get into fights in order to prove their strength to others. They begin at a young age because they are preparing themselves for the future and how they are required to be. The boys believe that as first graders they are already considered to be part of adulthood by the reference in the poem to other boys as men. However, they are all vulnerable but they try to intimidate others to mask that vulnerability because they do not want to become the target. As boys age, they realize the power and strength they possess, which is why the 7 year old believes that his age has made him more powerful than anyone younger than him. At the young age of 6, these boys see everything as a competition and they all want to become the leader among all men which is why they all try to prove their strength and dominance to each other through fights. Moreover, they