In the poem, “Rite of Passage”, Sharon Olds demonstrates the theme of how young boys are influenced to take on aggressive roles as they age. The narrator observes his or her child’s birthday party, and he or she is introduced to the boy’s violent thinking. The boys all seem to think they must be tougher than the others. The children are only in first grade, but “they stand around jostling, jockeying for place” in order to assert their dominance (line 6-7). The narrator observes the children speaking to each other as if they are challenging their masculinity. In line 22, a group discusses how they “could easily kill a two-year-old”. The children believe this is an accomplishment worth gloating about. The men in these children's lives have
