Week 13

Questions.
1.) The concept of childhood is central in many poems. Using specific examples, discuss the theme of childhood in any two poems studied this term.

2.) Identify and discuss the passage below, showing its relationship to the story as a whole, its revelation of character, and its thematic significance.

The girl looked across the hills.
"They're lovely hills," she said. "They dont really look like white elephants. I just ment the coloring of their skin through the trees."

Answers.
1.) Theodore Roethe's "My Papa's Waltz" and Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool" boths have a central theme of childhood. My Papa's Waltz is a poem that reflects on a childhood memory of a father and son relationship. We Real cool is a poem about the struggleing changes faced when leaving childhood and entering adolecance. It is evidant that the central theme is childhood in both of these poems because both demonstrate how a good childhood is the best thing that can promise a bright future. However the children in these two poems had a questional childhood and now have stuggles in their lives. The past tence verbs in My Papa's Waltz show that the persona is refecting on a childhood memory they cannot escape; and the rebelious childhood of the characters in We Real Cool demonstrate not only does a bad childhood bring life long stuggles, but it can take lives as well.

2.) This passage is very thematically significant to "Hills like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway. The speaker of this passage is Jig, one of the two main characters in this story. White elephants are considered bad unwanted objects in many cultures, this passage is when Jig changes her mind about the hills being like white elephants and is directly linked to how she feels about being pregnant. This passage is very signifigant to the theme because this is when it hits Jig that having a child is not a diability nor a sickness but rather a "lovely" thing. This passage is also very revelent to the characters deveopment because it demonstrates when Jig starts to take decisions into her own hands. This is when Jig puts her foot down and pervents her American boyfriend from takeing control of the situation and negitively effecting her thoughts about pregnancy because of his own selfishness.