Rite of Passage by Sharon Olds

Thesis: In Rite of Passage by Sharon Olds, the speaker emphasizes the young age of the arguing children at her son’s birthday party in order to satirize warfare.

            The speaker uses alliteration in order to emphasize the young age of the children: “One says to another / How old are you? Six. I’m seven. So?” (7-8). The repetition of the letter ‘s’ in ‘six’, ‘seven’, and ‘so’ draws the reader’s attention to the small age difference between the two children. However, the seven-year-old feels superior to the six-year-old simply due to the seemingly insignificant fact that the seven-year-old is older. The argument between the two children only ends when the speaker’s son says, “We could easily kill a two-year-old” (22). The children are united under the common interest of violence towards another helpless person. Throughout the poem, the speaker is comparing the battles between leaders of the war to arguments between little children. The war leaders cooperate solely when the leaders are united under the common interest of harming a virtually defenseless country. Not only is it wrong to direct violence towards a helpless victim, but the leaders are also being childish. Therefore, the poem is a satire about war that expresses the immature and cruel nature of warfare.