Rites of Passage

Reading this poem, i just say to myself "Awwwwwwww." Its like the little boys think they are men. Olds describes the boys as men many times throughout the poem. That is how the boys portray themselves. The poem seems to be mocking leadership, interesting for a 1983 poem. The Cold War is still going on strong. The boys unite together with a common hatred. They could easily kill a two year old. Kind of like the United States and Russia during WWII. Hey we can sit here and argue over who is better, or we can unite together and easily kill the Germans right? Of course we all know how that turned out, as soon as WWII was over we were fighting Russia's allies all over the planet for 50 years. Also i noticed she said the boys saw each other as small in each other's pupils, as if to say the boys were insecure, not confident, in their own toughness. And that is what had fueled their hatred in the first place, insecurity. I also like at the end, she adds: they are playing war... to celebrate my son's life." lots of irony here she is using. The 6 and 7 year old boys being talked about as if they were men, generals, but at the same time being described as having the fragility of balsa wood. The irony that they are playing war to celebrate the boy's life.