When I first read this poem in the 7th grade, I actually didn't think it was about the little kid getting abused; I interpreted it as him and his father playing around the house after dinner. But after the whole class shared their interpretations, most of them thought it was about the boy being hit, and that's when I realized that the poem actually did sound like it was about something more negative and dark than just lightly playing around.
Today when I reread it again, the image of a kid being hit by his drunken father in the kitchen came to mind instead of playing around and breaking things by accident, like it did last year. And today I'm not sure how I didn't see all this when I was in seventh grade. This is where I believe rereading literature more than once in different perspectives and with more than one idea in mind can add more sides to it and even help you understand the text more. Not just in poetry, but in any kind of writing it's best to not just think one-dimensionally about what you're reading, even if a text may seem like it's simple and straightforward at first.
I actually think that both points of view, being abused or playing, can work out in interpreting the poem, even though right now my interpretation is still the poem being about abuse.
No comments:
Post a Comment