Rite of Passage Explication

In the poem, Olds describes the rite of passage of her son as she imagines him becoming a man. The little boys compete with each other, so they seem older and more mature. However, she uses consonance of the s sound throughout the poem because the soft sound reminds the reader that they are still young children. Also, it unifies the poem with the repetition of the same sound. After beginning with the s sound, Olds uses assonance in pockets, jostling, and jockeying as the boys transition into adults in her mind. Then, she uses consonance in the first and last of these three words in addition to breaking because they form harsher k sounds because the boys are trying to act like men. Olds repeats the alliteration of six and seven in two lines because the soft s shows the contrast between their age and what they are saying. When the seven say that he is older, the six replies with so because he wants to act unimpressed and tougher. Olds uses consonance of the hard k sound again with dark cake. It continues in freckles, specks, and cheeks, which describe the young son, who shockingly boasts that they could kill a two-year-old because of his harsh words.  Olds uses less musicality in the last five lines of the poem to show that it is sad that little boys think they must be violent to prove their strength as a man.

Also, Olds uses many comparisons to create an image of men from these boys. At first, she uses a metaphor to compare them to bankers because they act like small businessmen, who are skeptical of each other. In the end, she changes her comparison and calls them general because of their violent impulses. She uses similes, which compare the cake to a turret and her son's chest to a boat keel, and create images of war. It is ironic that the other boys relax when they are playing war and they celebrate the son for saying that they could kill a boy. Olds laments the violent tendencies of boys, which she sees in her own son as he loses his innocence, as they try to act like men and later develop when they become men.