Something interesting that stood out to me when I read this poem was the parallel of reactive/thoughtless violence between babies and “grown-ups” made in stanzas 6 and 11. The lines, “…under the magnificent shell of adulthood, just under, / waited the baby full of tantrums” (33-34) resonated with me as I read of the baby’s outburst in stanza 11, and the “Fine Prince’s” subsequent/immediate punishment - a hard slap to the baby’s cheek. I think this stanza illustrates the woman’s realization of the unchanging nature of violence in this society, or at least in her family. The maturity and rationality of her husband, the “Fine Prince,” a pseudo-knight in shining armor, is compared to that of her infant (or toddler) children. This also relates to her realization that, despite associating the victim of her husband’s crime as a “Dark Villain” due to his skin color, his eyes are “still too young to be dirty” (26) — he is too young to have such malicious intentions. This, I think, is why the woman envisions blood covering her baby’s cheek after her husband slaps it. Given the context of this story, an innocent black child gets killed over an inappropriate, but non-aggressive act — if the same logic/rules are applied to her innocent white baby who just threw a pitcher at his brother’s face, he would be bloodied (at the very least).
No comments:
Post a Comment