Rites of Passage analysis

Being a confessional poet, Olds is apt to morphing her personal experiences into brilliant poetry. “Rites of Passage” is no exception as she uses heavy ironic tone, and terse yet meaningful word choice to depict a mother’s objective observation during her first grade son’s birthday party. Resulting from Olds’ unique style, one is able to look beyond the celebratory fashion of a typical first grader’s birthday, and maintain the level of socio-political criticism that she displays.
Olds instigates this poem’s mounting war with small squabbles between the children present. One sniffling, chocolate frosting-covered face queries “How old are you? Six. I’m seven. So?” (line 8, p774). Using a typical conflict among pre-pubescent males parallels world leaders and makes evident how ridiculous the basis of wars can be. Substantially domineering countries can threaten those who are weaker with their massive stockpiles while the pecking order of all nations persists. T...