The Whipping=Evaluation=1200 Words Essay, Research Paper
Upon reading Robert Hayden s 1970 poem, The Whipping (1075), one may find themselves feeling very disturbed. The title is not subtle in hiding the fact that the plot of the poem is of a mother beating her son. The tone of the poem is very violent, and filled with a lot of anger. The boy s character immediately demands sympathy from the reader and just as instantaneously, the mother is hated by the reader. From his first stanza, to his sixth, Hayden utilizes an arsenal of words, symbols, and images to create a scene that is intense and emotional to the reader.
Hayden introduces his poem with the first stanza, which begins with The old woman across the way/ is whipping the boy again (1-2). These lines create a setting, where the characters are introduced and the action that the title stated is in progress. One thing that the reader does sense is that this whipping is not unusual. It is happening again and whoever the narrator is, he is not surprised or alarmed that this is happening. The last two lines of the stanza describe the mother very well. She is shouting to the neighborhood/ her goodness and his wrongs (3-4). Its as if she feels that by yelling her son s faults and her goodness, she is trying to justify her own wrongfulness of beating her son. She chose to shout, so that everyone would hear, almost as if she was confessing her sins. She seems to be making a show, a production out of this beating. She is trying to humiliate her son even more by beating him outside, instead of inside the house. A simple, four- lined introduction creates a perfect image of the event that is unfolding.
In stanza two, the setting and the mother s physical appearance is revealed in further detail. The setting is in front of the house in a garden of some sort, full of lush plants, greenery, and bright flowers. In contrast, the boy is being viciously thrown and beaten into this delicate foliage. Wildly he crashes through elephant ears, / pleads in dusty zinnias (5-6). Another symbolic image Hayden portrays is of the zinnias. Zinnias are typically supposed to be a plant with variously colored beautiful flowers; these zinnias are dusty, implying that they are dull, lifeless, and unattended. This is symbolic of the boy. If properly taken care of, a boy can grow into a vivid, colorful, young man, but if mistreated and unattended for, a boy may to look dusty. While she in spite of crippling fat/ pursues and corners him. (7-8). This line compares the mother to some kind of a beast, whom stalks her prey and entraps it right before she devours it s helpless flesh. In addition, the crippling fat paints a grotesque image of the mother allowing us to form a bias of this fat, ugly, child-beating beast. Hayden has set the foundation for his poem with his brilliant usage of the setting and characterization. Hayden uses his third stanza to develop the action in the poem.
She strikes and strikes the shrilly circling / boy till the stick breaks in her hand. (9-10). These two lines describe the kind of sadistic beating that the boy is receiving. This is not an average everyday spanking. The antagonist actually hits the child until the stick cannot withstand anymore. The usage of alliteration allows the reader to incorporate that the boy is screaming and running in circles all while receiving the beating. Hayden then says, His tears are rainy weather to woundlike memories: (11-12). This line is very significant to the poem. The narrator is making a connection to himself at this time. The boy s tears are bringing back memories from his past. Hayden uses the colon marks to show that the preceding text is going to be the narrator s woundlike memories.
The fourth and fifth stanzas are used to show the thoughts of the narrator. The narrator is remembering an incident that has happened in the past when he was beaten. He remembers his head was being held between someone s knees and he being beaten upon. He remembers the struggle he attempted, trying to break free from the hold. Then the narrator says, the fear / worse than blows that hateful / words could bring, the face that I / no longer knew or loved ( 15-18). These lines are very powerful in that they reveal that his beater was someone that he knew well and that he had once loved. He then compares his fear of this person to the pain of harmful words. The fear is not just for the person giving him the beating, but it is to look at their face. The man knew and loved that person but know they have ruined that love with violence and inhumanity. Then to show the change from recollection to present Hayden writes, it is over now, it is over / and the boy sobs in his room (19). The first it is over now is saying that the narrator s beatings has come to an end. The latter is to show that the boy s beating is over and now is in his room, away from harm. Hayden uses a smooth transition to get the readers into the present time, where his poem ends.
And the woman leans muttering against / a tree, exhausted, purged- (21-22). The opening line of the sixth stanza shows the reader the fat old woman leaning against a tree physically tired. Hayden also states that the woman is purged, meaning she has cleansed herself from all guilt, sins, and impurities. This usage of purged guides the reader into the next two lines. avenged in part for lifelong hidings / she has had to bear (23-24). The woman feels redemption after beating her child because she was abused in her life also. This final stanza answers the question of why is the mother so abusive to her child?
In no way does the Whipping justify child abuse just because the parent had been abused in the past. However, it does reinforce the fact that abuse is past on from generation to generation and happens everywhere. Hayden uses the perfect point of view in this scenario. The omniscience from the third person allows the reader to feel the personal connection of the narrator and of the family he views across the street. The excellent selection and usage of purged lead the reader right into his conclusion of the poem. In using many of the weapons in writing Hayden strategically conquers the reader s thoughts and emotions in the poem The Whipping .