Death can be often talked about when it the topic of coming of age arises, as the child at once begins to comprehend and look forward to the future rather than mostly living in the moment. Two poems, The Ball Poem by John Berryman and Quinceanera by Judith Ortiz Cofer, associate death with coming of age in their poetry.
In Quinceanera, death is used as a symbol for her transition from childhood to adulthood, the narrator seemingly looking at her loss of childhood as a sort of death in itself, to begin a new life. In the story, she uses words depicting this thought process, such as “dead children”, “black”, “skull”, and “bones”. The central way she talks about death is through blood (per say, a way to discuss her coming of age physically).
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The author uses a ball to represent a human life, that a little boy lost it and cannot get it back, much like a person who has passed away. The little boy has a realization at the end of the story, slowly beginning to realize that this is a part of life. The narrator furthers this thought process by adding his mindset, that he too will eventually become the ball that was lost at some point, stating “Soon part of me will explore the deep and dark, Floor of the harbour”. While the whole poem takes a turn for the darker side in the end, it begins very storybook-like, the narration being a bit whimsical and childlike to fit the symbol of a child’s toy. At “An ultimate shaking grief fixes the boy” there is a shift to the reality of the situation.
Both of these poems are existential surrounding, in that the coming of age section arrives with the idea of death and that life is not eternal. However, they discuss this in two completely opposite ways. While Quinceanera utilizes death a symbol for her childhood, such as in describing her dolls as “dead children”, The Ball Poem uses a symbol of an item for childhood to mean death, using the ball to describe this part of