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Shoulders By Naomi Shihab Nye: A Literary Analysis

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When it comes to parents and their children, protection is the most important thing to them. Literature can do many things and one of them is describing different topics that can be expressed in a way that cannot be said anyway else. Sometimes literature can be a way to reach people differently than just by telling them straight forward. In life and in literature, protecting children is very important, but sometimes there can be a downside in too much over the top parenting. Some parents will go above and beyond to try and protect their children and a lot of the time that is a necessity, but in some cases they can be harmful, by never allowing them to learn, live, or fail.
Sometimes parents can take it too far, and this can end up being harmful. …show more content…

They are usually not allowed to go to friends' houses, gatherings or they have strict restrictions. In “Good Bones” by Maggie Smith, she explains that she wants to keep her children from the world. The thing is, the world is not all bad and has many positive attributes. The world is where we live life, make friends, learn from failure, and experience countless opportunities. The good will most likely outweigh the bad, and that is why parents should not shelter their children from experiencing life. In “Shoulders” by Naomi Shihab Nye, it does not show a toxic type of protection. It simply shows a man trying to protect his son and in the end it shows that he understands that he cannot protect his son forever. It is a healthy type of protection that this father portrays in the poem. Instead of keeping his son sheltered he knows he will have to let him …show more content…

Parents may not realize that they are keeping their kids from having fun, and it is even worse when they do. Again they may think it is best for them, and that is okay, they just need to understand that it may not be the best for them and quite the opposite. Being a parent brings on a sense of responsibility. At least one study shows that parents start spending more time at the office after having a child, working more, hoping for a raise. Another group of studies show that stress increases significantly for new parents, and some even suggest that, because of the added stress, parents are not much happier than their childless counterparts (Loewen). This is a big factor as to why people may think they need to protect their child. On the other side are the legions of hovering parents who literally think it’s too dangerous to let their children play outside, or surf the internet unattended for fear that the children will be whisked away by a predator (Allen). This is a valid reason for “helicopter parenting”. It is crucial to keep kids safe from the bad in the world, but not keep them from the good. It is hard to balance but it is possible. Protecting children from these events is more likely to increase their vulnerability than promote resilience. When adults remove failure so children do not have to experience it, they become more vulnerable to future experiences of failure (Shean).

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People who become parents, generally understand that they have to raise their children in a certain way so that they will become healthy and functional members of society. Most of these parents also understand that if they do not give their children proper care and attention, their child may not have a successful future. Often times, parents would argue which method is the best to raise their child and which way is wrong. Everyone seems to have their own definition of parenting. Most people however, would disagree with the way Rex and Rose Mary Walls in The Glass Castle raised their children.

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Attempting to live unconstrained/ uncontrolled by people’s own conventions/ morals. You end up following morals that were taught to you by someone that originally had a great deal of control in the end. In Orson Welles’ film, Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane is trying to win the love of the people in his life by breaking all the conventions that he was taught in his youth. As he grows in age, he conforms to the morals taught to him as a child.

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In most situations it is the parent’s job to shield their children from harm 's way Rex and Rose never did that for their children. Laurie, Jeanette, Brain and Maureen had to fend for themselves and protect each other. Multiple times through their lives Rex would spend the majority of their money on alcohol instead of on food, rent, or bills which left his children without the basic necessities of life.7 The Walls children Laurie, Jeanette, Brain and Maureen were without food, heat, and clean water throughout most of their childhoods.8 The few times the Walls did have food it was common for Rose Mary to hide it and save it for herself.9 Throughout the lives of the Walls children their mother cared more about her well being than her children and did not care if she hurt them to improve her own quality of life.10 Having selfish parents who prioritized themselves first and their children last can have an adverse effect on the children. The neglect certainly left its mark on the Walls children but they move forward in their lives as different

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Lent also uses strong appeals to convey his argument. Dr. Lent also uses pathos to implicate several social complexity to evoke an emotional response to the audience, He uses phrases such as “brain development, social skills, behaviors, and even intelligence,” to reinforce how the quality of overprotective parents have it’s negative effects in their little ones day-to-day life. The author gives a sense of guilt that if parents are still choosing this path, the children will struggle in acquiring skills, acknowledge, and habits that will “leave them unable to deal with stress as adults.” Despite, the criticism the author gives, He also tries to uplift his audience through positive diction using words such as “beneficial,” and “positive” to motivate and inspire his audience how the use of acute stress will enhance a child’s growth in gross motor skills and enabling them to interact well with their surroundings.

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This exaggeration was done to draw attention to how ridiculous government safety requirements for kids can be. For example, “Defuse the ticking time-bomb known as your child 's imagination before it explodes and destroys her completely” (para. 2) is an exaggeration to demonstrate how many parents believe they must prevent their kid from being creative since they think it is so harmful. A child being imaginative should not be compared to a time bomb, which actually inflicts wounds and destruction. The preventative measures to inhibit a child’s imagination are also overdramatic. For instance, “To truly protect your children, you must go to great lengths to completely eliminate their curiosity, crush their spirit of amazement, and eradicate their childlike glee” (para. 11) overemphasizes the idea of parents who raise their child too strictly and expect their child to behave like an

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