Memories Of Childhood In Maxine Clair's Cherry Bomb

We often don’t realize the harmful aspects that come along with growing up. Billy Collins’ poem, “On Turning Ten” elaborates on this idea and conveys how these aspects affect us. In his poem, the speaker is about to turn the age of ten, making him realize he is no longer like his younger self. As the speaker explains the frightening idea of turning ten, he also reminisces about his happy childhood. The speaker then explains his sadness over losing the innocent part of his younger self and soon realizes the difficulty of aging. By using metaphors and imagery, Collins communicates that as we lose our innocence when we grow up, it negatively changes our perspective of maturity from an oblivious view to a harsher point of view.

All kids ever want to feel the complete love and affection from their parents. In the first chapter of Fun Home, a graphic memoir written by Alison Bechdel, the author uses examples from her childhood to reveal her compassion for her father. Bechdel builds ethos, to entice to pathos and logos to unveil her father’s shame and to foreshadow the extent of his denial.

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.” In “Cherry Bomb,”Clair uses symbolism, imagery, and setting to characterize the adult narrators memories of childhood and 5th grade summer world.

Through the prose. Clair uses tone to portray her innocence as a fifth grader. She states early in the first paragraph that "life was measured in summers." This simple but profound statement illustrates the way only a child measured life before adulthood strikes. Notably, later on in the story, she then continues on to show the gist by stating, "my father... shipped out to the dot in the Pacific Ocean." She is oblivious to her innocence within her backstory. The "for" is an island where her father was stationed at one point in her adolescence.

In her story "Cherry Bomb", author Maxine Clair utilizes literary techniques to characterize memories of her fifth-grade summer world. Immediately, Clair metaphorically asserts "Life was measured in summers then" to demonstrate that, as children, we tend to cater to the memories of summer when we are independent from the daily duties of school and have the time to indulge in our freedom. She then mentions her affinity towards the phrase "I am in this world, but not of it" and admits that she did not originally discern its meaning at such a young age. Additionally, Clair's diction as she reminisces her fifth-grade summer becomes colloquial and childish, utilizing phrases such as "that-old-thing-of an ice truck". "help-him-out block of ice", and "Daddy-said-so

In Maxine Claire’s short story, “Cherry Bomb,” the speaker utilizes a nostalgic tone to express the backstory of the cherry bomb in her private box. Moreover, Claire makes use of a number of literary devices such as vivid imagery, allusion and similes in order to clarify the significance of the cherry bomb to the audience.

Throughout the novel, The Memory of Light, the reader has learned the choices people make can affect their lives. During the story, Vicky has woken up at Lakeview hospital only remembering

In Dianna Henning’s "Shards of Childhood Memory," she notes how the tone is actually simplistic and childlike through her special attention to the fourth line of Bishop’s poem which bluntly describes the acceptance of agitation caused by the everyday misplacing of items (Henning 74). This unique comparison of the poem’s beginning to being similar to a child does prove effective. When it comes to most children, they are straight-forward, short-tempered, and absent-minded, which creates the perfect storm understanding the level of frustration caused by losing something every day as there was a moment of lapsed memory. However, this childlike thinking presented at the beginning of the poem contrasts with the reality Bishop’s Speaker faces as the things they lose become gradually more abstract. Keeping with the concept of the nature of children to be absent minded, the Speaker already begins to sprinkle in the reality of memory being part of the world of the abstract which makes it susceptible to becoming skewed and/or forgotten.

Throughout our childhood, we all can recall memorable moments about things we experienced. Whether it be losing a tooth or getting in trouble during recess. The children in To Kill a Mockingbird Scout, Jem, and Dill spends their childhood together learning from each other and the town around them. Today the concept of “childhood” is changing for each generation and becoming more connected with technology rather than going to the park. Still, there are things every child can relate to or remind them of a similar event. Such as fearing a neighbor, summertime, and the first day of school. There are many different components that make up our childhood experiences.

Childhood is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary (2010) as “The state of being a child” although this definition is valid it is unspecific and gives no definitive boundaries. This is due to the fact that childhood is a concept which is hard to define as each individuals perception of childhood is constructed through their own personal experiences from when they were a child themselves. In the following essay I shall discuss contemporary views of childhood by first discussing an advertisement by Barbie titled “Imagine the Possibilities” which was released in 2015. I shall then contrast the western views of childhood found in the Barbie advertisement with an artwork by Luis Quiles titled Kid Soldier, which

If you were given the opportunity to slow your childhood down and keep the freedom of youth, you would right? It’s not quite as easy for the main character of the story, The Moustache, written by Robert Cormier. This short story read by the 8th grade class consisted of a 17 year old boy named Mike who insisted on growing a moustache. He went to visit his grandma in her nursing home, and she thought Mike, her grandson, was her husband, because of the moustache he had and the older man look it gave him. Due to this, Mike realized that there is no reason to rush growing up and he should live his free life as long as possible. The author of this thought provoking text uses author’s craft techniques such as symbolism and word choice to reveal the theme, childhood and the freedoms that come with it, should not be rushed but savored.

The last cherry blossom book is a story based on the writer's mother experience during WWII when she was twelve years old showing how kids during WWII lived their lives the best they could and the struggles other people had before and after the attacks.

When most people look back on their childhood, they remember their innocence and natural curiosity. They remember how they ran around the playground not knowing an entire universe exists, waiting to make people’s lives hazier, quieter, and less colorful.

Of those, many great people, Mary Oliver, a poet, asks a simple yet intricate question, “What is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”. Taken from one her simple and dreamy poems, The Summer Day, she takes us strolling through the fields over the grass in a pleasant sunny day to indicate that she hasn’t the slightest idea of how life works either. She questions everything in a childish manner, as if the child was in a musical, singing and prancing, creating a sense of innocence in the readers’ minds. Do we look at life from a child’s perspective to enjoy it? It felt as if, even though she was questioning certain matters or ideas, she seems to not care one bit about those questions rather, it resembles some senseless thoughts passing through her head as she enjoys life around the fields on a summer

Four years old is by far one of the most interesting points of existence in the human lifetime. By four years into life, most have hopefully completed their transition out of infancy and toddlerhood and are now on their way to becoming fully functioning children. Despite this sudden growth in cognitive ability, however, most memories from this time period — in my personal experience — are foggy and difficult to recall. As a result, my only methods of journeying back to this era of my life are through the exploration of large, dust-covered photo albums tucked away in closets or attics. One of the relics of this age, carefully preserved behind a thin pocket of plastic and surrounded by images of birthday parties long forgotten, is a picture of me taken by my mother in the late summer of 2004.