A Teen Dad from The First Part Last What are some of the symbols shown it the story, that prove that Bobby comes of age? While there are many facts that argue all sides of this topic, I argue the fact that Bobby does come of age and that there are many symbols that help represent that statement. Bobby is a 16 year old boy that became a teen dad that experiences some difficult situations in life, and still makes a responsible decision to leave with his baby girl Feather to a place called heaven where his brother Paul lives with his family. Three symbols used to represent that idea are the red balloon, the wall,and the baby carrier, all explaining how Bobby changes himself to be more responsible and a better father figure for his child. …show more content…
Bobby said "Finally it's just me and the thing in the baby carrier who doesn't have a face for a Long time...the carrier sails through the painting, following the ghost boy." (Johnson Pg 60) the thing in the baby carrier is Feather but Bobby can't find a face for her, he can't figure out the identity of the baby and ghost boy, he doesn't know who he is or what his purpose is in life but he does know that he will still have the baby with him the whole way. The baby Carrier is a symbol of the responsibilities, destress, joy,fear,pain,adventures to come, and absolute independence from all other advisable adult figures. Bobby has to be the adult in his daughters life. He shows these responsibilities when he chooses to move to heaven, away from city life and bad memories in order to make a better more successful life for him and
Another symbol is Just Frank, who is an old guy that stayed at the corner in the apartments. He would tell Bobby that he needed to change if he wanted to become a man. One night Just Frank was killed while trying to help a girl from being dragged into an alley by an idiot. Frank trying to help the girl was being a man. Bobby wants to be a man like Just Frank. He wants to be someone’s hero and make a change. “I went to his funeral at Zion AME, then walked home and held Feather for the rest of the night, wondering if I would be a man, a good man” (Johnson 7). This quote from the novel shows that Bobby wants to be like Just Frank and be a man.
There are many symbols that represent coming of age in this book. The author hides the
In the beginning, Nia decides to give Bobby a red balloon on his 16th birthday. While doing this, she says, “Bobby, I have something to tell you.” With this, some conclusions that are drawn are that the news is not positive, and it could mean a drastic change in Bobby’s life. Also, the red balloon has the potential to symbolize many other objects, including Nia’s childhood, innocence, children, and change that is yet to come. For example, since the news is likely about pregnancy, the balloon could represent Nia giving up her innocence and childhood to Bobby, since she has to give up her old life for new responsibilities that come with being a
First off, the red balloon that Nia gave Bobby in the very first Then chapter represented multiple things: female and children. In the chapter Nia, balloons appear again when she mentions how she always wanted to be a balloonist, which suggested that not only was she telling bobby that she was pregnant with a little girl when she handed him the balloon, but she was handing him her dreams. Considering these facts, the red balloon was a very important
A quote that very well represents this is on page6 when the narrator said"then she handed me the balloon." This quote means that when Nia hands bobby the balloon to represent her giving him her virginity and her virginity represents her childhood being striped from her by bobby. And in response to Bobby taking away Nia's childhood Nia takes away his childhood because she expects Bobby to make sacrifices for Feather. And this makes Bobby upset because he can no longer be getting in trouble and he has to give up everything that he used to love to do in order to be able to be around Feather whenever she needed
In the book(page 22-25), Bobby has a basketball and forgets about his baby named Feather. When he goes to put the basketball down on the floor, it rolls away from him. This is a symbol of Bobby’s teen and childhood going away. The chapter also talks about him going to go play basketball. Going back to the basketball rolling away, this part means that he cannot hangout with friends anymore. The ball rolls over to his mother’s bedroom door meaning that Bobby has to start acting like a parent and not a child. That is why the basketball represents Bobby coming of
-So Bobby thinks that life can get less complicated when he's an adult, but then he realizes what his dad was going through and realizes it doesn't get easier
How do you think a person with a baby on its way have to come of age? Well this question is related to two people named Bobby and Nia but the only thing is that they are both still teens in high school. They are both in a book called The First Part Last by Angela Johnson. I'm going to talk about how they are going to come of age throughout the book by symbols.
The balloon is red and in the beginning, Nia gives the ballon to Bobby. The balloon is a symbol of love, that Nia is giving her innocents to Bobby, and showing that Bobby needs to start growing up. When they were standing on the steps together they looked at each other, "then she handed me the balloon." Pg. 5. The balloon is a big symbol and it shows that Bobby's childhood is floating away and he's coming of
One symbol of Bobby's coming of age is how he matures by handling Feather, before and after she was born. Before Feather was born Bobby had to give up his independence, even if he was reluctant about it. He gave up the arcade and fun times he would have had with his friends. An example of this was when Bobby said "I lay my basketball down and it rolled out the door"(Johnson 23). Right before Nia had the baby, Bobby showed that he was maturing by
The time when he tagged the wall is symbol of the understanding of coming of age. He feels a connecting with the wall because it just stands there alone and not connected to anything. Bobby feels unconnected and alone. He sees his past go by while spray painting. All of his childhood like flying kites all day, blowing bubbles in the museum, his family at the beach... Bobby feels
When the realization hit him, that he was growing up too fast and becoming a parent as well, he often had moments of remembrance which made him miss his former youth that he no longer has. He thinks back regularly about his childhood, and nearly everything he does or sees symbolizes his youth and makes him see even more that he needs to be a man, to teach his new child the ways of life, and how "coming of age" is a painful process. Bobby has a theory, one that most people should consider as well. "But I figure if the world were really right, humans would live backward and do the first part last. They'd be all knowing in the beginning and innocent at the end." (angella johnson page 4) Which means, rather than being forced to be faced with all the heavy moments that life carries, we would be born with all that we need to know and die a happier ending. Bobby expresses this because his daughter makes him contemplate how life actually is and how he wants the best for her, instead of seeing her get hurt. His theory has to do with the process of coming of age, but in this case in
One way of how he raised her is he told Feather about her mother, Nia. Some single parents don't' tell their kid about their mom or dad. Bobby's brother Paul told him about Heaven, Ohio is a good place to raise kids. Bobby went with his brothers reasoning and moved to Heaven, Ohio because he wants the best for his daughter, Feather. Now that he is an adult and he knows how to raise Feather he needs to be a
The symbol that best represents the theme of growing up would be clothing. Throughout the book, clothing has been more than just a choice of style; it had been a sign of maturity. Another instance would be when Miss Maudie asks Scout, “‘Where are your britches today?’” Scout answers back, “Under my dress.” (Lee 309) This shows that Scout has finally learned to accept the
My whole life i tried living up to your expectations, graduated from high school went onto college and graduated, you and mom only really cared about money and earning respect on your names because of money, so close minded about it that you didn't realize there were a lot more ways of being remembered. Dad, I don't remember saying that to you very often is it just insane to me or you as well, sometimes I wish I could go back in time and tell you how your decisions would workout in the future perhaps that might of improved the way you and mom made me and Corie’s childhood be.