Why would any boy in the first grade claim that he has the ability and strength to kill a toddler? "We could easily kill a two-year-old," (22) is what the birthday boy states in Sharon Olds' "Rites of Passage", a poem in which a young boy's birthday party becomes the pruning ground for many of his peers. The boys are overly competitive and compelled to prove their manhood to one another through intimidation by way of physical threats. All the while, the mother of the birthday boy observes the behavior as "Rites of Passage" into the male dominated world of adulthood.

The mother of the birthday boy reveals the occurrences of her son's party. She is a conscientious yet respectful parent, knowing when and when not to interfere as seen when she scrutinized the exchange between two party goers, "I could beat you/up, a seven says to a six," (12-13), determining that it was nothing more than boys trying to prove that they are forces to be reckoned with, no longer toddlers they were......

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Title: Rite Of Passage
Approximate Word Count: 590
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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