The Red Hat
Arnetia Lomba
Ashford University
ENG125
Instructor- Mr. Cooper
9/2/14

The Red Hat
This short story I had chosen for this assignment is the “The Red Hat”, by Rachel Hadas. Do you know what it's like to send your child off to school for the first time? Remembering how you felt when this happened, your connection to the emotions that Rachel Hadas, poet and former professor at Rutgers University, packs into "The Red Hat" will be instantaneous. Her story captures the anxiety and disequilibrium parents feel when watching their young children drawn away from them to enter school and a world away from home. When the watching parent is described in the story of “The Red Hat” as one whose "heart stretches, elastic in its love and fear”, you can feel those emotions because you have experienced them. Although no one has to explain what "wavering in the whirlpools of change" means you have lived through that uncomfortable experience when home seems strangely empty, routine is broken, and you are forced to accept that your child will not always be with you
The main themes that I analyzed was: independence, change and letting go. In this poem I found that independence was a way for parents to let their son walk to school alone when he was clenching to their hands not too long ago, “Where two weeks ago, holding a hand, he'd dawdle, dreamy, slow, he now is hustled forward by the pull of something far more powerful than school,” (Hadas 1994) .During the short story we understand another important theme: the importance for his parents that their son leaves their protection and safety and try to defend himself
This is a short story written from the point of view of a mother who is watching her son walk to school on his own for the first time. As this may be the literal meaning, the general idea of the story is the emotions and thoughts of a parent watching their child grow up. The author uses parentheses, rhyme, and alliteration to convey these emotions and to help the reader experience the same feelings (Clugson, 2014). In line 7 parentheses are used to emphasize the fact that these parents take any and every opportunity to guide their son. "Glances can extend (and do)," stops the reader and makes the line more significant. The continuation of that line, "across the street; not eye contact," reveals that the parents are afraid that the son is losing sight of them and what they have taught him. They are worried they are losing his attention, and overall his love.
The rhyme scheme in this short story really helps to emphasize important words that are crucial to the emotions of this story. Words like "part" and "heart", "fear" and "disappear", "pull" and "school" show the different worries that a parent may have. The endings to the sentences are all crucial in their word choice, and need to be viewed as key elements.
Rachel Hadas also uses some alliteration in line 14 where it says, "Where two weeks ago, holding a hand, he'd dawdle, dreamy, slow" (Hadas 1994). This alliteration also slows down the line, just as the words explain, and put the reader into the parent's dream-like state where they are remembering when their child was younger.

ReferencesClugston, R. W. (2014). Journey into literature. Retrieved from: ttps://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.14.1Hadas, Rachel. (1994).The Red Hat Retrieved from: https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.14.1/sections/navpoint-7 |