Little Boy Crying Essay 1

Department of Modern Language
English Literature
Little Boy Crying by Mervin Morris
How does Morris present parent-child relationships in ‘Little Boy Crying?’
The Essay Example:
Morris’s presentation of parent child relationships in ‘Little Boy Crying’ is interesting
and somewhat controversial. He expresses the attitude that parents should physically
discipline their children, and demonstrates the belief that, despite it being difficult,
parents must teach their children essential lessons. He also explores empathy in parent
child relationships.
Morris presents controversial attitudes towards parenting and parent child

relationships in ‘Little Boy Crying’. Rather than comply with the widely held view
that parents should treat their children softly and without resorting to physical
punishment, Morris demonstrates the belief that parents have the right and duty to
discipline their children, and to reprimand them for unsuitable behaviour; in the poem,
the father hits his son for misbehaving – we do not know exactly what the boy has
done but the use of continuous verbs, such as ‘swimming’ and ‘splashing’, to describe
the boy’s behaviour suggests that he is full of energy, is always moving and is
difficult to control, therefore possibly requiring strong punishments. The final stanza
of the poem: ‘You must not make a plaything of the rain’ is a metaphor that highlights
the belief that children should be disciplined, and that parents cannot always make
their children feel happy at the cost of ruining ‘the lessons you should learn.’ The fact
that this stanza structurally stands out, because it is a monostitch (consists of one
line), indicates its importance and demonstrates how it holds the thematic statement
that Morris is attempting to convey. The poem’s structure also highlights Morris’s
attitudes towards parenting; the stanzas are fairly regular and ordered, reinforcing the
idea that discipline and order are necessary when it comes to parenting. The language
used also illustrates this idea; Morris uses a fairytale allegory to describe the boy’s
desire to hurt the father: ‘you imagine/ chopping clean the tree he’s scrambling
down’. This comparison to the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk illustrates the belief that
parents should teach their children important lessons, because fairytales exist to teach
children moral lessons and good values. The soft rhyming that is used throughout the
poem gives it a lullaby quality, enhancing the fairytale imagery.
Morris also presents two contrasting parent child relationships in ‘Little Boy Crying’.
The majority of the poem describes the father and son’s relationship as being bitter
and resentful, characterised by ‘spite and hurt’, however, there is also mention of a
happy and playful relationship between the father and son, demonstrated by the
compound nouns ‘piggy-back’ and ‘bull-fight’. This suggests that, despite the
struggles they face within the poem, they do, at other times, get along and have fun
together; the use of compound nouns creates a childish and playful impression.
In the poem, Morris discusses the concept of empathy in parent child relationships,
and he presents a relationship in which there is a lack of empathy between the parent
and the child. The child, hurt by the monosyllabic ‘quick slap struck’, views his father
1
as an ‘ogre’ and ‘a grim giant, empty of feeling’, and imagines ways in which he can
hurt his father. Contrastingly, the father actually finds physically disciplining the child
extremely hard and ‘longs to lift (him), curb (his) sadness with piggy-back or bull-
fight’. This apparent lack of empathy and emotional intelligence between the parent
and child could be the reason why physical punishment was necessary in the first
place – if the father had realised the boy’s position and tried to understand his
motivations for his actions, and if the boy had been able to respect his father, then the
father would not have needed to resort to physical punishment. Morris could be
implying that empathy is essential in parent child relationships as it eradicates the
need for violent methods of discipline.
Morris presents a parent child relationship in ‘Little Boy Crying’ in which the parent
has the power and the control. The father is, from the boy’s perspective, described as
an ‘ogre’ and a ‘giant’. He is physically much larger and stronger than his son,
therefore possessing a lot more power.

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Department of Modern Language

How does Morris present parent-child relationships in ‘Little Boy Crying?’

Morris presents controversial attitudes towards parenting and parent child

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