“The Child Who Walks Backwards”, by Lorna Crozier, demonstrates the reluctance often found in our society to see things as they really are. The poem is written from the point of view of a neighbor, commenting on the interesting relationship between a mother and son. While the poems overall tone is very diplomatic, as the poem progresses the literary techniques aid the evolving idea of abuse. The author achieves this slight change of tone through her interesting comparisons, imagery and diction.
Although the first stanza seems innocent enough compared to the others, the subtle diction gives the poem an eerie start. Starting with the very first line, we learn that, “My next-door neighbor tells me” (1), the interesting words here being “tells me”, as opposed to the slightly different ‘says’ or ‘said’. Though these words have a very slight difference they convey more doubt to the actual truth of the following words (about how her son manages to hurt himself), as if the mother is ‘telling’ a story. They also hint that for the mother to “tell” the neighbor, there were some questions asked, interesting because the theme of the poem is to look past the easy and outer layer of things, to see what is really going on. The next contributing word choice is when the poet states that “corners and doorknobs/ have pounded their shapes/ into his face”(3,4,5). Key word here being pounded, you have to wonder why such a violent word is used to describe a young boy falling into things. The word choice makes it sound as if the “corners and doorknobs” (3) were out to purposefully injure the boy. The author follows this up by saying that because the boy has bad dreams he wakes in the night to, “steal through the halls” (8). Because the author uses the word, “steal(s)”, it suggests that the boys time alone and free of bad dreams in his own house, is time that does not belong to him, time he has to steal to have. The author finishes the stanza with a simile, when she states that the...