Quarter 2 OR Week 4 Post A

Vocab:
pablum(105)- A trademark used for a bland soft cereal for infants.
bowdlerizing(109)- To remove material that is considered offensive or objective, usually from a book or other written work.

Figurative Language:
"She opens the shampoo and squeezes a few drops onto my palm. It's all I need. I've only got about a dozen hairs left" (107). Although I'm not quite sure the exact name for this figurative device, the closest I can get is to call it a hyperbole since Jacob is exaggerating the truth. He probably has more than 12 hairs on his head. Plus hairs are usually too thin to be able to count, so he really wouldn't know. This is just used here to exemplify his old age.

A simile is illustrated in the following quote as Jacob talks about his aging days and how his children made him feel. He uses the term "like" in the comparison which signifies that it's a simile. "I felt like a toddler whose tantrum was being allowed to run its course"(108).

"I should know better by now, but somehow I still expect to see myself. Instead, I find an Appalachian apple doll, withered and spotty, with dewlaps and bags and long floppy ears"(111). Jacob uses a metaphor to compare himself in his old age to an Appalachian apple doll. I know this is a metaphor because it is a comparison not using "like" or "as".

Quote:
"Mustn't upset Grandpa, you know. Why? That's what I want to know. I hate this bizarre policy of protective exclusion...It's a protective mechanism for them, a way of buffering themselves against my future death...I knew it wasn't her fault--it was programmed into her"(109). Jacob is talking about how he is constantly left out of the loop when it comes to his kids. This shows his age, and how at a certain point, old people become hard to deal with. This also reflects on society's views of the elderly: when they reach a certain age, they are too old to help themselves so they should get assisted living. Jacob's age can also be displayed by how much he knows. The elderly are usually wiser than the youth because they've had time to mull things over, and Jacob definitely has.

Theme:
Although age brings disrespect from others, it also brings wiseness to oneself.