Michael+Ren's+DEJ

They think I’m a “tender, down-ruffled little bird” (144), “A small animal at bay, silent, eyes gleaming” (142), A mere child. A weak helpless creature. They know nothing. Understand nothing.

This stanza serves to reveal the adults’ view of Noboru as a weak, powerless being as well as Noboru’s mockery of the adult’s false perspective of himself. In the eyes of the adults, Noboru is nothing but a “tender, down-ruffled little bird”, a “small animal, silent, eyes gleaming”. “Tender” creates the feeling that Noboru is soft and therefore fragile while “small” and “little” portray him as insignificant and powerless. In addition, “silent” contributes to Noboru’s lack of power as he cannot speak for himself, instead he is limited to “gleaming” “eyes”, only able to observe, not interfere. Moreover, the adults consider him a “mere child”, “a weak helpless creature.” Again “mere” and “weak” serve to portray Noboru’s lack of importance and toughness whereas “helpless creature” creates the image of Noboru as a prey doomed to be hunted down, thus further highlighting his powerlessness. In response Noboru mocks the adults, thinking that “They (adults) know nothing, Understand nothing.” The “nothing” exaggerates the small amount of knowledge the adult’s possess and the repetition of two phrases with similar meaning (know and understand) serves to emphasize this ignorance. Throughout this stanza, it is made clear that the adults consider Noboru as insignificant and soft, which is a belief that Noboru himself mocks.