Notes

In the poems a barred owl and the history teacher the adults provide explanations for children in both similar and different ways. While one adult explanation includes the use of personification and has a positive efffect, the other twists real life events into something that is barely a possible occurrence with the use of exaggeration and with irony. The questions posed by the children are answered by the adults in different ways, and the impact of their explanations are different in each poem.

In the poem, a barred owl, an adult is faced with the situation of calming a childs fear after they were woken by an owls call. The adult decides to personify the owl in a way that convinces the child of its harmlessness and makes is seem like the owl was trying to talk to the child. Through the use of personification, the adult gives the owl characteristics that are less scary to the child. Although the personification of the owl is a lie, the child is convinced and is able to fall asleep. Unlike the History Teacher’s explanation, this one uses personification and helps the child.

In the poem, the history teacher, an adult finds himself trying to explain advanced historical events in the simplest way possible to rule out any angst. While the adult chooses his answers wisely, they are not truthful and are not good for the children. The children do not get any legitimate information about the occurrences that happened in the past. The teacher is likely trying to preserve the innocence of the children. The author uses irony at the end of the poem, when the teacher is happily walking home, while the children are bullying eachother at school. This use of irony shows that the teachers lies about historical events are not good for the children.

Both a barred wl and the history teacher are written to eliminate fears and preserve the innocence in children of scary situations. In both poems, the adults shield the truth from children. They do this in order to quell the fears of the children. Although both poems use lies, the techniques used to lie are different in either poem. Also, the children are affected by the lies in different ways. A barred owl’s lie uses personification, while the history teacher’s uses exaggeration. In addition, the lie in a barred owl is beneficial to the child, while the use of irony at the end of the history teacher conveys to the reader that the lie did not benefit the children.