Eileen M. Cusack '00
The Red Hat
It started before Christmas. Now our son
officially walks to school alone.
Semi-alone, it's accurate to say:
I or his father track him on the way.
He walks up on the east side of West End,
we walk on the west side. Glances can extend
(and do) across the street; not eye contact.
Already ties are feelings and not fact.
Straus Park is where these parallel paths part;
he goes alone from there. The watcher's heart
stretches, elastic in its love and fear,
toward him as we see him disappear,
striding briskly. Where two weeks ago,
holding a hand, he'd dawdle, dreamy, slow,
he now is hustled forward by the pull
of something far more powerful than school.
The mornings we turn back to are no more
than forty minutes longer than before,
but they feel vastly different-flimsy, strange,
wavering in the eddies of this change,
empty, unanchored, perilously light
since the red hat vanished from our sight.
Rachel Hadas (b. 1948)
Rachel Hadas' poem "The Red Hat" is told from the viewpoint of the
parents of a young boy who begins to walk to school by himself. The
poem reveals the actions and emotions of the parents who struggle
with allowing their son to become more independent. However, this
poem is not simply a story of a boy starting to walk to school on his
own. The underlying theme is about a boy leaving the protection and
safety of his parents and entering the world to fend for himself.
Throughout the poem, we must note the parents' attitude about letting
their son go. We will learn that the parents will not let their son
go on alone until they feel satisfied that he can handle the
responsibility. Even though the son proves his capability of walking
to school, the parents still worry. When they finally let their son
continue on his on, they worry about the potential dangers in the
world. The parents will always worry, because their boy can never be
completely safe.
The process of the parents letting go of their son does not occur
overnight. Hadas writes, "It started before Christmas. Now our son
officially walks to school alone." These first two lines introduce
the focus of the poem. The remaining lines of the poem follow in a
sequential AA, BB rhyming pattern. The reader cannot know how long
the boy has been preparing to walk alone, but later in the poem,
Hadas clarifies the time to two weeks. We immediately learn that the
boy is not alone, but "semi alone", because his parents follow him
from a distance. The author uses vivid description to allow the
reader to develop a mental picture of what takes place. The boy walks
up the east side of West End, while his parents follow behind on the
west side. An understanding between the boy and his parents permits
extended glances across the street, but not eye contact. This unsaid
agreement allows the parents the opportunity to look over at their
son to check on him, and it gives the boy a chance to occasionally
look back and know that his parents are still there for him. Hadas
then writes her most unclear statement in all of the poem , "Already
ties are feelings and not fact." Perhaps the ties symbolize bonds
between the son and his parents, and these ties are emotional, rather
than factual.
In the middle of the first stanza the lines, "these parallel paths
part" interrupt the flow of the poem. Here, at Straus Park, the boy
must really separate from his parents. When Hadas write, "The
watcher's heart stretches, elastic in its love and fear, toward him
as we see him disappear, striding briskly", she introduces the reader
to one of the most significant parts of the poem. His parents, the
watchers, extend their "elastic" hearts to their son out of love and
fear as well. They look back two weeks, remembering when they held
their son's hand as they walked to school. They boy used to dawdle
and day-dream, but a notable change has occurred in the boy. He now
"hustled forward by the pull of something far more powerful than
school." This phrase requires interpretation. If the excitement of
school does not pull him, then what does? Perhaps we can determine
that the boy's emotions overpower him and cause him to rush. He could
be overwhelmed by his new independence, because he has mixed emotions
of excitement and fear.
In the second stanza, the parents reflect on the overall situation.
The new mornings where the son walks alone are, "no more than forty
minutes longer than before." This forty minute period is time when
the parents would have walked their son to school, but now remains
empty. The mornings are very different since the son has started
walking by himself. Hadas describes the mornings as, "flimsy,
strange, wavering in the eddies of this change, empty, unanchored".
The new, uncertain mornings are lost in the "eddies" of the change,
eddies literally meaning whirlpool. The mornings have become,
"perilously light since the red hat vanished from our sight." The
choice of language by Hadas is important because the word peril means
a state of imminent danger. In other words, the parents believe that
the mornings are a time where danger is likely to happen because they
can no longer see his red hat. We see the significance of the title
here, because the boy wears a red hat. We understand that the parents
identify their boy by his red hat, so the hat symbolizes their son.
When the parents can no longer see his red hat, they realize they
have temporarily lost him to the world.
When taken literally, this poem is merely a tale of a young boy
learning to walk to school on his own and his parents' concern over
letting him go. In order for parents to let their child go off into
the world, they must be sure that their child will look both ways
before he crosses the street, and that he does not talk to strangers.
Although the poem omits the specifics, the reader assumes that the
parents watch their son to make sure that he is ready for the
responsibility of walking alone. When the parents feel confident that
their son is cautious, they are comfortable when they truly let him
go. This poem symbolizes the boy's first time alone in the world, he
gets his first taste of freedom.
This poem is intriguing because we see things from the parental
perspective. Typically, a poem of this subject is told from the
child's viewpoint, detailing how they felt the first time they were
on their own. The mother and father take turns following their son
halfway to school. We must wonder what makes them stop at the park,
and accept the fact that the road diverges. When the boy reaches the
park, he continues the rest of the walk by himself. Even though the
parents cannot physically go on, their hearts extend with their child
to protect him. The boy's red hat disappears into the day, while his
parents stay behind.