Literary Analysis: Castigated

Vincentt Jesse Nunez Khyll Shanne Guerrero ENG 10, Teacher Jeanille Cogtas Quarter 3 Literary Analysis Paper March 1, 2020

Castigated: On Domestic Abuse Most situations that result in family problems come from the relationship between the child and parents. The sonnet, Castigated, written by Jeanille C. Cogtas in 2019, is very astonishing because it speaks of the abusive relationship in a family and focuses on the part of the child.

A man I know was a victim of domestic abuse. A childhood should hold the best memories but instead of good ones, he got scars, pain, suffering, torment, and nightmares of the past implanted in his innocent days. He told me stories like remembering the fear of going home because his father used to beat him, drag him, tie him and even chained him in a post. His dad poured all his anger in life onto him. He experienced abuse, after abuse to the extent he questioned life on why he was abused by a father and what he did to deserve this form of punishment. Traumatic events of his childhood made him swear a promise that he’ll never lay a finger on his children for he knows the pain is what the pain is like.

Each one of us never had the chance to choose our desired family. We were born by choice, but we never had the opportunity to agree to be born in this miserable world in the first place. It is just sad to think about that some children are born in a house with people whom are labeled as family but feels nothing like home

The sonnet also refers that everyone has a breaking point, regardless how patient one can be but, once they are pushed to the limit, one may be unable to hold for long and let their emotions take thrall of themselves. Not everyone who is patient can hold unto themselves for a long time. People with long patience towards matters tend to react immensely whenever they run out of patience for some emotions that are buried in tension to rise back up and everything that was saved will eventually be poured out.

Parents hitting is a normal way of disciplining a child, but this sometimes led to the parent constantly hitting the child or children on small matters. Making this disciplining act a form of abuse without noticing it.

The rhyme scheme of this sonnet follows the standard Shakespearean rhyme scheme which is ababcdcdefefgg. The meter of the sonnet is an iambic pentameter with a masculine ending. It followed a strict 10-syllable per line but the 14th line only consisted of 8 syllables.

The speaker of the sonnet is a child who felt immense pain physically and emotionally due to the pain, suffering and wounds he experienced and scars that are left of the past. And thought about how little he looks at himself.

The tone of the sonnet is sad because of the grieving child, who is so innocent and pure and knows nothing of the world just to feel emotionless and numb.

The theme is about a helpless child who is a victim of domestic abuse who cannot do anything but endure and suppress his feelings and emotions thinking that the world is full of nothing but pain.

The exposition of the sonnet talks about abuse experienced by a child coming from their parents.

The metaphor expressed by the poem talks about how abuse can affect a child’s thinking and feelings. Also, it can affect how they perceive life.

The twist is when the victim of abuse cannot endure the pain he felt, so he stands up and fights for himself with the buried emotions inside him planted by the actions of his parents.

The couplet expressed by the poem is disciplining your child is acceptable but reaching to the extent that it turns into abuse is just wrong for the feelings the child might feel towards the parents is only hatred and nothing more.

The poet argues that the parent should not take advantage of beating the child over small matters and use them as punching bags to pour your anger in, this might mold the child’s mind or thinking into something worse such as self-doubt.

The poet concludes that not everything you thought will turn out what you hope for such as parents beating their children which they thought is out of love but can be foreseen by the children as hatred coming from them.

Line 1 and 2, the child is indirectly comparing his limbs to grow into something that is numb, and the parched whip is describing the whip to be thirsty of something. The whip is used to afflict hurt. Just like in the Past times, Kings or any high positioned people will use whip to make sure their slaves obey them, they do this as a form of threat and unjust order. Too much whipping can cause that person to bleed out. So, the whip is parched and for blood. Since the child is whipped by a form of a tool, he wishes that his limbs would no longer ache due to those whipping and to be numb.

Line 3 and 4, let’s put this in a situation. I have cup A which is empty and cup B that is full of hot coffee, the child is cup A while cup B is the parent. The hot coffee in cup B represents

anger, stress, problems, the coffee in cup B is poured to cup A. Cup A is now going to be instilled with hot coffee and cup B is going to be empty. Cup B was immediately kept away to be washed and leaving cup A with hot coffee. Sooner or later the coffee will be cooling off and will still be there unless it is poured on top of something else and once that coffee is poured it will now be cold which signifies cold emotions.

Once a parent pours all of his anger to an innocent child it will be stored in the child’s heart and once that child dwells in that emotions, that person tends to pass down the feeling but in a different state and making it a chain reaction towards child-parent issues.

Line 5 and 6 he wishes himself to have the same traits of a stump which is stiff and unwavering no matter what happens. Saying that he’s better off being a stump for it is useless and knows that it won’t be anything useful. People tend to do things to a stump like sit on it, carve on it, even draw on it. But a stump never complains, for it does not feel anything nor care about what happens for it is dead.

Line 7 The author of the poem immediately approached the male figure disregarding the female figure making it sound a little bit feminist. Although it’s quite ironic, the male figure mentioned in the poem settles for less instead striving for the best when that’s how man should be. It is possible that the author immediately approached the male figure for he/ she influenced by biblical knowledge, for in the Bible the word “man” or “he” is used to generalize the human race.

Line 8 The word “it” refers to the stump and the fact that a stump is a dead tree's severed lower half and is useless for it no longer grows back to a tree. As metaphorically mentioned, he

felt dead inside which explains the fact that he’s calling himself an “it” rather than a person. He is degrading himself as worthless as a stump.

Line 9 The term silent represents a figure who quietly owns a voice of its own and warns everyone once that happens.

Hence the quote by Stephen Hawking, “ The silent ones have the loudest minds”, for they keep a stall of their emotions which is also surreal to think about, silence is meant to be silent and when you say the word it’s as if you're breaking its meaning, kind of paradoxical.

Line 10 metaphorically said, it refers to being suppressed and trying himself to not lose within the surging emotions inside him. Emotions that were marked within him.

Line 11 the speaker meant about losing his patience after enduring the pain and being suppressed for too long. He, the speaker, has now come to his breaking point where he does not want to suffer any longer.

Line 12 it was mentioned that he wished his limbs to be numb, however now that he lost his grip, and emotions surged through him like an electricity, he has now obtained the power to fight and defend himself. Making that once defenseless, powerless child, stood up for himself and will no longer remain defenseless.

Line 13 and 14, they thought beating a child is a discipline that is out of love however without them knowing that in the point of view of the child, they see it as out of hatred and anger. This is also a form of the psycho-analytical approach. If you think about it, punishing a child physically was influenced by the Spaniards during the time they conquered the Philippines.

Parents say that hitting is one way of disciplining out of love. But what about the child not knowing why they are being punished for some parents barely explaining things to their children.

Parents tend to have this mindset of “my child my rules” which is totally wrong because they think they are entitled to do anything which they think is right.

This sonnet relates to every person out there who are victims of domestic abuse. People longing the feeling of just stopping the pain that was given but never asked for, to remove the planted words of hate and actions before it blooms into a deadlier bearing. You never got the chance to choose your family. And to be in this form of a family makes you question what you could have done to deserve this pain and suffering. Each one of us was taught to respect our parents at all cost. But what if they don’t deserve the respect they want?

The author of this sonnet made this piece not based on her imagination but based on her experience. She was raised by an apathetic father with an abusive mother who had six more children. She knows the exact pain forms of abuse. But the good thing of having these types of parents is that you can form an unbreakable bond with your siblings for you know they got your back and you got theirs. And as soon as she had the power to fight back, she never skipped that opportunity.

Researchers say that there is a tendency where the oldest sibling tries to protect his/her younger siblings. This results in the younger siblings making a parent image out of the oldest sibling.

This sonnet is recommended for every parent out there. Reading this poem might give you a sudden realization that your child/ children have feelings too. And that those so-called”

actions” are sometimes done not by heart but by their emotions. Before the child whom you beat up due to love, ends up despising you for the rest of their life.

This is also recommended to the victims of domestic abuse. Stand up for yourself. If your parents never defended you, then no one else will because parents are supposedly the ones’ who shall protect you while you’re in a feeble state and mold your mind for the better. But never lose respect for them despite what they have done to you. They might have hurt you but no matter how much you despise them; they are still your parents. If your heart can’t do so, at least respect them as a person.

Works Cited Cogtas, Jeanille. (2018, December 3). “How to Write a Critical Analysis of a Sonnet”. Retrieved from https://jeanillec.blogspot.com/search?q=Critical+analysis&m=1 Hamby, Sherry. (2015, July 21). “Why Can Domestic Violence Get Passed From Parent to Child.” Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-webviolence/201507/why-can-domestic-violence-get-passed-parent-child Simkin, John. (2014, August). “Whipping of Slaves.” Retrieved from https://spartacus-educational.com/USASwhipping.htm “Topical Bible: Mankind.” (n.d.) Retrieved from https://biblehub.com/topical/m/mankind.htm (2019, June 7). “Violence against children”. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/violence-against-children