Since its publication in 1978, Ai's thirty-two-line dramatic monologue "The Kid" has shocked and intrigued readers with its its brutal subject of a murdered family. Within the poem, the speaker, who identifies himself as a fourteen-year-old boy, methodically annihilates his family, consisting of his father, mother, sister, and their horses. On the surface, one could argue that the boy is triggered by an event that drives him crazy, perhaps his "old man" yelling at him to "help him hook up the team," (Ai 5) or his sister rubbing her "face like a doll" the mud", (1). However, there is no clear answer to the boy's mania that results in his killing spree, so the boy must not simply be mad, but rather finally free himself from the lifelong torment carried out by his mean, violent, and probably homophobic family. . In contrast to the madness, the evidence throughout the poem highlights the juxtaposition between the boy's masculinity and femininity and how there is tension between everything that doesn't properly fit within one's gender boundaries. Through a psychoanalytic reading of the poem, one could argue that the boy suffers from the Oedipus complex, in which he greatly admires his mother, identifies with her and, in a certain sense, wants to be her. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Within the poem, the boy is overwhelmed by his identification with femininity and his contempt for domineering male authority (his father) and the The broader meaning of this concept shows that if one's true self is imprisoned negative events will occur, which in the case of "The Kid" is the boy killing his entire family to escape their unacceptable and violent environment. Throughout the text, the boy's Oedipus complex is linked to his sexuality and so that he can be free metaphorically and sexually; the boy must first kill his father. In the poem, the boy fixates on his father who shouts at him, snaps and decides to kill him first with an iron rod which also serves as a phallic symbol. At the beginning of the second verse, the boy's hatred for his father is underlined: "I stand next to him, I wait, but he doesn't look up / and I hold the rod, I raise it, his skull breaks" (12- 13). The phrase “stand by him” (12) implies that the boy wishes to be equal to his father, or sees himself as equal to his father. But his father “doesn't look up” (12), which suggests that his father doesn't see his son as his equal, and also generally doesn't seem to care about his son because he ignores him. When the boy realizes the inequality between him and his father he becomes angry, forcing him to “grip the rod” (13), lift it and kill his father. For the boy, equality and acceptance are all he wants at this point in his life, but he knows that this is something he will never get from his father, which infuriates him to the point of killing him. The boy wanted his father to look him in the eye before killing him, he wanted him to know that his son was killing him because of the mistreatment, abuse and inequalities to which he was subjected. they also argue that the boy killing his father offers easier access to the mother, because the father figure will no longer monitor or control their love, which furthers the argument for the Oedipus complex throughout the play. Within the poem, the boy loves and idolizes his mother, but kills her because she was unable to keep him from abusing his father's violent masculinity. In the first stanza, there is a clear juxtaposition betweenpositive connotations with the boy's mother and negative connotations with the boy's father: "The old man shouts at me to help hook up the team, / but I keep walking around the truck, hitting harder, / until my mother calls" ( 5-7). The old man shouting for the boy has a much harsher and more masculine connotation, while the mother calling for the boy has a much more gentle and elevated connotation. Furthermore, the boy who goes around the truck “beating stronger” (6) suggests that his father's voice makes him angry, and pushes him to perform masculine and gruff tasks such as hitting a truck, a symbol of masculinity, with an iron bar, which is also a symbol of masculinity and a phallic symbol boy tries to reach his mother in her angry state: "I take a stone and throw it at the kitchen window, / but it doesn't fall" (10-11). What is particularly interesting in these lines is that the boy catches a rock, something that is considered a hard, rough, primitive and even masculine object, and throws it at the kitchen window, which is culturally associated as a feminine space. However, the obstacle “falls short” (9), which suggests that the boy's attempts to reach out to his mother and seek comfort from her are unsuccessful, thus making the boy feel completely alienated within the dynamic family. Again, there is a tension between what would be considered feminine and what would be considered masculine. The boy is literally trying to throw away or suppress the extremely masculine image that his father forced him to adopt. Since the mother was unable to save the boy from his overbearing father, she too must die so that the boy can be liberated metaphorically and sexually. Unlike the death of the boy's father, the mother's death is somewhat merciful, is less violent, and seems less vindictive. The boy kills his mother by stabbing her “through the spine as she bends over him” (15). Hitting her mother in the spine brings attention to the fact that she was spineless when it came to interacting with her husband, was in no position to challenge him and most likely suffered abuse herself. Once both mother and father are dead, the boy abandons the phallic iron rod and thus abandons his masculinity and Oedipus complex. Ai creates a tension and juxtaposition between appearance and reality regarding the extrinsic symbols and construction of the boy's masculinity/femininity. . The opening image of the poem is the boy's sister rubbing her “doll face in the mud” (1); this image triggers the contrast between the feminine beauty of the doll and the dirty and probably masculine mud that hinders the beauty of the doll. Towards the end of the second verse, the doll is mentioned again. When he leaves the house, the boy puts on his father's best suit and packs “his mother's satin nightgown / and my sister's doll” into his suitcase (28-29). The fact that the boy is wearing his father's best suit suggests that this is the image he wants the world to see, a masculine, well-dressed heterosexual male. However, just like the doll in the mud, the contents of the suitcase reveal her repressed femininity and sexuality as a whole. In her suitcase there are two very feminine objects, the nightgown and the doll. The doll symbolizes both ideal female beauty, but also childhood, from which one might infer that the boy never had a proper and pleasant childhood, and now at the age of fourteen he is desperately trying to hold on to it. On the other hand, the mother's satin nightgown, which is a strong symbol of sexualized, adult, feminine beauty..