Invisible Children - Quote Analysis - Mariana Llanos

Question 1

Invisible children fall
through the cracks of the system
like Alice in the rabbit hole.

Answer 1

• Repeating words in title highlight the oxymoron: impossibility of children being invisible
• FALL - connotations of injury and danger, developed in third line
• Alice in Wonderland has themes of confusion, fear and abandonment, much like the lives of the street children
• Simile, literary allusion
• CRACKS IN THE SYSTEM - criticism of societies
• CRACKS - connotes to possibility of danger and harm
• SYSTEM - Implies a lack of humanity in how things are organised

Question 2

But these children won’t find
an eat-me cake or a drink-me bottle.
They won’t wake up on the lap
of a loving sister.

Answer 2

• Allusion develops in these lines, highlights that there will be no such easy escape tool available for these children
• Repetition of negative word “won’t” - life is not like a fairy tale
• Children will not attain the same happy ending as Alice does at the end of the novel
• WON’T - creates a tone of anger
• Literary allusion makes issue more interesting
• A caesura is used to close the second section of the poem, shifting focus from what these children do not have to what takes the place of a happy upbringing

Question 3

They’ll open their eyes on the hand
of a monster called Negligence

Answer 3

• Inclusion of an expanded use of personification, neglect children have to face is personified as a monster

Question 4

Who’ll poke them with its sharp teeth
and bait them with its heartless laughter,
like a wild thing in a wild rumpus

Answer 4

• Vocab chosen to highlight its fearful and cruel qualities - poke, sharp, bait
• This intensifies the tone and present the children as victims of a cruel social system
• Image concluded with a simile where monster is compared to a wild beast in a savage environment
• Repetition of “wild” describes life children have to lead
• RUMPUS - connotes to suggestions of difficult lives

Question 5

But the children won’t awake
to the smell of a warm supper,
Nor will they find a purple crayon
to draw an escape door or window

Answer 5

• In these lines, emphasises difficulties faced by children living on the streets
• Focusing on basic needs
• Uses literary allusion to a child’s book called Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crocket Johnson
• ESCAPE DOOR OR WINDOW - highlights that the children can never escape, very young, vulnerable, do not attain the happy ending that Harold does at the end of each adventure
• Llanos used allusions ironically, emphasising that children need love but are denied this

Question 6

Instead they’ll make a mirror
of a murky puddle on the city street

Answer 6

• Another caesura closes previous section, allowing her to move on to powerful conclusion
• Unfiltered account of what life was really like
• Metaphorical description of a mirror
• MURKY - grim tone

Question 7

Which won’t tell them they’re beautiful
but it’ll show their scars, as invisible to others
as these children are.

Answer 7

• Final literary allusion, Snow White, metaphor of scarring, children have both literal and psychological wounds
• Powerful conclusion, compelling, bitter criticism of treatment they receive
• INVISIBLE TO OTHERS - implication that they are not invisible but society chooses to look the other way
• Final line focuses on how they need love
• Structurally effective as ends by referencing both title and line 1 creating shock