Michael April 10, 2003

Multi-Genre Essay

Innocence and growing up are inevitable events that take place in ones life. In someone’s life negative events seem to have long lasting impact on that person, causing them to lose their innocence. In the monologue "Sex and Death till the age of 14" written Spalding gray, the main character is faced with hard decisions and events in his life. The song "Cleaning out my Closet" by Eminem (a rap artist), writes the song as a way to express his childhood with a mother that never cared for him, and never loved him the way an ordinary mother could for her child.

"Sex and Death till the age of 14," a humorous story of a child with many adventures leading up to his teenage years, is filled with experiences and memories that will make up his life. The story starts off by explaining his environment and his way of life in the town that he lives in. He moves on to explain how the boy doesn’t know the meaning of death. The author uses World War II as a reference to the death in the situation. The boy being young doesn’t grab the concept of losing a friend or fellow peer in his society. In the monologue, the boy has a large number of pets and animals, and in the story every one of the pets seem to die after a short period. The boy only understands the loss of his pets and animals that he owned and knew of. The monologue also expresses a theme of sex. The boy is encountered with numerous forms of sex and also subliminal messages that link it to sex and any type of it. He grasps the meaning of sex from his fellow "female" friends. He assumes and tries to piece to gather a childhood thought of sex.

People think of books and novels as a perfect way of expressing life, and how ones "loss of innocence" can occur, but songs and there lyrics can also make a huge impact on how people look at life. For example, the song "Cleaning out my Closet" written and sang by Eminem, holds a new meaning of loss of innocence. He speaks of how his family was separated. He expresses this by explaining how his parents loss their sense of self-control over themselves. He speaks of how his mother used to do drug right before his eyes as he was a child. He explains the way his mother used to steal out of people’s pocketbooks just so she can afford to buy more drugs.