Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley, Behind Grandma's House by Gary Soto, and Manners by Elizabeth Bishop For this article I will discuss three poems. They are Wood Butcher by Norman Hindley, Behind Grandma's House by Gary Soto and Manners by Elizabeth Bishop. I will examine the common theme I found in the three poems. I have found this to be how relatives teach lessons to their relationship with a younger generation and the different approaches to their teaching. To start I'll talk about Norman Hindley's The Wooden Butcher. I think the way the father taught the son was a kind of apprenticeship. The phrase “I was your helper, and that first year we worked on weekends for much of the winter” gave me the impression that it was an experience of watching and learning rather than explaining it. Take note of how the father dealt with the mistakes his son made. “I once messed up some screens,…you broke them with a chair” I feel like it showed the negative feeling I had when I read the poem. This also makes me believe that it was an apprenticeship. For me parents, even if they get angry about something you do, don't deal with things like that. The son was trying to learn something from his father and instead of explaining and showing the son how to do it correctly or the mistakes he made, the father destroys the work. ...... middle of the paper ...... she was. Of all the poems I believe this non-violent approach was the most effective. Maybe the others worked out in the end, but the poem doesn't state it as specifically as this. In conclusion, Norman Hindley's Wood Butcher, Gary Soto's Behind Grandma's House, and Elizabeth Bishop's Manners all had a common theme. I have found this to be how relatives teach lessons to their relationship with a younger generation and the different approaches to their teaching. They each had their own teaching method and some seemed to work better than others. In the end the older relative always tried to convey some kind of message.