Red Balloon

Content:About Abse's life growing up as a Jew in a Welsh society, he finds a red balloon and the Welsh bos tease him as they find out that it is a 'Jew's balloon' others dislike this and want to destroy it so he has to bide inside away from them.

Themes:There is a definite conflict between religion and society, as the red balloon represents Abse's religion and freedom of expressing but that is being suppressed as he has to hide from Welsh society.

Analysis:- at the beginning of the poem Abse shows his happiness with his new toy and his excitement to play with it and his love for it, however toward the end of the poem he has to hide his new toy and not show his excitement or else he will get bullied.
- the title 'Red Balloon' is a juxtaposition as it suggests both youth and death, balloons are symbolic of youth and happiness as it shows the freedom and innocence of being young, but balloons are delicate and can be burst or can float away and be gone forever this links to later in the poem when he says its like 'living blood'
- 'over chapels, over chimney-pots' suggesting superiority.
- 'it was my shame, it was my joy' he's both ashamed and proud of being Jewish, oxymoron.
- 'the rude boys came, it ceased to be a toy' shows that this balloon means more to him than just a toy, the see it as an excuse to bully him, game.
- 'my balloon, my red balloon' shows his pride of being Jewish, the balloon symbolises his religion as he cant talk about it and it is now HIS.
- 'soared higher like a happiness towards the dark blue sky' suggests that being Jewish makes him happy, but leads him to being scared or an argument, darkness comes from him being a different religion.
- 'I boasted of my unique, my only precious' this was him before and he was proud of his beliefs but now he is ashamed.
- 'however long they swear their love' Wales as a country portray themselves as being diverse but are still racist.
- 'its a Jew's balloon, my best-friend cried' his friend, maybe also a Jew understands how Abse feels and is getting treated.
- 'it would not burst' suggests that he stands up for himself and that he is strong willed, stands strong to what he believes in.
- 'bled my nose, cut my eye' his beliefs destroy and hurt him, he gets attacked and beaten up because he won't give them the balloon but also because he is a Jew.
- 'i don't know exactly why' he doesn't know/understand why this is happening to him.
- 'brash boy return to insult my faith and steal my red balloon' sums up Abse's point about the treatment of Jews and the reaction of the Welsh