The Rake: concrete image

For my concrete image, I chose (what else?) the rake. It's a perfect symbol and representation for this story. The most obvious relationship between the rake and the story is, of course, the harshness of the rake. But as we read the title, "The Rake: A Few Scenes from My Childhood", we don't sense any harshness at all. It's funny how titles can be somewhat misleading. It would have made more immediate sense to call it something like " The Rake: A Story of my Harsh, Painful Childhood." Before I began reading, I was of the opinion that the story would be comprised of little more than a few amusing anecdotes about boyhood. I never expected to read a narrative capable of penetrating the skin/emotions in such a way. In addition to being harsh, another feature of the rake, of course, is its ability to both gather and separate. All families exhibit this two-sided quality, and it is the parents' choice as to whether the family will be brought together or torn apart. The fact that a literal rake ends up being responsible for the family's further estrangement at the end of the story leaves the reader with the bitter of taste of irony in his mouth, and also presents a sort of metaphysical depth to the content.