Cartoon Physics, part 1

The stanzas and examples in Nick Flynn’s poem, “Cartoon Physics, part 1,” creates a child-like and suspenseful tone that allows the readers to understand the importance of a child’s imagination and ignorance. The stanzas are in a pattern of three lines, one line, two lines, and one line. This creates a constant flow that leaves the reader in the suspense a child might be in to find out more about the world, like the reader wants to read more about the subject of the poem. The examples of the kind of knowledge a kid should have is created by comparing their knowledge to that of the impossible physics of a cartoon. Kids should think that anything is possible, such as running “into a burning house” or drawing “a door on a rock.” Flynn is creating this suspense to find out more information to point out that kids know everything that they need to know and that for kids, this quality of being naive is good and healthy.