Setting aside their own personal convictions, children many times compromise their principles in an effort to please their parents. The internal struggle between what is right and what is expected often clouds the minds of many adolescents. Thus, during an era that promotes racism and discrimination, a young man's choice to kill may not be his own. In the poem "Dining Room, 1811," Katie Bickham uses various literary techniques such as imagery, tone, and allusions to expose the horrific consequences of slavery and the inequality among men and women. Bickham uses imagery to persuade the reader to take place in the atmosphere of the characters in the poem. Graphic imagery is used to help the readers understand what the setting was actually like: "They drove the heads of the last set onto pikes at the levee (21). Bickham also uses a sense of smell, "The gunpowder stench from the sleeves of his fine militia jacket still hung heavily on his side of the table, even after Adellaide (the slave) had washed it twice  (1), which can also be imagery, to help us know that he may have just got done shooting a weapon and no matter how many times the salve may wash the jacket the stench will remain. Towards the end, in the sixth stanza, the boy starts to become tense " The son flexed his shoulders until the seams tensed. He wished the smell would wash out. " A fine thing, he echoed  (22-24). The author uses tone to bring forth the opposing feelings of slaves, their masters, and children during slavery days. The wife and daughter weren't really aware of everything that was going on; they were lost in the conversation between the husband and son. As the father started to talk about the trials he states that trials are fines thing, the boy starts to become tense and scared " A fine thing, he echoed.  (24). As the little sister starts to ask question, the brother wishes that no one answers her question, " Who ran away? Asked his small sis