The Victims by Sharon Olds - 956 Words

In â€Å"The Victims† by Sharon Olds it describes a divorce through the eyes of the parents’ children. The first section is shown through past tense as the speaker is a child and the last section is shown in present tense with the speaker already being an adult trying to make sense of past events. The word â€Å"it† in the first two lines carries a tremendous weight, hinting at the ever so present abuse and mistreatment, but remaining non-specific. The first part generates a negative tone toward the father who is referred to as malicious by the mother who â€Å"took it† from him â€Å"in silence† until she eventually â€Å"kicked him out.† Through the entirety of the poem the children are taught to hate their father. Who taught them? Their mother showed them that their father was a villain and were taught to have no sympathy for him but â€Å"to hate you and take it† and so they did so. Although the poem never directly states what the father did to receive the family’s hated, the speaker gives examples as to why he is hated. There are several examples of the why the children hated the father besides the mother’s instigation. Examples like the father having an affair (â€Å"your secretaries†) or could have been an alcoholic (â€Å"your lunches with three double bourbons†), but he undoubtedly took advantage of his power and his kids â€Å"grinned† at his calamity like they did when President Nixon resigned (â€Å"Nixon’s helicopter lifted off the South lawn the for the last time†). In the second and last section, the tenseShow MoreRelatedThe Victims, And The Clasp, By Sharon Olds2450 Words   |  10 Pagesâ€Å"The Victims†, â€Å"The Unborn†, and â€Å"The Clasp†, Sharon Olds demonstrates her ability to portray real life problems through generalized speech to show family problems that lead to unhappiness. Throughout these poems, she makes the reader empathize with her and feel as if the poem is speaking directly to them instead of it being ju st the situations that she has gone through. In order to achieve this, Olds uses an honest tone to portray her common theme of pain by aloneness, abuse and loss. Sharon OldsRead More The Victims Essay1216 Words   |  5 PagesThe process of addressing memories of private suffering within â€Å"The Victims† by Sharon Olds is implied through contradictive perspectives. In the poem there is a shift in focus and tone during line 17. The poem addresses issues of suffering from two distinct perspectives, the first coming from a little girl and the second a grown woman. The narrative, imagery and diction are different in the two contrasting parts of the poem, and the second half carefully qualifies the first, as if to illustrateRead MoreA Child Called It By David Pelzer1228 Words   |  5 Pageshim and hurt him in such a way that she left him almost dead in several occasions. Sharon olds wrote a series of poems that all seemed to link up together after reading them consecutively. I go back to May 1937 is dealing with changing her existence, Little things is about focusing on enjoying small things, and my father speaks to me from the dead is about her fathers abuse. The author of these poems Sharon Olds grew up in San Francisco California with a very similar past to that of David PelzerRead MoreEssay on Biography of Charles Manson 1359 Words   |  6 Pagesand most of the members that participated in the murders were tried and sentenced by 1971. Charles Maddox was born November 12, 1934 in Cincinnati, Ohio. 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TheRead MoreAnalysis Of My Papa s Waltz By Theodore Roethke963 Words   |  4 Pageswe will discuss the archetype of an actual father figure in poetry and the usual uses of one in two different poems from two different authors. The first poem we will venture into is â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz† by Theodore Roethke, the other is â€Å"The Victims† by Sharon Olds. Each describe a father figure and the relationship between the narrator and his father which is in turmoil. We’ll explore in some lengthy detail about the archetype of a bad father and the narrator’s take on them. Starting with â€Å"My PapaRead MoreLove As a Theme In a Poem Essay899 Words   |  4 Pagessources that move the world, and poetry is not an exception, this shows completely the feelings of someone. In â€Å"Litany† written by Billy Collins, â€Å"Love Poem† by John Frederick Nims, â€Å"Song† by John Donne, â€Å"Love† by Matthew Dickman and â€Å"Last Night† by Sharon Olds navigate around the same theme. Nevertheless, they differ in formats and figurative language that would be compared. For this reason, the rhetoric figures used in the poems will conduct us to understand the insights thought of the authors and theRead More Love and Lust in Play-By-Play, Sex without Love, and Junior Year Abroad867 Words   |  4 PagesPlay-By-Play, Sharon Olds gives the same feeling of lust in Sex without Love. The narrator of the story lusts to be one of the people who can freely have sex with another person and most importantly carry no emotional attachm ents. At first, one might see the work as condemning people who have sex without being in love; but after further review, one can see how Olds really portrays these people. She describes them as being ...Beautiful as dancers,/ gliding over each other like ice skaters (Olds 838);Read MoreIn American society, the common stereotype is that the father has the role of the dominant figure800 Words   |  4 PagesIn American society, the common stereotype is that the father has the role of the dominant figure in the household. Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds may come across as two seemingly different poets, however, they are really quite similar, especially in their driving forces behind their writing styles in poetry. The lives of Plath and Olds are both expressive of the realities of a father-dominated family, in which both of these poets lost their fathers at a young age. This is significant because bothRead MoreThe Grapes Of Wrath By John Steinbeck1579 Words   |  7 Pagesof Rose o f Sharon demonstrates how loss can effect an individual’s personal beliefs. As the journey to California commences, Rose of Sharon’s pregnancy is the most significant trait her character holds. As Steinbeck alludes, she is â€Å"pregnant and careful. Her hair, braided and wrapped around her head, made an ash-blond crown† (95), through the use of visual imagery, Steinbeck suggests that Rose of Sharon thinks of herself highly. The reference to a â€Å"crown† suggests that Rose of Sharon expects royal