Literary Analysis of The Victims by Sharon Olds - Paper Example

The key idea about the poetry works by Sharon Olds is the daughters reaction towards the uncaring and abusive father, from the point of view of both as a child and as an adult. Those who have come across this poem will claim that it is nothing but a confessional poet, while others will claim she is narcissistic and confessing nothing. The great deal here is that in her work she rails her relationship with her father right from the start till the end, from mistreatment to dismissal of the abuse, to the death of her father. The Victim is an outstanding example of one of the Olds' distinctive family snapshots that take how the dysfunctional family responded to the end of mishandling by the father.

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The imaginative metaphor can be seen in the poem (Line 17) when comparing the cruelty of the father to that of a bum, a man that abuses his family much will finally have nothing left, reducing him as insignificant as a homeless beggar.

The tone is imperative in portraying divorce in society. The sense of divorce is seen through the speaker's tone, due to the fact that they sense the need for their father getting punished for neglecting them. But, not till they get to know that their mother initiated their hatred. ("She had taught us to take it, to hate you and take it until we picked her for your annihilation, Father"). The tone changes immediately once they became conscious of what had occurred and developed anger towards their mother and pity towards their father. The children, who have now developed to adulthood, are watching bums and speculating as seen in line 17, ("who took it and took it from them in silence until they had given it all away and had nothing left but this.). In this line, the speaker is associating the cruel father to a bum.

Repetition has been used in the poem to put emphasis, and reminding the readers of the several people who have still suffered the same way she did.

"She took it and took it, in silence, all those years"Who took it and took it from them in silence until they had given it all away..."

The poem has also symbolism to represent the idea that they had considered their father as dead due to his absence in their lives.

"Would they take your suits back, too, those dark carcasseshung in your closet."

Symbolism and Word Choice

"Flippers, underwater, ships sinking," it symbolized the extent of the condition, to both the children and the mother, Furthermore, it symbolized how the father sunk in his catastrophic nature.

Theme: Anger and hearted

When mother divorced you, we were glad. (Line 1)

The We refers to the several children together with their mother. It seems that they all experience a hostile life with their father.

Also, in line 15; the mother taught us to take it, to hate you till there was no thought of their father within them. They had nothing to remember as the mother was in the quest to destroy their father before, turning them against him.

Alliteration

Olds applied alliteration in line 3 of the poem. kicked you out, suddenly, and her kids loved it This illustrated the time of victory when the speakers mother kicked the father out and the kids were celebrating with her. The essence of this moment is emphasized by the sound K which she used to describe it.

Work Cited

The Victims Poem by Sharon Olds - Poem Hunter. (2017). PoemHunter.com. Retrieved 25 May 2017, from https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-victims/