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Analyzing Sharon Olds 'Poem The Victims'

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"The Victims," by Sharon Olds, is a poem about a tumultuous relationship with their father. Olds uses realistic imagery and symbolism to produce a significant shift of tone about the speaker's perspective of her relationship with the father. As the speaker reflects the abuse that they have faced, the poem explores the theme of abuse by detonating how tone may be utilized as a technique to depict the feelings that have been repressed for so long. The emotions of the family are now being understood with the strength and diction used to project the voices of individuals who are mistreated.

The beginning part of the poem, the speaker recollects the mental punishment and abuse that the family has received from their father. Olds uses realistic imagery to show the amount of violence that they have endured such as “She took it and took it, in silence, all those years and then kicked you out, suddenly, and her kids loved it.” This shows how after all of the mental abuse they have faced, they are fighting back by showing happiness of the presence of the father who was in their homes in their minds. The imagery sets a tone of fear that they once faced and then reclaiming their power by forcing the abuser out of the home. …show more content…

Through the use of symbolism the relationship is systemic of the challenges that victims feel and how they endure so much trauma just with the mere presence of an individual. The family is experiencing the joys and happiness of letting go and breaking free from the grip that the father had around the

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