Duality In 'My Son, My Executioner'
In “My son, my executioner” by Donald Hall and Sharon Olds’ “35/10,” both speakers explore the duality of life and death and how their children serve as a reminder of their mortality. In “My son, my executioner,” the speaker acknowledges that the birth of his son is also the coming of their deaths. The father holds his son in his arms and shows an understanding that this cycle is inevitable: We twenty-five and twenty-two,
Who seemed to live forever,
Observe enduring life in you And start to die together. (Hall 9-12)
The speaker accepts the realization with grace, happy that his son’s life is beginning despite the knowledge that his own is ending. However, In Olds’ “35/10” the mother’s acceptance of her mortality is tinged with
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