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My Son The Man Poem Analysis

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I am not a father so I cannot express the love for a child. “My son the Man” is a short 16-line poem. In the poem, Sharon compares her son to Houdini and explains how he has grown up. Sharon expresses deeply about her son growing up and leaving her and it is hard for her to watch her little boy become a man. I can kind of relate to this because my mom still looks at me as if I am a little boy. “Sharon shows strong emotional feelings about how she struggles to accept her child is all grown up”. Olds memories of her son as a child, her feelings of seeing him as an adult, and her description of his realizations that he is becoming a man all convey this. She is also having a hard time realizing that her “son” is now a man and there is nothing she …show more content…

(7-10) What she is scared about is her son going into adulthood and she thinks that he is not ready for the challenges life gives you. The words “get over my fear of men” could mean that she had an abusive relationship and she needs to get over the past and learn that her little boy is a man now and he will not act like the other men she was with. Lines (10-14) show us that she is comparing her little boy going into one of Houdini’s challenges. She also believes that her son cannot make it and beat that challenge. After you really think about it you can see that her son is able to get through the challenge and escape it to be free. In the last 3 sentences Olds says “Now he looks at me the way Houdini studied a box to learn the way out, then smiled and let himself manacled”. (13-15) The son is facing a difficult obstacle and he knows that he will win this battle so he can free himself. Because the word “smiled” means that, he knows that he can get out and get his freedom and the mother knows that there is nothing she can do to stop him from freedom. I went through the same thing I had challenges I had to beat to get to where I am today, it was difficult but I managed to get past them. At first, my mom did not think I would make it this far on my own but I proved to her that I …show more content…

The poem really expresses how one mother values her son, and tells you how kids grow up to fast and she believes that her little boy cannot handle the challenges life throws at you. At the end of poem, the mom is surprised that her son learns to get out of the chains and get past the challenges he has been through. Families will always have a strong bond and it can never be broken, no matter what life throws at your family, you will always get though it and find new ways to make your relationship even stronger. Later in life as the kids get older, they learn that their mom will not always be there for you, so they start to get close with their mom and they realize all the wonderful things your mom did for you. Without being said, Sharon Olds did a good job comparing her son to Houdini, saying how he has grown up and how he is able to beat Houdini’s challenges. After reading this poem, I now realize that the love mothers have for their children is incredible even when your kids grow up and leave they will still love you no matter what

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