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Analysis Of ' My Son The Man ' By Sharon Olds

Decent Essays

Accepting Independence

Poetry is like a song without music, it has the ability to awaken your emotions and the ability to tell stories that can paint beautiful, relatable, imagery in the viewer’s mind. Upon reading the poem, “My Son the Man” by Sharon Olds, she presents a unique view on her bittersweet experience of watching her son gravitate towards manhood, “Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider” (line1), while realizing he is astute enough to escape his mother’s strong hold, “to learn the way out” (line 16). As a mother myself, I began to recognize how I can relate to the speaker’s challenges of understanding a child’s need to test limits and break free from dependency. I realized through the speaker’s obvious allusions to Houdini expressing the need to break free, the contrast used to convey the indirect references to Houdini, and the similes used to express emotion toward reflecting back on a time of innocence, accepting the need of a maturing child’s independence proves the strength of a mother’s love.
“My Son the Man” begins by comparing her maturing son with the allusion to Houdini, “Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider, /the way Houdini would expand his body/while people were putting him in chairs” (1-3), similar to Houdini preparing for his next challenge involving an almost impossible trick. Therefore, lines 1-3 is used to express the shock of a child’s rapid growth while learning to overcome the manacles of growing up, similar to the physical manacles

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