Contrasting Portrait In Sharon Olds On The Subway

“The Metaphor,” by Budge Wilson tells the story of a shy and embarrassed middle-schooler, turned beautiful and confident high-schooler. As Charlotte reflects on her time as an adolescent, she remembers one of her favorite English teacher who was tragically killed. Miss Hancock inspired Charlotte in more ways than one, which is why it is understandable that she felt a great deal of guilt after she was killed. Although the story does not clarify, it is quite clear that Miss Hancock’s death was not a coincidence. The school bus that takes her life was symbolic of her failures as a teacher, which affected her deeply towards the end of her life. In Miss Hancock’s case, it was what she loved the most that ended up taking the most from her.

During the entirety of the poem the speaker uses the contrast of light and dark to illustrate the divide of Caucasian and Native American in her life and the specific wording she uses throughout shows that she is ends up moving away from her white heritage’s side. We first start to see that she is upset with her white roots when she states that her mother left her with “large white breasts” that weigh down her body. This statement is quite important. With the addition of the word “white” and the use of the words “weigh down” the narrator seems to be implying that it is a burden to carry the whiteness. Also, the narrator uses specific wording in this statement in order to disassociate herself from her own white leanings since she refers to her breasts as if they were her mothers and not her own. The next time she mentions the word white comes in the third stanza. The speaker devotes an entire line to the short phrase “and is white” almost as if to single out that word in the poem and signify that being white

Sharon Olds contrasts the two different worlds of a white lady and black male throughout On the Subway. Olds utilizes plenty imagery, tone and unusual syntax to contrast opposite worlds within the white lady and the black male. Olds first creates imagery within the first couple of lines. “His feet are huge, in black sneakers laced with white in a complex pattern like a set of intentional scars.

How does he develop the simile in paragraph 5? Discuss the power of the imagery. Why does he use it?

A large portion of this poem is comparing the difference between black and white. In the poem it practically says “what if all the black is now white, and all the white is now black?”, then goes on to give some examples like “Black Presidents,

In the poem it states," I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,/I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars./I am the red man driven from the land,/I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--/And finding only the same old stupid plan/Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak." This shows how the speaker experiences hardship and is hard to achieve their American dream. In the last line, it states that they always find the same thing where there is always one person above that is pushing others down, stopping them from getting freedom their American Dream. In addition to stopping them, they were never given a chance to succeed. Which is similar to the Invisible Man because the narrator was being blocked from the dream of finishing college since he was unable to get a job. In the book it states," My dear Mr. Emerson: The bearer of this letter is a former student of ours (I say former because he shall never, under any circumstances, be enrolled as a student here again) who has been expelled for a most serious defection from our strictest rules of deportment....thus, while the bearer is no longer a member of our scholastic family, it is highly important that his severance with the college be executed as painlessly as possible." This quote is from the book when Mr. Bledsoe sent letters to stop the narrator from getting jobs. This shows how they connect since, both the speaker and narrator speak about how people are blocking them from getting to their American Dream. Where one wants freedom and the other is college , both struggle for what they want making them

The author uses imagery in the poem to enable the reader to see what the speaker sees. For example, in lines 4-11 the speaker describes to us the

Another good example of imagery is Scannell's use of metaphors. The use of metaphors in this poem helps intensify the imagination of the reader by linking objects and actions in a familiar manner. For example, the metaphor "roundabouts galloping nowhere” is used to describe the continuous motion of the carousel ride. This metaphor is very effective as it not only describes the ride in detail but also refers to the endless struggle, disappointment and dismay those who work at travelling fairs face, their lives and careers "galloping nowhere".

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-” “-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (Lee 30).

The man says something that the narrator does not like and tries to force an apology out of the man. This is what initiates the first part of racism and the thought of being invisible in the novel. The narrator endures the different types of racism through the different places he visits. Everyone expects something different of him and other African-Americans. This is how he tries finding his inner self and it just confuses him more because everyone wants something different. Another example of this is when the narrator is working for Liberty Paints in New York. The work force is primarily blacks, but the final product is white. This is ironic because their slogan is “If it’s Optic White, it’s the Right White.” There is also a sign outside of the building that reads “Keep America pure with Liberty Paints.” This is a form of racism in itself because they only produce white paint, and they say that they are keeping America pure. ”Our white is so white you can paint a chunka coal and you’d have to crack it open with a sledge hammer to prove it wasn’t white clear through” (Ellison 217). This is said by Lucius Brockway, an engineer at Liberty Paints. This can be seen as an extended metaphor between the paint making process that requires a black chemical to be added, and the whites vs. blacks at the company itself. The company seems to have primarily black workers producing the paint, but this quote goes to show that white is overpowering and that

The main observation readers could take from this poem is that the “lower” individual has to take care of and pick up after the white man. It is even hinted at that the poems the mother chant rival the alleged master of poetry’s own works.

His mothers friends would also often talk about what a burden or curse it was, to have dark skin, “…it was a woman’s spoken concern: the fear of having a dark-skinned son or daughter.” (Rodriguez 449). This displays that in his culture, people preferred light skin children over dark skin, knowing that a light skinned child would not face as much prejudice a dark skinned child would growing up. The use of symbolism

The author begins the story by using metaphors to describe the people in the story. When explaining people the

In “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury, the author uses simple, but powerful similes as a gateway to the reader understanding the setting of the story. “The Pedestrian” is the tale of a lone wandering man walking down the street at twilight. The man is then accused of being a criminal and taken back to his home, also known as “The Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies.” The similes used in the story help readers fully understand and see the setting of “The Pedestrian”.

Images in the poem reflect the difficulties of the choice the traveler faces. The difficulty is shown in the passage "long I stood" (3)