On The Subway Sharon Olds

First of all, this poem indicates the history of African American, which implies the author’s sense of sympathy towards her race and people. The poem says “One three centuries removed” in the first line, demonstrating the long history of how African people came to this new land hundreds years’ ago. Though African Americans could be the earliest immigrates in North America, they still attached certain humiliating labels that make them stressful and uneasy. For example, in the novel, both Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry are light-skinned black woman. We could imagine that how their ancestors, may be the poor

The structure of this poem is 3 stanzas with all the lines in the poem except Lines 9 and 15 in iambic tetrameter. In this metric pattern, a line has four pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, for a total eight syllables. The internal structure of the poem is the narrator talking about the mask the African American people wear and the oppression that hurts them. Then the second stanza is sarcastic and negative towards the idea that it will ever change. Then the last stanza shows that they cling to Christ and the journey will be long.

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

In the story, “On the subway”, the author Sharon Olds uses literary devices to help the reader get a clearer understanding of the theme of the passage. This devices are seen on the style and grammar being used in the story such as symbolism and imagery which illustrate the point of view the protagonist has towards society.

Symbolism comes more into impact when Olds portrays "the bar of his spirit" as "dull and liquid and rich" which can be viewed as unadulterated it might be said. Moreover, the storyteller suggests the issues individuals like the kid continually stand up to since they are constantly "caution under hooded covers." Olds can't make it all the more clear when she contrasts the kid and the female and the line, "And he is dark and I am white." Olds likewise actualizes subjection with the reference of "dark cotton" being dark the shade of the slaves that picked cotton for the whites.The white female understands the difference amongst her and the African American sitting before her ; Olds needs the peruser to see things in similar eyes the woman is

This Poem is about the similarities and differences between the life of a Caucasian person and an African American person. The author, Sharon olds, made this essay to compare and contrast both of them. Sharon olds uses a lot of poetic devices, imagery, and traditional racial stereotypes. Sharon uses a lot of imagery in this poem, she uses most of vividly dark and light as well as animal imagery to contrast her two characters. The whole skin of an animal taken and used shows that the boy represents the inside of an animal, and the speaker represents the outside. Sharon olds utilities a lot of racial stereotypes to show the distance between the characters that exists despite the close ties and connection that they share. In many movies the person

"On the subway" by sharon olds express the complicated relation between white and black americans. The author presents the contrasts a white person and a black person has. The speaker begins to develop apparent disparitiesso that interrelationships emerge. Old uses imagery and tone in order to prove her points.

In the poem “On the Subway” by Sharon Olds, the author uses various literature devices throughout the poem such as imagery, point of view, and tone shift. Additionally, the devices are used to tell a story about a white woman who strongly feels that she will potentially be mugged by an African American man. Furthermore, the author distributes a vibrant poem by using techniques. Furthermore, it is easier for the reader to follow along with the story. Firstly, the author decides to use imagery to describe the difference between the African American man and the white woman who board the subway together.

In the poem, it utilizes point of view to base what the traveler in the transport is encountering. " in black sneakers laced with white in a complex pattern like a set of intentional scars." The lady realizes that the whites and blacks have had their terrible history in the past as she relates the dark shoes and the white bands bringing on an issue inside the shoe. The scars being every one of the contentions between the races previously. "We are stuck on opposite sides of the car," Referring to how blacks and whites were isolated and how she additionally observes it that

This poem is just the same as the real event. This poem tells about the white woman as the speaker/narrator and the black boy as the observed. In the first stanza the author shows the comparison or the contrast between the white woman and the black boy (lines 1-13). The second stanza, the author shows the apparent disparities to that interrelationship emerges (lines 14-20) and the third stanza is about insight into how the scene is equal to American culture on a larger scale (lines 21-34).

In “On The Subway” by Sharon Old ,the poet attempts to expend the similarities and differences between whites and blacks, by contrasting two people of this description on a train throughout the poem. The poet uses literary techniques such as animal imagery and common racial stereotypes to establish her observation into the connections and separations. The poet uses animal imagery to describe the two characters, and to parade the primitive nature and similarities of the two people. In lines (9-13), “He is wearing Red, like the inside of the body exposed.

Since the beginning of time, racial distinction has brought problems within society and politics because of the worth that is placed within a person’s skin color. The poem, “On the Subway,” by Sharon Olds is a poem that serves the reader to understand the struggle and pain that has been brought within generations of those coming from African American descent, for it portrays the pain that is carried within each individual due to the suffering that they have had to endure throughout their existence. Throughout the poem, the reader can observe that there is a prominent contrast between the two people sitting in the subway. The author portrays the man as a person from the lower class, and she does this by mentioning the aspects in which he looks

The power of one race over another is a theme in Hughes’ poems that demonstrates the injustice of racial inequality. In the poem “Negro” Hughes says, “I’ve been a victim: The

Poets often bring together two bookending ideas in contrast to convey a broader view of the world. Sharon Olds is no different in “On the Subway.” In the poem, Olds places the opposites of black and white in a contained section of a much wider spectrum.

The setting is in the 1930s, at a black college in the south. also in New York city, especially Harlem. The narrator is born and raised in the American South, then ends up in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem, which is a major area of African-American culture. The narrator finds the contrast between the North and the South unbelievable—he is perplexed to find white drivers obeying the directives of a black policeman, on the subway he stresses out about being in such closeness to a white woman, and in the diner he wonders if it 's insulting to tip a white waiter. In the North, then, the narrator experiences a certain amount of unprecedented racial freedom.