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Analyzing Sharon Olds 'Poem The Victims'

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"The Victims," by Sharon Olds, is a poem about a tumultuous relationship with their father. Olds uses realistic imagery and symbolism to produce a significant shift of tone about the speaker's perspective of her relationship with the father. As the speaker reflects the abuse that they have faced, the poem explores the theme of abuse by detonating how tone may be utilized as a technique to depict the feelings that have been repressed for so long. The emotions of the family are now being understood with the strength and diction used to project the voices of individuals who are mistreated.

The beginning part of the poem, the speaker recollects the mental punishment and abuse that the family has received from their father. Olds uses realistic imagery to show the amount of violence that they have endured such as “She took it and took it, in silence, all those years and then kicked you out, suddenly, and her kids loved it.” This shows how after all of the mental abuse they have faced, they are fighting back by showing happiness of the presence of the father who was in their homes in their minds. The imagery sets a tone of fear that they once faced and then reclaiming their power by forcing the abuser out of the home. …show more content…

Through the use of symbolism the relationship is systemic of the challenges that victims feel and how they endure so much trauma just with the mere presence of an individual. The family is experiencing the joys and happiness of letting go and breaking free from the grip that the father had around the

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He explains his guilt that “burns like acid in [his] veins” as the leftover feelings from his childhood remain “as though [he] were still concealing the family shame” (744). This descriptive language showcases how deeply and painfully this trauma has been within in as he has made his own life for himself. He saves this for the end of his essay so that he does not pull too much of the audience’s sympathy from other people who made need it “more.” He introduces the topic of physical violence by writing that “[his] own father never beat [them]” (740)—a curious phrase as he goes on to say that the image was so vivid in his mind that it felt tangible and real. There is an emphasis on the absence of physical violence, but also an admittance of how the threat of such can be just as painful and imprint such images on the brain for years to come.

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The poem has actually expressed the casual behavior of society towards abuse victims. People only use words as an expression but do not come for actual help. Nobody claims to be there for the victim instead they keep on carrying meaningless conversations which are not aimed in actually bettering off the conditions of the abuse victims. The word ‘Poem’ expresses the same notion of just using words but offering no help for the injured bodies.

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In “The Victims”, a poem by Sharon Olds, the narrator gives a recount of their feelings when their parents got divorced, but the main victim in the story is the narrator. Spousal abuse is common in this poem, since her mother “took it and took it in silence, all those years and then kicked you out, suddenly, and her kids loved it” (1-4). It is implied that the father beat his wife and kids, so it makes sense for them to be happy once they are freed of abuse by their parent’s divorce. That event, the divorce, is an action taken by the mother that saves her and her kids’ lives, while acting as a form of revenge, as “[they] were tickled to think of [the father’s] office taken away, [ his] secretaries taken away, [his] lunches with three double

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Despite all the horrors that they face, the small family shares a deep connection. This allows for meaning and value in their lives amid all the suffering and pain. The existence of this relationship makes the struggle worthwhile. Many of the days the man and boy spend together they are working toward a common goal, the man teaching the boy about many things and the kid teaching his father to not leave the other good guys behind. For example, he coerces his father into giving food to an old, nearly blind man.

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