Comparing On The Subway, By Sharon Olds And The South By Langston Hughes

In the poems, “On the Subway” by Sharon Olds and “The South” by Langston Hughes, we seem many similarities in their themes and styles of writing. In Sharon Olds’ poem we see the presence of racial issues and how the Caucasian woman and the African American boy are both afraid of each other for different reasons. She talks about both white power and black power and the ways they affect the lives of her main characters in the poem. She uses symbolism when describing the woman and the young man when she says he is wearing red which could reference that he is in a gang and saying he has hooded eyelids makes him come across as sneaky and also fitting the mugger description she is talking about. Olds then describes that the woman is wearing an old fur coat and that tells us that she

The poem is about the struggles one man has with his family when he is trying to decide if he should move North to get away from the racism of the South. He talks about how the South has “blood on its mouth,” symbolizing its past with slavery and the way they have always treated African Americans. He says that the South is “beautiful, like a woman, seductive as a dark-eyed whore,” which means he is attracted to the South and he loves the comfort he feels there because it is his home. However, the South spits in his face and turns her back on him even though he loves it there, but he isn’t welcome because of his skin color. He thinks the North might be a “kinder mistress,” more pleasant and welcoming, even though racism is present in the North just as much as in the South. In the North racism is more subtle and not in your face like in the South. The man just wants to escape the spell of the South and get away from the long history and constant poor treatment that they have to deal with