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On The Subway Essay

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Society has always worked to benefit the rich from the poor’s struggle “On the Subway” by Sharon Olds helps to highlight the difference and prejudice instilled to the core of individuals in society. Through the use of imagery, poetic devices, and tone she emphasizes the contrast between the two portraits in the poem. Additionally, the light and dark imagery helps to illustrate the antithesis between the portraits in the poem. For instance, the poem begins with the speaker, noticing how the “black sneakers laced with white” look like “intentional scars”. The image of the scars helps to bring back historical events like slavery. During the time, slaves were whipped by their owners and made to work until death in order to benefit the white owner’s …show more content…

For example, the “complex pattern like a set of intentional scars” is simile that can indicate that they are like physical scars that have been caused because of years of racism and slavery. Additionally, the metaphor that they stuck on “opposite sites of the car, a couple of molecules stuck in a rod of light rapidly moving through darkness” helps to show the literal antithesis between the two portraits who life on two different ends of the societal spectrum. And the fact he is wearing “red, like the inside of the body exposed” is a simile which can be a reference to blood. When slavery was still occurring, owners would whip their slaves to the point in which they bled to the point in which one could be able to see their insides as they come out as blood. The underlying message can be a reference to their past suffering therefore, highlighting the difference between both portraits story, Then, as the poem progresses she realizes she is “living off his life”(metaphor) as he “absorbs the murderous beams of the nation’s heart”(metaphor) since he has received the hatred because of his skin color, because of his social status, because of who he is and where he was born, and she enjoys a life full of ease. To summarize, the use of poetic devices emphasize the difference between the portraits’ life in terms of prejudice and

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