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On The Subway Literary Devices

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People think in many different things compared to others. One may think that an object is pretty and others may think that it is ugly. Just like picking clothes to wear. Everybody has their way of dressing and it is just the same way of thinking. In On The Subway, the author Sharon Olds presents us different perspectives about a lady in a subway thinking she might get molested by a black man. She uses poetic devices such as tone, imagery, and organization to make us feel her fear. To begin with, the author uses imagery throughout the story to convey the difference between light and darkness. It helps the author be very clear when writing his story to help the reader understand what’s going on in the story. It helps the reader get a picture …show more content…

These poetic devices are used two let the reader understand the contrast between two different people. Throughout the story Sharon Olds presents us different kind of metaphors and similes. For example, lines 4-6 the narrator says, “ we stand in opposite sides of the car”, which this means that they can be in opposite sides of the subway, but the narrator also means it literally since the black boy is black and the girl is white. As well as their financial status. The black boy is poor while the lady is rich or has more money than him. Later o in the passage in lines 28-31, the narrator describes the danger he can cause to her as,” he could take so easily and break across his knee like a stick the way his own back is being broken”. The narrator lets us know how easy it is for him to make her suffer and steal from her or even make her life miserable. She lets us see how much stronger the black boy is against her, making us realize she has no defenses to help her. The use of poetic devices in “On the Subway” is contrasting the boy and the other man, one presenting poverty and the other rebellious. Lastly, tone is used in “On the Subway” to let us feel the subject in the story. The story is written in first person point of view. The tone is gloomy and a combination of prosperity and the end. We can tell this because of the way the author wrote the story. Sharon Olds uses I for most

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