Who Is The Protagonist In On The Subway

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In “On the Subway”, by Sharon Olds, there are two characters that are complete opposites from each other in every aspect. Race, gender age, and even financial stability are differences in these two characters. They are from two polar opposite places in the world. The poem consists of contrasting the races and appearances of the characters, one being the speaker, and the other, the individual the speaker is describing to the reader. In “On the Subway”, the speaker retells her encounter with a person she had never seen before on a subway. While on this subway, she realizes she is sitting next to, compared to the speaker, a darker skinned male. Obviously, his race is bothersome to the speaker due to the fact that she begins to attain stereotypical