A Complete Turnaround Essay -- essays research papers

A Complete TurnaroundSharon Olds poesy, The Victims, deals with an underlying musical composition of abuse. Olds illustrates this theme through the t ace of the poem, which is achieved by imagistic language, rhyme and rhythm. In this poem the speaker is illustrated through two points of view, first as a child then as an adult reflecting back on a troublesome childhood experience. As the speakers point of view changes so does the use of poetic devices.The poem opens with the speaker remembering the behaviors of an abusive father when she was a child. The t adept at this point was one of disgust, hatred, spite, and taking joy in her fathers failures. This was due to the fact that she was taught to feel this way by her mother. As a child she was not aware of this. It was not until adulthood that she agnize her feeling of resentment towards her father were evoked by her mother. The speaker, herself, was not the victim of her fathers abusive behavior nonetheless she still hated him be cause thats the only way she knew how to feel. These feelings are shown through the imagistic language used to reveal the acts of revenge on the father. When the mother finally divorced the father, her kids loved it (3-4). When the father was blast from his job, we grinned inside (5-6). The pleasure that the entire family took watching their fathers demise was quite vivid. We were tickled to think of your office taken away, youre secretaries taken away (7-9). The decisiveness of the fathers loses was shown by the taking away of his pencils and reams of paper at his job (11). The images used in the first 16 lines are very puritanic and gloomy and are associated with death. This is as if to represent the familys way of killing him through his loses. The suits that belonged to the father were depicted as dark carcasses that hung in your closet (13) and Olds specifically pointed out that even the noses of his shoes were black (14). After the first 16 lines of the poem, the feelings o f hated by the spea... ...poem reflects the speakers dissent and hatred of her father. She was expressing her anger, and when one is angered they t give notice to speak abruptly and choppy. As the speakers attitude towards her father changes, so does the punctuation in the poem. From line seventeen until the end of the poem there are no stops. There is only one period and that occurs in line 26. The poem definitely proceeds at a smoother pace. It shows that the speaker is calmer, and more relaxed. Her words flow together. Her feelings of rage and resentment to her father have subsided and feelings of sympathy and remorse have taken over. During the course of this poem the speaker has done a complete turnaround. The point of view she once held as a child has given way to a different one later in life. Her anger and hatred have turned into sympathy and regret. Olds effectively uses imagistic language and rhyme and rhythm to portray the speakers hawk in tone. What she was taught as a child was not who she truly felt inside. Not only was her mother a victim, but her father was as well. She is qualified to overcome her hatred, and find her true feelings for her father later in life.