Just Another Poetry Response

            "The Victims" by Sharon Olds is a longer poem about the speaker talking to their father. At the start of the poem the speaker says, "When Mother divorced you, we were glad" (1). By only reading the first line of Olds' poem you can clearly tell that this is a story about a child and a father. As I continued to read the poem I noticed that the speaker hated their father just as much as their mother did. I felt like this happened because the mother wanted her kids to hate their father. You notice this when the speaker says, "She had taught us to take it, to hate you and take it / until we pricked with her for your / annihilation, Father" ( 15-17). In these lines, I can clearly tell that the mother wanted her kids to hate their father so that the mother can eventually get a divorce. As stated by the speaker earlier in the poem, the speaker, and their siblings were finally happy as their father left only because the mother helped to nurture that hatred.
            Later on, in Olds' poem you can notice a meaning shift from the speaker. The first half of the poem the speaker was talking about their hatred for their father and how the speaker was happy when he left. The second half of the poem the speaker goes to talk about their own self and how they realized just exactly what their father's life was like. This meaning shift happens in lines 16 - 18 when the speaker says, "until we pricked with her for your / annihilation, Father. Now I / pass the bums in doorways".


"The Victims" By Sharon Olds