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Sharon Olds is a well-known American poet who writes about family, sex, and feminist.

Most of her meaningful poems that have been written were based on her real life. The poems

My Son the Man, Still Life in Landscape, and Space Heater are some of the examples as

we can be clearly seen how these three example poems relate to her life. She was born in San

Francisco 19th November 1942, but grew up in Berkeley, California. In addition, her father is

alcoholic and abusive whose she often mentioned about in the poem. In contrast, her mom is

weak and compliant. In her poems, Sharon Olds uses her tragic personal life to reflect her

negative perspective toward society because society value men above women.

In My Son the Man Olds expresses fear that her son will become a man and behave

like her aggressive father. She reveals in the poem Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider, the

way Houdini would expand his body(1-2). The first two line can be considered as she noticed

that her son, Houdini, has a physical change by expanding his shoulder which is the sign of

becoming a man. Since her dad acted abusively to her when she was young, the sorrowful

situations in the past are etched in her memories. In the other words, what her dad has done left a

bad taste in her mouth. In the middle of the poem, she mentioned about what are the tasks that

mom had done for a child which is her son. When Houdini was a little boy she took care of him

such as helping him to put on his pajamas, so it is a memorable moment between her and her

son. The author wrote I cannot imagine him no longer a child, and I know I must get ready, get

over my fear of men now my son is going to be one (7-10). In the past, she always saw her son

as a child and they have spent indelible moments together. It is obvious in this point, she did not

want his son to become a man owing to, miserable memories in the past with her dad lead her to

considered all men in the negative aspect. In addition, she often refers to haunting remembrance
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with her dad in the poems. For example, The Day They Tied Me Up. According to Keefe

(2015), In the lyric poem, the unobservable body is always the poets body. In the case of Olds,

what causes both discomfort and unease for some readers is for others an eruption into language

of the unsayable experience of the totality of perception (p.3). It is about her childhood

unforgettable experience when her parents tied herself to a chair as a punishment then she start to

wrote this poem. This poem reveals her perspective and some readers of this poem might feel

into it and uncomfortable due to the specific language that she used. Olds experienced miserable

agonies with men since she was a kid and they are resulting in negative attitude towards men.

The poem Still Life in Landscape Olds demonstrates inequality of Olds dad and mom

in her family. In the beginning It was night, it had rained, there were pieces of cars and half-cars

strewn (1-2). The author uses the description of a raining night and the broke down cars to

represent the house which has been destroyed which mean there are some problems going on in

the family. Moreover, the poem is likely to be childs description of what she saw by raw

situation herself. At that moment, the author was in the car and her dad drove passed a broken

death body of a woman. This can be understanding undoubtedly, in her point of view the author

thought that woman is broken by the action of man. It also detailed the situation when her

parents were brawled on the highway. It has been claimed by Gelles sociologists attacked the

myths that family violence was rare and was confined to mentally disturbed people (Steinmetz &

Straus 1974), that only poor people abused their wives and children; and that battered women

like being abused (p.349-350). The research shows that wife abuse is exist long time ago in

some family and until today it is one of the family problems. Furthermore, her dad was drunk

and she saw when he was abusing her mom who is weak and unable to attack back. The situation
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in the poem exhibited the authors mom has no right to tackle with dad. Olds stated, My mother

grabbed my head and turned it and clamped it into her chest, between her breasts. My father was

driving-not sober (11-13). These three lines shows love between mom and daughter. Her mom

trying to protect her by grabbing her head then bringing to her chest, while father was careless

and continue driving. This poem is similar to I Go Back to May 1937 Olds wrote about her

feeling when their parents were argued. Gelles (1974) found Initial definitions of wife abuse

focused on acts of damaging physical violence directed toward women by their spouses or

partners (p.351). Similar to the poem, Olds father also acted abusively with her mom which is

not the right way to act. The author indicates that she wanted to go back in time to prevent her

parents from meeting. Consequently, If her parents had not met, she would not have born

because she thought who their parents are going to hurt either themselves and herself. In Olds

childhood real life, she saw her mom who was hurt by her dad, so it affects her perspective of

male.

In The Space Heater Olds illustrates the sacrifice and goodness of man who she met.

This evidence indicates her perspective to men in the different way. The poem begin with On

the then-below-zero day, it was on, near the patients chair (1-2). It starts with overview

surrounding of setting which is the hospital. Moreover, the author went there to meet a male

doctor. The author explains surrounding inside the room, And it was hot, with the almost

laughing satire of fires heat at that time the heater was on and it is too hot for her (5-6). At first,

she did not ask and she just stared at it then the doctor turned his hand to her gently. The author

tried to ask If youre cold-are you cold? But if its on for me... (14-15). The doctor replied Of

course (17). At this point, the doctor shows his gentleness which she has ever seen from the
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other men that she has met before. After that, He stood up and approached the heater, and then

stood on one foot, and threw himself toward the wall with one hand and with the other hand

reached down, behind the couch, to pull the plug out (18-22). He uses his power and willing to

help her. The doctor who sacrifice deeply impressed her because the men that she has never met

shows this kindness to her. At the same time, she also felt humbled and surprised. Traditionally,

she has the negative attitude to men and also saw men use their power in abusive way, but this

time his action made her cried with impressiveness. Additionally, the doctor shows the equality

and also respect to her as a human unlike the past evidenced which men exploited women. For

her, its a pleasure to meet this guy.

In conclusion, Olds childhood incidents could affect her, and thus she is likely to form a

negative attitude toward men. She faced the situation that shows inequality between male and

female. Later she met a man who work as a doctor and respect women as a human unlike other

men that she met. The poem My Son the Man, Still Life in Landscape, and Space Heater

represent the disparity of each men which means some are good and some are not. It is similar to

this world, every single person has many different behaviors both of moral and immoral.

However, It depends on how we see the world whether positive or negative ways, so it is our

alternatives which one we take it from to live in the society happily.

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References

H. (n.d.). "The Day They Tied Me Up": Serial Return, Punishment, and the Phenomenology of

Memory in the Work of Sharon Olds. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from

https://www.academia.edu/10675726/_The_Day_They_Tied_Me_Up_Serial_Return_Pun

ishment_and_the_Phenomenology_of_Memory_in_the_Work_of_Sharon_Olds

Sharon Olds. (n.d.). Retrieved December 01, 2016, from

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/sharon-olds

Sharon Olds. (n.d.). Retrieved December 02, 2016, from

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/sharon-olds

Sharon Olds, Faculty of CWP | NYU. (n.d.).

Retrieved December 04, 2016, from http://cwp.fas.nyu.edu/object/cwp.faculty.sharonolds

The Poets. (n.d.). Retrieved December 07, 2016, from

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets.htm

Gelles, R. (1985). Family Violence. Annual Review of Sociology, 11, 347-367.

Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2083298