The Victims Poem Analysis

Upon initial reading, “The Victims” by Sharon Olds seems to be a poem that paints the picture of a life of abuse; starting from the dawning of the exploitation and arching over into the life of the abused following the maltreatment. In the work, it is made to be believed that the clear victims of the poem are the speaker and their family—which is a rightful and obvious assumption—but there is another victim that is not as prevalent as that of the speaker and their family: the speaker’s father. After a second read, it is made evidently apparent that although the work does focus on the speaker and their family as the victims of the poem, the ideal that the father is also a victim is explored. Since the father is depicted as an abuser, it is seen …show more content…
It is unclear exactly if the events and feelings in the poem are that of Sharon Olds’ personal experience at some point in her life, but it is made abundantly clear that the speaker of the poem is an adult who is reflecting on the abuse that they suffered as a child by saying, “When Mother divorced you, we were glad,” showing the infinite joy they had felt when the speaker and their family was liberated from the toxic environment and from the abuser (1). The speaker goes on to say, “Then you were fired, and we/grinned inside” (4-5). The speaker of the poem not only feels ecstatic to be out from under their abusive father’s thumb, but at the mere fact that their father is experiencing a form of loss that the speaker and their family had endured. Although the poem mentions abuse, the tone of the work is not revolved around the abuse, but instead involving the events that take place with the father after the divorce. The beginning tone is happy with an edge of malice at the father’s deterioration from a successful business man to a ghost of what he was before the tone shifts to one of remorse toward the speaker’s father at the end of the …show more content…
Focusing on word choice, the speaker states, “She took it and/took it,” using the word “it” to describe the abuse (1-2). Although abuse is seen as a very serious topic in this poem, the effects of the speaker’s abuse is lessened by calling it a vague name and by doing so, shines all the spotlight onto how the speaker’s feelings toward the father as well as his own victimization is the main focus of the poem. Lending insight into the tone, the speaker says, “Then you were fired, and we/grinned inside” (4-5). By using imagery, Olds shows the tone of the poem by means of the way the speaker and their family finds malicious glee in the father’s slow deterioration. The speaker continues on to state, “Would they take your/suits back too, those dark/carcasses hung in your closet” (11-13). Using figure of speech to personify the suits as carcasses, Olds symbolizes the suits to portray the “death” of the father’s career which leads into his victimization in the poem, where the author begins to explore the idea that the speaker and their family are not the only victims in the