On the Subway Essay

The poesy On the Subway by Sharon Olds is a free-verse song about a white-hot wo hu valet de chambre and a late black man who find themselves alone with each other on the subway, facing each other from the opposite aligns of the car. As they watch out each other, the woman relates her thoughts about the situation, which reflect the fear and tension of living an urban life. The fact that the young man before her is black is of particular entailment to her.She reflects on the general predicament of blacks, and emphasizes the inequality between her and the young man. approximately of the meters intended pass on, expressed from a socially-aw ar perspective, is explicitly verbalize although Olds uses symbolism and figurative language, even a literal take on the poem will deliver some(prenominal) of her intended essence. Virtually everyone who reads the poem will be old(prenominal) with the issues it takes up, so the poem does not inform, whole when reminds the reader of th e woeful imbalance of role and privilege in society.It is only through the poems claim that the reader knows the setting and contextualizes the poems body even before body of the poem is read, the title is able to set the tone to some degree the subway is a dark and lonely place, whither people are squeezed together but go on dust-c everyplaceed and uninte respireed in each other. The woman finds herself alone on the car with a young black man with the casual cold look of a mugger, as she puts it.She also mentions that she wears dark fur, the / whole scratch of an animal taken and / used (11-1), which prefigures her coming discussion of the propensity of her kind, which is the white race, for taking advantage and stealing the rights of others. This brings her to a consideration of the boys possible behavior towards her, making her contemplate the possibility that the boy would consume to take his vengeance on this member of his white oppressors.The speakers thoughts revolve ar ound the imbalance of power in the car, and she contrasts it with the imbalance of power in society in general. The narrative is communicated from a socially-aware perspective. She speaks of eating the steak / he does not eat (19-20) of how easy this / white scramble makes my life (27-28), where without meaning or / trying to I must profit from his darkness (22-23). She is here speaking of the prevalent racial inequality that is still very much a part of social reality.The narrator is the more than privileged side of this temporary dichotomy, although the distribution of privilege becomes obscure in the brief result of time that they share the small space on the car, isolated from the rest of civilization I didnt know / if I am in his power (14-15), or if he is in my power (18). The two observe each other quietly, without interacting. In this tense situation, she observes how weak she is, and how the young man is physically superior to her.She is wearing dark fur (11), and she po ints out that he could take my coat so easily, my / briefcase, my life (16-17). She observes how easy this / white skin makes my life, this / life he could take so easily (27-29). She is aware that, without the security measure of society, she could easily become the oppressed, and he the oppressor. By juxtaposing her concrete physical impotence compared to the boy with what she believes is the general powerlessness of blacks and the weakness of the black identity in the white-dominated world, she creates a striking pseudo-paradox.The speaker contrasts her socially-constructed position of privilege with the boys obvious privilege of strength and almost absolute power over the speaker as long as they are in the car. here the speaker highlights the irony found in the fact that, although she belongs to the more muscular race, she is temporarily powerless before this young member of the less hefty portion of society. There is perhaps something objectionable about the speakers atti tude towards the young man.She speaks of his casual cold look of a mugger (8), and of his shirt, which is red, uniform the inside of the body / exposed (10-11), suggesting an association with violence. She immediately associates the young man with urban crime, and gives him too little credit for being a individual in his own right, but instead reduces him to a stereotype, to no more than a representative of the suffering and wickedness of his race. She does not blame him or his race, however, but instead blames the murderous beams of the / nations heart (24-25).Nevertheless, her implike appreciation of the boys predicament is probably as unwished-for as the oppression that she unintentionally inflicts upon him. Granted, the situation discourages any attempt of any passenger at getting insight into the others personality, so she cannot get any deeper appreciation of the young man. Olds uses a simple and familiar situation, which is riding on the subway, as a vehicle for her ref lections on the perversities of society. It is an extremely familiar worldview that the poems narrator expresses, and thus there are no radical ideas.The essence of this poem is nothing that has not been express before by countless others, but the poem stands out because of the apposition of the two kinds of power that she reflects upon as they observe each other. However, to fully lever this poem, it must be realized that the speaker is not to be trust entirely she does a disservice to the black race by the method of her approach to the matter. She ignores that fact that the young man is a person and instead renders him into an rescind entity.Thus, the poem provokes a two-fold criticism of the white race their oppressiveness, and their disposal to stereotype the oppressed. The heavy realism and simplicity of the poem effectively delivers its message of condemnation for the perceived oppression of whites by blacks. This message also benefits from the poems free-verse form. T here is also no explicit pattern and no pretensions in the delivery of the speakers thoughts, suggesting the narratives pure(a) honesty. Through the poems simplicity and directness, what Olds ultimately communicates is an attitude of abstract concern for a concrete individual.