Before:
In the poem “My Son the Man” written by Sharon Olds, the speaker expresses his little sorrow about his son’s growth. Olds uses imagery and metaphor to express the theme that it is excruciating to see children growing up and stop relying on their parents. The spreader notes, “Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider, / the way Houdini would expand his body/ while people were putting him in chains”, finding the similarity between his son’s growth and Harry Houndini’s escape acts. By comparing these two people together, Olds suggests that his son is trying to escape from his father’s protection. The escape of his son suggests that he has stopped relying on his father and even seeing his father as shackles, which lays the foundation for the grief the poet expresses in later verse and highlights the hardship of growth and independence for parents. Besides, right after describing the current status quo of his son, Olds uses imagery to vividly describe the scene that he used to lift his son up. As a father, he used to “… toss him up and / catch his weight”. The verb “toss” and “catch” implies that his size of his son is small and he is able to lift him up, putting a contrast between the wide shoulder of his son and his younger version, which sheds a light on how much his son has grown, which showed his pride about his son being a real man. The happy scene of father and son playing together also helps build up the poet’s sorrow about the unavoidable moment of his son being mature enough to leave him. Old’s good use of contrasting imagery and metaphor vividly describes his son’s growth, which leads to his expression of sorrow about his grownup son leaving him.
After：
In the poem “My Son the Man” written by Sharon Olds, the speaker expresses her struggle with her son’s growth. Olds uses imagery and metaphor to express the theme that parents have to let their children go one day even though it is painful for parents to be separated from their kids. The speaker observes, “Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider, / the way Houdini would expand his body/ while people were putting him in chains”, finding the similarity between his son’s growth and Harry Houdini's escape acts. By comparing these two people together, Olds emphasizes the son's desire to break free from the symbolic chains of childhood and from his parents' control. The allusion lays the foundation for the grief the poet expresses in later verse and highlights the sense of loss when she realizes that her son no longer needs her protection. Besides, right after describing the current status quo of her son, Olds uses imagery to vividly describe the scene that she used to lift her son up. As a mother, she used to “… toss him up and / catch his weight”. The verb “toss” and “catch” implies that her son was once small and light for her to lift him easily, emphasizing their close relationship they had before. The imagery makes a significant contrast with her son's wider shoulder in the present, which highlights how quickly time flies and her son's transformation into manhood. The juxtaposition underscores the mixing feelings Olds has as she is proud of her son being a real man while upset about the increasing distance between her son and her through his growth. The happy scene of mother and son playing together also helps build up the poet’s sorrow about the unavoidable moment of his son being mature enough to leave her. This contrast between the past intimacy and the separation brings out the blending of pride and sorrow for watching her son growing up. Old’s good use of contrasting imagery and metaphor vividly depicts a mother who is experiencing her son's transition to adulthood, which marks the mixture of pride in his independence and sorrow over the growing separation.
I did not do a good job on this assignment since I identify the speaker as a father instead of a mother without noticing the scene of giving birth. I decided to revise this paragraph to fix my mistakes. So I first changed the speaker to mother and all the pronouns. Then I followed Mr. Hayes advice to improve this paragraph. For the allusion to Houdini, I added more in-depth analysis for the quote, which put an emphasis on the mixed feelings the poet has as a mother. For the imagery, I added more detailed analysis and also reflect complexity of the scene conveys. Lastly, I changed the summary sentence to highlight the complexity of this poem.