Hammond, 1 Maeve Hammond Mrs. Rutan AP Literature and Composition 2 October 2013 Toddlers, Mothers, and HoudiniOh my!

Sharon Olds poem, My Son the Man, explores the trepidation a mother feels towards her sons development from a child to a man. The narrator laments to her audience of the consternation she feels towards her sons gradual maturing. She feels confused and doleful that her son no longer needs a mothers guidance in his life. Olds uses a great deal of allusion, juxtaposition, symbolism, and diction to fully articulate the sentiments that any mother might feel when faced with a childs realization of his independence. Allusion is first incorporated into this poem when Olds compares the natural growth and development of her son to the outlandish, abnormal stunts of the eccentric magician Harry Houdini. The mother associates the widening of her sons shoulders to the way Houdini would expand his body/while people were putting him in chains (2-3). Instead of viewing the growth of her child as inevitable and completely normal, she perceives that the development of a child is as complicated Houdinis tricks. Olds digresses from the present transformation of her son and begins to discuss the happier, simpler time of when he was a toddler. Between lines 3 and 7, Olds uses imagery to describe the mothers flashback of putting her child to bed. The imagery of her put(ing) on his sleeper zip(ing) him up and tos(ing) him up and catch(ing) his weight (3-7) creates a great juxtaposition: as the mother tenderly cares for her child, the audience is reminded of Houdinis audacious acts, like chaining himself and riding in a sealed trunk through the icy Hudson River. Why would Olds contrast a toddler to Houdini?

Hammond, 2 Olds purposefully chose one of the wildest, most daring men to have ever lived to symbolize the risks and dangers that accompany growing-up and adulthood. Olds draws a parallel between Houdini completing perilous tasks and an average person attempting to overcome the hardships of physical and mental maturity; both take perseverance and willpower that few people possess. The mother realizes her son has Houdini-like doggedness and will continue to develop autonomously. Along the lines of juxtaposition, the pure innocence and naivety of a childwho is completely oblivious to the jeopardy of societyis exemplified when compared to Houdinis life-threatening works. The mother wants to keep that purity viable and enclosed inside of her child; the growth of her son and his realization of adulthood deters any chance of retaining his innocence. The reoccurring motif of releasing oneself from of a certain restriction is apparent in the diction of My Son the Man. The use of chains (3) and sealed (12) signify being encaged to the challenges of developing and maturing. Words like snapped (13), unsnaked (13), and appeared (14) represent how the child released himself from his difficulties; therefore, he overcame hardships without the guidance of his mother. In the lines now he looks at me/the way Houdini studied a box/to learn the way out, then smiled and let himself be manacled (1416), the child has realized his potential and is willing to face his future head-on. Olds poem depicts a mother-son relationship that neither deteriorates nor strengthens as he grows away from her. This mother must learn to realize and accept the inevitability of her child becoming an adulteven if the childs future looks as dangerous as a Houdini magic trick. In situations similar to what Olds describes, a mothers unwillingness to let go of her baby is surmounted by the child yielding to his independence; this circumstance is portrayed in My Son the Man.