Poem Analysis: On The Subway By Sharon Olds

In the poem “On The Subway”, written by Sharon Olds, two sides of two person that encounter with each other in a subway. It is almost clear as water that the poem talks about two different worlds, white and African American.
To start off the poem, Sharon describes how both worlds clash each other in a subway, one who is dark skin, and the other a white skin women. The women has a fur coat and a briefcase, meaning she has money, while the other person has red apparel, “as his body”, meaning that the black skin male is naked in a train, having no money to buy clothes to cover up his body. She, the woman, is feeling threatened by the look of the man, for the fact that he has dark skin, which is being racist. The women posses all that the man wishes to have, by the look of the man, the look of desire. The women describes the feeling she gets as she eats, as if she is taking it right away from his mouth. He is dark skinned, while she is a white women,
For the boy’s world is the American Dream because he admires the materialistic portrait the women shows. In the other hand, the women is a theme of terror, who describes her fear just because of the difference of skin colors. She does not know why the boy looks like he does, but infers he is a smugglers, and and feels threatened by the black boy. The tone the author uses while describing the women is why is much different of that tone that the author uses while describing the little boy. When describing the women she describes her with a glamorous tone, but while describing the little boy, he uses a to e of minority, with every word meaning he is poor. The images the author implements helps the reader better understand both worlds, such as “raw face” or the fancy coat.
In conclusion, the author of the poem “On the Subway” does a great job describing both portraits presented in the poem. The literary devices helps the reader throughout the