"My Son the Man"

Thesis: In her poem "My Son the Man," Sharon Olds incorporates the usage of simile, contrast and an extended allusion to express her nostalgia and sadness she experiences as she sees her child mature, while also realizing he is able to escape from her tight clasps.

1. Simile
   
   • "This was not / what I had in mind when he pressed up through me like a / sealed trunk through the ice of the Hudson, / snapped the padlock, unsnaked the chains, / appeared in my arms" (10-14)
     The speaker compares her son's growing up to another one of Houdini's challenges. She, along with many of Houdini's audiences, does not imagine that her son can overcome such a challenge. She presumes her hold as a mother will last forever, but as she sees this is not the case, she realizes her son is clever enough to escape.
     
     
2. Contrast
   
   • " It seem / no time since I would help him put on his sleeper, / guide his calves into the shadowy interior, zip him up and toss his up and / catch his weight" (3-7)
     There is a quite apparent contrast between the allusions to Houdini and the image of a mother preparing a child for bed. Houdini could overcome any challenge, no matter how dangerous or seemingly impossible. The growing son is similarly facing the challenge of his mother's suppression, wanting independence and the ability to live how he wishes. She remembers and cherishes the time when she did everything for him, when he was too young to think of leaving her or to object. She misses the time when he was helpless and unable to think for himself. However, her wishes of returning to that time cannot be granted, and so she must live with the fact that she can no longer be his main provider.
3. Allusion
   
   • "Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider, / the way Houdini would expand his body / while people were putting him in chairs" (1-3)
     The speaker tries to target her son's facing physical development to manhood as being similar to Houdini ready to face his next dangerous stunt. She feels her son is eager to grow old enough to leave her, for he cannot be chained forever. His maturation is his ultimate stunt, proving he can leave her as soon as he is of age. She represents the chains holding him back from freedom, but he seems to want her there in order to have something to break free from. Without the obstacle, there is no victory or spectacle.
     
   •  "Now he looks at me / the way Houdini studies a box / to learn the way out, then smiled and let himself be manacled" (14-16)
     Yet again, the son sees his mother as the ultimate obstacle, or as a game he will win. When he "smiled" he knows he has found the way to freedom. She too knows there is nothing she can do to suppress him any longer.