The poem that bothered me the most so far that I have read is titled: The Clasp by Sharon Olds. When I first read this poem, the thought of a parent having a satisfaction while punishing their child, bothered me. These days you hear about parents abusing innocent children and even killing them. I’m not a parent but I could never imagine doing something like that to my child. Most abusiveness starts with the adult’s inner conflicts such as, stress, depression, and even situations where they are being abused themselves.
The author explains "we had colds, / we had been in the apartment two weeks straight (Olds 1, 2)." She had been home with a two children, one was four and the other one. The author could have been stressed out and tired of putting up with the children’s mood of being sick with a cold and her having to deal with it, while sick herself. Assuming she scolded them for horse playing or misbehaving she had it with them that she grabbed her oldest daughters hand in anger. She mentioned the oldest daughter "shoving him over on his face... (3, 4)." The mother than grabbed the daughter so hard by her wrist that the force she used while angry made her grasp her wrist even harder that she ended up enjoying the pain she gave her daughter." I even nearly / savored the stinging sensation of the squeezing, the / expression, into her, of my anger (7-9).)
Her daughter was so confused and in shock from the reaction her mother had done to her she had to look up to her to double check it was really her mother doing this to her. In the poem it says “she swung her head, as if checking / who this was (14-15)." For a little girl who is at an age where she can’t reason from right and wrong this action was a hard impact on her. Children think different about the world than adults. When adults think spanking or hurting their child in their own way, they may think that is the correct way to get their child to understand there wrong doing. A child doesn’t understand they are doing wrong they just learn that if they do that again the parent will hurt them and grow up fearing them.
The mother reacted on her first instinct of anger. As a consequence, she hurt her daughter, but gave herself the satisfaction of taking control of the situation and gaining respect. The mother was dealing with her spouse and sickness and on top having to stay home with both children got the best of her. At the end of the poem she did state “One of the/ two whom she most loved, the two / who loved her most (20-22).” The mother obviously loved her child and just wanted to discipline her and gain her respect.
Alina, I liked your entry because even though your not a parent you could talk about why the poem bothered you. You also provided good quoted from the poem and emotional pictures giving your entry more interst.
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