Sharon Olds Depicts the Story

¶ … Sharon Olds depicts the story of a mother who is coming to terms with her aging, while realizing that her daughter is just beginning to come of age herself. Olds writes in a strong yet meaningful tone. She expresses her desire to want to be young again, but accepts that it is a part of the cycle of life to age into an older woman, while girls transform into women. To begin with, the title itself symbolizes the subject that the poem will eventually speak about. "35/10" represents the respective and symbolic ages of the two characters in the poem. The mother who sees herself aging while her daughter is just at the beginning of her life as a woman, describes herself with such fine details. The imagery created in this poem is long-lasting and impressive. This is a very typical style of writing for Olds, who focuses on specifics in order to create a vivid scenario in the eyes of her poetic followers. Coming from a liberal upbringing, Olds has been able to capture moments in her writing that others may have thought to be too controversial to address. She grew up and raised her children during an era in the United States that was filled with social uprising and political turmoil. These experiences are reflected in her writing and contribute to her sense of precise imagery.

The poem is one of nature. The natural processes of aging are expressed in a way that allows readers to be able to identify with the process. The poem begins with a description of a mother brushing her daughter's hair, "Brushing out our daughter's brown / silken hair before the mirror / I see the grey gleaming on my head, / the silver-haired servant behind her…" (lines 1 -- 4). Comparing the hair color with such drastic colors allows the readers to identify one as being old while the other is clearly ripe with youth. The mother refers to herself as a "servant," once again demonstrating the tone that the author is attempting to take. There is a negative connotation associated with the word servant, one that implies hopelessness and inferiority. The mother realizes that her job now is to serve as a guide for her daughter and to make sure that her daughter has everything that she will need to continue in life, just as a servant would make sure that their employers are well equipped. This is all implied figuratively, and sets the mood for the remainder of the poem.

The poet creates powerful imagery through her use of metaphoric comparisons. There is a constant comparison between the old and the new, fully enforcing the idea that the main theme of the poem is about accepting aging as a natural process of life. In the lines, "…as my skin shows / its dry pitting, she opens like a moist / precise flower on the tip of a cactus;" (lines 8 -- 10), the author writes about the physical aspects of aging by comparing two items that create an association with a desert. The image created again demonstrates hopelessness and resignation; a feeling of distraught is felt in the poem. The poem then makes a comparison to the literal sense of coming of age, a biological process that is symbolized through literary terms. As the mother is entering her menopausal state, her daughter is just beginning her puberty process, as is implied in the following lines: "her purse full of eggs, round and / firm as hard-boiled yolks, is about / to snap its clasp…" (lines 13 -- 15). The word choice emphasizes the femininity of the process, by including the word purse, representing a material possession associated with a girl's coming of age.

The values reflected in this poem are symbolic of the American values that were not only present in the past, but are also in existence in the present. The relationship between a mother and a daughter is priceless. Despite the slightly negative tone throughout the poem, one where the mother is realizing exactly how much she's aging by witnessing her daughter growing up, the poem represents that cycle of life. It is symbolic of the traditions that mothers pass down to their daughters, just as the poet mentions herself, "…it's an old / story -- the oldest we have on our planet -- / the story of replacement" (lines 16 -- 18). The mother is brushing her daughter's hair, a symbol of feminism and of womanly characteristics. This act in itself transcends all values that Americans hold dear. The tradition of a mother guiding her daughter through this feminine process allows for a much tougher bond to hold these two characters together.