his stillness

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The poem His stillness by Sharon Olds gave her a definite understanding of the man that she called “father.” Olds grew up in an abusive family home because her dad was always known as an alcoholic. Because of her dad’s habit, created hard living environments for her and she wished that her parents never got married. Whenever liquor was in her dad’s system, he was unemotional making life for Olds hard. She never described the things that he did to her. The visit to the doctor’s office made her opened up to her dad. She saw her dad as lovely and caring family man and she never imagine him being the man that he was at the doctor’s office. He did not overreacted when he heard news; instead he was calm and accepted the news. She felt tremendously sad for her dad and from there now she started noticing the man she never knew. Olds and her dad bond grew stronger at the doctor’s office. The man she had always known for his abusive behavior turned out the most caring man in the world. As a child, Sharon Olds childhood was described as a “hellfire.” Growing up, she was told that she was going to hell. In Olds’ poem, she tries to express how she felt about her early childhood with an abusive father and relationships with her family. Olds wrote many poems about her relationship with her helpless, alcoholic father and her path to help deal with these memories and forgiving her father to loving the dying man. Most of Olds poems are about her journey from an abusive household to healing her past memories from a man she disgusted with. Her poems are ways of her speaking in loud tone describing domestic violence, sexuality, and family relationships. Like any poem, “His Stillness” the theme of the poem was about Olds getting close to her father w... ... middle of paper ... ...to doctor affected her relationship with her dad. They got closer and she was surprise that when her dad heard the news from his doctor, they didn’t have to tie him down in fact of his aggressive behavior “I sat beside him. This was my father” (Olds 440). She was expecting her dad to act crazy since she had always known him as an aggressive person but she did not get that from him. However, his attitude changed instantly and starts and the way her daughter viewed him as an alcoholic changed her perception of her dad. Toward the end of the poem, it shown how shock Olds was to understand her dad “At the end of his life his life began to wake in me” (Olds 440). It was a new beginning for her and her dad. She tried to create a bond within her dad when she realized that her dad was actually a lovely and caring man. She informed her readers at that she hated her dad but

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