"35/10" Outline

“35/10” Sharon Olds

Thesis: Olds’ colorful language and precise syntactical choices serve to emphasize the large disparity between youth and old age.

A.      Juxtaposing the daughter’s characteristics with those of her mother illuminates the gaping difference between the two.

a.       “our daughter’s brown/silken hair … the grey gleaming on my head” (1-3). By placing these two descriptions beside each other, Olds’ creates the image of brown hair cascading next to grey hair, solidifying the change that age causes over time.

b.      “the fold in my neck/ clarifying as the fine bones of her/ hips sharpen?” (6-8). The words “clarifying” and “sharpen” directly contrast each other, evoking a sense of sympathy for the speaker as her body moves in the opposite direction of her daughter.

B.      Olds’ employment of enjambment contributes strongly to the two portraits of the women being painted.

a.       “she opens like a moist/ precise flower on the tip of a cactus” (9-10). The flower is opening, so it spills onto the next line; in the same way the daughter is growing and maturing.

b.      “my last chances to bear a child/ are falling through my body” (11-12). As her chances are falling, the sentence also falls to the following line. Age is constantly moving forward, so the lines continue without pausing.

C.      Imagery serves a vital role in illustrating the contrast between the mother and daughter.

a.       “the silver-haired servant behind her” (4). Not only is the mother old with her silver hair, but also she is behind the girl, creating the idea that the daughter is the newer version of the speaker.

b.      “her full purse of eggs, round and/ firm as hard-boiled yolks” (13-14). The daughter still has her youth; she has a “full purse” and is right on the cusp of the peak of her life. Though this description is more biological, it cements the idea of adolescence that the speaker so desperately wishes she still had.