Mother’s Fear and Sadness for the Fact That Her Son Is Growing

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In 'Sorting Laundry' by Elisavietta Ritchie, a woman uses the action of folding laundry to compare to her relationship, each piece she talked about represented an aspect of her relationship. In the beginning the reader compares “folding clothes” to folding someone “into [their] life”. By the exaggeration having to fold someone into their life. The reader is learning how to mix her present life with her new partner. Another example of an hyperbole is when the authors talks about the “pillowcases” and despite all the washes and uses it manages to stay together while “holding [their] dreams”.

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The overstatement on how the pillow holds their dreams is both a hyperbole and an extended metaphor. Showcases despite all that their relationship has gone through it manages to stay intact and holds all their dreams of perfect relationship. The reader goes on to describe the “mountain of unsorted” clothes that she needed to fold. Though the pile of clothes isn’t the size of a mountain it’s used in comparison to describe the amount of issues she has.

This overstatement is used to describe all the emotional baggage that she must overcome.

The use of overstatements are utilized to assist to convey the message of the overwhelming feelings and issues that occur in a relationship. Ultimately the use of overstatement describe the multiple issues that the reader must overcome.The poem showcases the overwhelming feelings of fear and sadness that a mother is experiencing as she comes to terms that her son is growing up.

In the first two lines the poet references “Houdini” and compares it to her son in the way he “would expand his body”.The exemplifies the changes that boy is going through and how his body is changing. This reveals the inevitable process of the son growing up and becoming a man. Houdini is references throughout the entire poem as the one who was able to escape from chains underwater. This allusions in comparison to her son reveals how her son is growing up and becoming free to be able to practice what he’s good at. No matter what the mother tries she can’t stop the process of him getting older and being an adult. As the mother fears that he’s “no longer a child” anymore she comes to the realization that she “must get ready” and “get over [her] fear” that her son is all grown up. Again, Olds alludes back to Houdini as the boy “looks at [her]” and studies the box the way Houdini did in order “to learn the way out”. This expresses the fear of the mother as the boy is growing up and trying to escape and be on his own. By alluding to the famous magician, Houdini, who is free and cannot be chained nor thrown into the river because he will be free alway. This implies how the mother’s attempts to stop the boy’s process of becoming a man won’t stop the fact that he’s growing up and can’t be stopped.