“The Victims” by Sharon Olds is a short poem about the effects of an abusive father on a family. Starting in past tense, a young girl explains how her mother taught her to accept the abuse. The young girl was full of anger and hatred. Half way through the poem the poem switches to present tense and the now woman begins to question who the victim really was, her family or her father. With the author’s use of metaphors, symbolism, tone, alliteration, and repetition, the poem tells a story about a daughter’s response from childhood to adulthood regarding an uncaring and abusive father. Tone is the writer’s attitude towards the subject, the reader, or herself or himself. It is the emotional meaning behind the writing. In the beginning of the poem, the writer expresses an immense amount of anger and hatred toward her father. The writer says “When Mother divorced you, we were glad” (1) and “Then you were fired, and we/ grinned inside” (4-5). These lines expresses bitterness and coldness towards the father. The writer was glad the mother divorced the father, and the writer was happy when the father was fired from his job. The mother “took it and/ took it, in silence, all those years” (2-3). These lines refer to some type of abuse. It could be physical or mental abuse. It could be neglect as the writer talks about the father being stripped of his work and suits. These lines also give explanation of why the writer is so angry and full of hatred. The end of the poem ends with the writer wondering who really was the victim, herself or the father. Sharon Olds begins comparing her father to a bum and asks “I wonder who took it and/ took it from them...” (23-24). The writer began to sympathize for the abusive father who lost all that he had. Establishing the tone of a poem is a process, but by reading carefully what the author is saying, the reader can distinguish illustrate what the author is trying to tell. Metaph