The Fury of Overshoes by Anne Sexton

The overshoes. This was the first thing that the speaker is describing in his poem. But with my initial reading, it wasn’t the title nor the idea of an overshoe that first brought me a thought about the poem but the word – kindergarten. Upon reading it, the only image that came to my mind was a child. A child who cannot buckle his own overshoe or tie his own shoe or cut his own meat and the river of tears that flows when he fell off his bike. And it's normal because it is the realities of being a child. Being a child means you are still starting to learn and do the normal things necessary for life which also implies that you couldn’t do it perfectly because you are a beginner. And the overshoe was something he had from the past. Here, the speaker isn’t a child but the speaker is talking to someone who was once a child.

Then about that wolf, I can picture out the ones in movies where the wolf can be seen outside your window. They are howling at night in the best way that they could scare the little children sleeping in their rooms. But I then realize after reading again that it is not the fright with this sight that made a child give up the nightlight, teddy and thumb because actually, the ones who could and are doing that are the parents. They do this is in the sense that they want the child to outgrow the fears. And be a brave person like how big people are.

I noticed that after the 31st line, the poem had changed its mood. The speaker then comes in the very scene where he is talking to his overshoes and thumb. It was like he was talking to the things that were greatly a part of his childhood days. After a while, he looks for the big people whom the world belonged to, according to him. I can tell that he was already in his journey to the big world because it seems he can’t wait. He keeps on looking for the big people and he can’t await his’ reaching there. But as he takes the giant steps leading there, it was only as if he was stepping for the sake of stepping. And now, without really minding if he is really going there.

*The overshoes was a protective gear. And for the speaker in the story, it is very important to him because it was once very beneficial for him to use when he was a child and he treasures it very much. Against the snow, the overshoes protected him. Here, the snow could symbolize problems, struggles and difficulty that he experienced. The overshoe could be someone who was a really big factor that made him surpass the trial. I think the speaker was talking of a not-so-normal-or-typical childhood. For childhood are always associated with happy days where children are problem-free and worry-free. But for him, it was different. He underwent problems, storms, snows and he needs the overshoe or someone that could push him up and help him make it through.