Justin Grant ENC 1102: Writing about poetry 29 October 2014 Looking at “Daddy” In her poignant memoir‚ “Daddy”‚ Sylvia Plath deconstructs her childhood relationship with her father and applies it to her ongoing relationship with controlling‚ oppressive men. Through powerful metaphorical language and reference to Nazism‚ machines of war‚ and a focus on gloomy‚ dark colors‚ Plath displays her inability to cope and find structure in her life without the male abuse and mental subordination. Beginning
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Sylvia Plath was born in Massachusetts in October of 1932. She was and still is one of the most renowned writers of the twentieth century. She started producing poetry at the young age of eight. Her inspiring poems have awarded her with a Pulitzer Prize‚ which is a huge honor for any writer. “Metaphors”‚ which was written in 1959‚ is a poem with obvious‚ but hidden meaning. It is a very short poem‚ with only nine lines. She also uses only nine syllables in each line. A bunch of other subliminal messages
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In the short story‚ “Initiation”‚ Sylvia Plath utilizes Millicent and the sorority girls to imply the theme that conformity for popularity is not better than being one’s own self. Following Millicent through the hazing period or ‘initiation’ of a sorority-like high school social group‚ the reader witnesses Plath’s changing of the character. In the beginning of the story‚ Plath describes the protagonist in the basement of a house‚ detailing how it felt “dark and warm‚ like the inside of a sealed jar”(1)
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Queen or Victim‚ the Duality of Female Authority and Oppression. Plath’s first poem in her venerable bee sequence‚ The Bee Meeting‚ offers fertile insight into the speaker of the poem’s struggle to adopt a voice in society and begs the ultimate question about women’s capacity to successfully break the chains of conformity. Plath’s multi-pronged approach addresses the poem’s persona’s confrontation with many social dichotomies. The most basic example of this duality is the fact that the speaker
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The use of Personification and Metaphor in ‘Mirror’ In the Poem ‘Mirror’ by Sylvia Plath‚ there is a continuing theme of change. In the beginning the changes are simple‚ like the acts of day turning to night‚ but at the end we see the life changes of a woman in particular. Through the use of metaphor and personification in the poem‚ Plath creates images of water‚ reflections‚ and colors as having human characteristics to emphasize the strong theme of change throughout the poem. From the beginning
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Symbolism of a Feminist Poem in Sylvia Plath Some literary critics have linked Sylvia Plath’s poem‚ “Daddy" (524)‚ as a confessional or autobiographical poem about the relationship with her father. Undoubtedly‚ she references her own personal life‚ however‚ “Daddy”‚ should not only be read in a narrow sense‚ as her intentions are to convey a more significant theme. The tone of the poem expresses a strong disdain towards not only her father and husband‚ but towards the male gender. It is arguable
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In her poem Daddy‚ Sylvia Plath creates a speaker that embodies a fierce internal struggle embedded with a great fear of her true personal identity. Drawing on themes of persecution‚ violence‚ and victimization‚ the speaker begins to form her identity and battles with her father’s past. Throughout the poem she repeatedly persecutes her father‚ denying all connection to the Nazi identity he once held. In contrast to her father‚ the speaker never explicitly mentions her mother‚ only implying that she
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"Daddy"‚ one of Plaths most famous and detailed autobiographical poems‚ was written in the last years of her life and is saturated with suppressed anger and dark imagery. The sixteen stanza poem‚ through Plaths use of ambiguous symbolism‚ arguably is bitterly addressing Plaths father‚ who died when she was only eight‚ and her husband Ted Hughes‚ who had broken her "pretty red heart in two" (st.12‚ line 1). The poem is intense with once suppressed emotion‚ setting an aggressive‚ desperate‚ almost
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source of social status and contentment. • Plath suggests that the government‚ consumerism and the patriarchy cause the dehumanization of people‚ especially women who are restricted to the stereotype of the household wife. This is demonstrated in the repetition of the word‚ “It” in place of “She” or any other more personal term. The US promoted the domestic lifestyle image‚ which is expressed in The Applicant “A living doll‚ everywhere you look.” Plath voices her opinion on the way that women were
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The morning song ‘Morning song’ by Sylvia Plath describes the birth‚ early stages of childhood and the sentimental value of a child in a very unique way. This poem was wrote from Sylvia Plath’s own experience of child birth‚ it can also be related to by parents‚ it could be thought it is aimed mainly at females as this poem is quite feminine. This eighteen line lyrics is structured in 3 line stanzas which are called tersest. It is a tender poem and the overall tone of it is quite mellow. The opening
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