The short story “Initiation”, by Sylvia Plath, is a short story about a girl who is struggling to feel like she fits in with everybody else. At first, she is invited to join her high school’s sorority. Then, after completing multiple initiation tasks, she realizes that the sorority girls aren't who she thought they were. After that, during one of the initiation tasks, she meets a unique person riding a bus, who tells her about heather birds, mythological birds that are free. Finally, she decides that she should leave the sorority. In the end, she realizes that being part of the sorority will constrain her, and that she would rather be a heather bird than a tame
pet.
Union between two quarrelsome objects can be the most amazing creation in certain situations, take for instance, water. Originally, water was just hydroxide and hydrogen ions, but together these two molecules formed a crucial source of survival for most walks of life. That is how marriage can feel, it is the start of a union that without this union the world would not be the same. A Hmong mother, Foua took it upon herself to perform a marriage ceremony for the author of “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, Anne Fadiman. In this miniscule event, two cultures with completely conflicting ideas came together to form a union. In this union, an American was celebrating an event in a Hmong way, truly a collision of two cultures.
As part of her initiation into the sorority, Millicent is told to ask each passenger on a bus what they ate for breakfast. Most people answer very typically, while peculiar old man says that he ate “heather birds’eyebrows on toast.” He then explains to Millicent that heather birds are mystical purple birds that are free to be as they are. This man doesn’t care that he might be seen as strange for saying these things. He is very content with himself and the things he says. Even the man’s appearance is one of individuality. He “looked something like a gnome or a cheerful leprechaun. ” The conversation between Millicent and the old man takes place on a city bus. Most people would not appear to be cheerful and approachable when riding city transit, but this man is comfortable with expressing himself and does not feel the need to act like everyone else. He eagerly and readily tells Millicent about the heather birds, and how he too wishes to be mythological one day. Much like the heather birds, the old man is different from others. The man is the true representation of individuality in this story. The man’s openness with his individuality made Millicent think that perhaps all the ridiculous questions she was supposed to ask as part of her initiation were nothing to be embarrassed about. The man’s tale of the
Since its first appearance in the 1886 collection A White Heron and Other Stories, the short story A White Heron has become the most favorite and often anthologized of Sarah Orne Jewett. Like most of this regionalist writer's works, A White Heron was inspired by the people and landscapes in rural New England, where, as a little girl, she often accompanied her doctor father on his visiting patients. The story is about a nine-year-old girl who falls in love with a bird hunter but does not tell him the white heron's place because her love of nature is much greater. In this story, the author presents a conflict between femininity and masculinity by juxtaposing Sylvia, who has a peaceful life in country, to a hunter from town, which implies her discontent with the modernization?s threat to the nature. Unlike female and male, which can describe animals, femininity and masculinity are personal and human.
In the short story, a young lady is ready to go along with any humiliation just to be apart of a prestigious high school sorority. The reward for passing this initiation is that she gets to be in one of the groups that prides itself on its members being the same; which this is what she doesn't even want.
Gay male, lesbian, and transsexual networks/communities, and cultural practices often had their own differences that coincided with meshing similarities. From the late 1940s to the 1960s, these identities were shaped through experiences of “the closet” and living a “double life,” among other factors. Alan Berubé explores the war’s impact on homosexual identity, speaking for both gay males and lesbians in “Marching to a Different Drummer: Lesbian and Gay GIs in World War II.” In “We Walk Alone,” Ann Aldrich helps identify the varying types of lesbians, addressing their intimate relationships with each other that are becoming more visible. Harry Benjamin touches more on the medical and scientific side of transsexualism and the obvious fact that
"Machinal" by Sophie Treadwell is about how a young woman is forced under pressure to get into a marriage with her boss because it was financially better for her and her mother. However, she does not truly love him and falls in love with another man, unfortunately, she kills her husband because she finds that this is the only way she can truly free herself and him from sorrow and infidelity, that haunted their marriage. This play will encapsulate realism because it seems more natural and can hit the audience in a more captive way making the play more appealing. For this reason, the use of lighting and staging will be in a specific way so the audience will see the actor 's emotions and see their body language. In order, to make this play more century forward we will shift the careers for the character to be more modern, for example, the three main characters are the Young Women, the Husband, and the Man who have jobs that are common today.
Her urge to kill is neither motivated by jealousy, like in the case of Medeea, the heroine in the Greek mythology. In her remarkable book entitled Awakening Shakti, Sally Kempton considers that the most dramatic story of the shadowy side of Kali comes not from the Hindu but from the Greek mythology. It is the story of Medeea, the Princess of Colchis, who due to her ardent love for Jason abandons her family and helps him steal the golden wool from two indomitable rams. Years later, since Jason leaves her to marry a younger Athenian Princess, Medeea, mad with fury, incinerates his bride and then kills her own children and herself. (cf Kempton: 135). He is accused of receiving the equivalent of around €55,000 (£40,000) from a political ally and MP. Hundreds of top officials have been convicted of fraud in
“Daddy” is one of the most highly anthologized poems of Plath's (along with "Lady Lazarus"). It is a notorious poem, the one once compared to "Guernica" by George Steiner. The imagery and audaciousness of it still shock, so much so that I don't even know if it is being taught or anthologized or taught any more; it is almost as if the critical world has had its say on it and has moved on, either to other poems in Ariel, or to other books altogether, such as The Colossus or Crossing The Water. It has become a modern classic, of a kind, the sort some people (not the ones here, of course!) sigh & look back on fondly, as what/who they read when they were younger, or were obliged to read at some point, dutifully used it in an essay, then put back on the shelf when they were done with the course...
Death has been a common topic for literature throughout history. There have been several plagues that have killed a massive amount of people. As organisms in general, we have come to accept the fact that we will all die in some way. Some people look at this subject positively, negatively, or neutrally. Most of the population in the world believe that there is some sort of afterlife in one way or another. Many arguments have been made to decide what is most likely, and people discussing their take on the matter. Emily Dickinson describes death as being very, very slow. Death is in no rush and is somewhat caring to a certain degree. John Donne chooses to make fun of death, and challenge the commonly accepted ideas. These poems attack this subject from completely different perspectives, but they’re are similar core ideas involved. Both poems suggest that death is a rather tame power or person.
Sylvia Plath’s life was full of disappointment, gloominess and resentment. Her relationship status with her parents was hostile and spiteful, especially with her father. Growing up during World War II did not help the mood of the nation either, which was dark and dreary. At age 8 Plath’s father of German ancestry died of diabetes and even though their relationship was never established nor secure, his death took a toll on her. “For Sylvia, who had been his favorite, it was an emotional holocaust and an experience from which she never fully recovered” (Kehoe 90). Since she was so young she never got to work out her unsettled feelings with him. Even at age eight, she hid when he was around because she was fearful of him. When she was in his presence his strict and authoritarian figure had left an overpowering barrier between their relationship. Sadly enough by age eight Plath instead of making memories with her dad playing in the yard she resented him and wanted nothing to do with him (Kehoe). These deep-seated feelings played a major role in Plath’s poetry writings. Along with his “hilterian figure,” her father’s attitude towards women was egotistical and dismissive, uncondemning. This behavior infuriated Plath; she was enraged about the double standard behavior towards women. Plath felt controlled in male-dominated world (Lant). “Because Plath associates power so exclusively with men, her conviction that femininity is suffocating and inhibiting comes as no surprise” (Lant 631). This idea of a male-dominated world also influenced Plath’s writing. Unfortunately, Plath married a man just like her father Ted Hughes. “Hughes abandonment apparently stirred in her the memories and feelings she had struggled with when her ...
As is true of many Sylvia Plath’s poems, “Daddy” is deeply ingrained in her life experiences. It emphasizes her complex, multidimensional relationship with Otto Plath and the traumatic effect of his death. The speaker despises her late father for his abandonment, yet attempts to achieve independence from this figure who causes much pain and suffering. Through this poem’s structure, themes, and imagery, we can see the development of this constant internal struggle.
“Strange Fruit” is one of the famous poems made by Abel Meropol in the 1937. It is briefly discussed about the Civil Right Movement, as it is to highlight the racism against the black people that actually happened in the Southern America. Awareness among people had risen, as they have finally known the problems of racism there. In this poem, Meeropol uses contrast to highlight social contradiction happening in the Southern America with varieties literary techniques that will be discussed in this essay. Moreover, this essay will also analyze the psychological tension in Sylvia Plath’s poem that is “The Arrival of the Bee Box” that is also one of the famous poems about Civil Right Movement that was made in the 1960.
Risky Theme: The topic of Lolita remains one of the most disputable novels in Literature. Though the sexual scenes are not very explicit, the implications of the content can be very disturbing. Especially since the readers are practically lured into Humbert’s eloquently-worded account that all of his actions were justified by his genuine love for Lolita...
The poem “Mirror,” by Sylvia Plath, portrays the difficult truth in relation to aging. The poem is told in the point of view of a mirror belonging to an aging woman. The mirror “[is] silver and exact,” with “no preconceptions” (1). It reflects only the truth, real images without distortion. The mirror has been a part of the woman’s life ever since she was young, sitting across her pink, speckled walls acting like “the eye of a little god” (5). As the woman ages, she seems to be in frustration with her appearance, seeking relief by looking at “liars, the candles or the moon” (12). This symbolizes the woman’s attempt to look at things that will reflect back an image she desires, a fake image versus reality. The mirror, however, only gives her the
When first reading “Edge”, one will immediately be able to note that the poem’s flow is very peculiar. This is, in a very large part, due to the brevity and abstractness of each stanza throughout this piece of work. Plath is immediately able to make the reader start to think by organizing the flow of the poem in such a unique style. It is hard to, at first, even pay attention to the contents of the poem without being distracted by the organization of it. It may appear pointless at first, but there is a reasoning behind the structure and stylistic tendencies in this poem. “Edge” conveys a very dark and a very bleak tone throughout its entirety. This can be shown through some very subtle, and some rather obvious events throughout the poem.