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Feministic elements of sylvia plath poetry
Analysis of Sylvia Plath's Mirror
Analysis of Sylvia Plath's Mirror
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Mirror Essay
“Mirror” is a disturbing poem that exemplifies the tension of inner and outer beauty, as well as the feminine problem of aging and losing one’s glamour. In the poem, Plath is a mirror that is personified. The first stanza starts by describing the mirror as “silver and exact.” The poem goes on saying, “I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see I swallow immediately just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.” This means that the mirror forms no judgments, but instead swallows what it sees reflecting that image back without any alterations. Plath describes the mirror as not being cruel, only truthful because it always shows exactly the image it is shown. The first stanza finishes by saying, “Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall. It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers. Faces and darkness separate us over time.” Here she is first describing how most of the time she is just looking across the empty room meditating on the pink speckled wall of a little girl. She has seen the wall for so lo...
Lisa Genova, the author of Still Alice, a heartbreaking book about a 50-year-old woman's sudden diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She is a member of the Dementia Advocacy, Support Network International and Dementia USA and is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer's Association. Genova's work with Alzheimer's patients has given her an understanding of the disorder and its affect not only on the patient, but on their friends and family as well (Simon and Schuster, n.d.).
In our world today, how would one describe an American? Throughout the history of the United States, the image of an American is often portrayed as someone with fair skin, and who is of European descent. In reality, this idea is rather false, for America is greatly shaped by different racial groups from all continents—including Asia and Africa. In Ronald Takaki 's book, "A Different Mirror", he talks about how people in America are viewed through the "Master Narrative of American History", the idea that a person is an American, or not, depending on whether he or she satisfies the requirements to be considered as white (4). Takaki argues the Master Narrative left out certain groups including Asian Americans, African-Americans and Native Americans
In the poem pride, Dahlia Ravikovitch uses many poetic devices. She uses an analogy for the poem as a whole, and a few metaphors inside it, such as, “the rock has an open wound.” Ravikovitch also uses personification multiple times, for example: “Years pass over them as they wait.” and, “the seaweed whips around, the sea bursts forth and rolls back--” Ravikovitch also uses inclusive language such as when she says: “I’m telling you,” and “I told you.” She uses these phrases to make the reader feel apart of the poem, and to draw the reader in. She also uses repetition, for example, repetition of the word years.
Sure, some of us have this great confidence within ourselves about looking great, but that does not hold true for everyone. I understand the pain or disgust, or even disappointment one feels when they look in the mirror and say, “I wish I could change this or that about myself”. Although this piece is written about the author’s life, it holds meaning and connects with for many people; one only has to dig deep enough to find one. For me, it was to realize what is important in life can change, adapt and that we must explore our inner selves and find our own path in life.
“Wind-blighted letters barely visible on her flayed skin: Hyperion” I breathed, “It’s her,” (Oppel 13). This quote is talking about the exalted Hyperion. The Hyperion is an airship (zeppelin) that has great treasures inside. The main character, Matt Cruse, who is a shipmate on these airships, spots the Hyperion. Cruse is the only person on the planet earth who knows the coordinates to the ship. This is very bad because many people will try to kill or beat the coordinates of the Hyperion out of Cruse during the book. Cruse assembles a team consisting of Kate de Vries, Hal Slater, Nadira, Miss Simpkins, and fellow ship crew. Rath a red-haired man comes and tries to negotiate with Cruse to get the cords, but Rath is unlucky. During the journey
The novel Upside Down, by Eduardo Galeano depicts the injustices and unfairness of several branches of the global society. The differences between the colonized and the colonizer as Galeano writes is always growing and so is the gap between rich and poor. The author challenges western and eurocentric minds as to why on average, countries in the northern hemisphere have a higher standard of living than countries in the southern hemisphere. At first as a reader I thought the writer was whining about the unfairness of the world, but it is the social opiates such as the false idea of capitalism and choice that keeps us in check in this so called democracy. The author forces the reader to open their hearts to a concept that today's capitalist, power hungry society has almost forgotten
In this poem The Lady of Shalott was faced with a curse that would not even allow her to steal a glance out of her window, and the only way to view the world was through her mirror. She attempted to keep herself busy and distracted by weaving a web of beautiful colors and looking at the distorted images her mirror provided her with. Over time her strength that kept her safe wore thin and she grew tired of being held in solitude in her castle. Through watching Sir Lancelot, she fell in love and desired his attention so she left her web to pursue him. The Lady of Shalott pursued the knight, although she knew even a glance would mean certain death, but in her final moments she was happy and she sang of her happiness until her last moments breathing. The Lady chased unattainable love and faced death to find a sense of being whole and being loved. She tried to ignore her desires, but in the end she lost her life for the sake of love and only received the knight’s attention once her blood was frozen and her eyes were dark and
Sylvia Plath was born in October 27,1932. Otto Plath, Sylvia father, died when she was 8 years old. There has been occasion where Plath tried to commit suicide. She got married to Ted Hughes on June 16,1956. In 1962 Ted Hughes left Plath for Assia Gutmann Wevill. After that Sylvia Plath feel into a deep depression. She committed suicide in February 11,1963.
Sophie's World is about the life of a 14 year-old girl called Sophie Amundsen. It takes you on a journey though 3000 years of Western philosophy, presenting important and in most cases annoying questions.This is the explanation of philosophy and philosophers given in the book:"A white rabbit is pulled out of a top hat. Because it is an extremely large rabbit, the trick takes many billions of years. All mortals are born at the very tip of the rabbit's fine hairs, where they are in a position to wonder at the impossibility of the trick. But as they grow older they work themselves ever deeper into the fur. And there they stay.
Overall, the imagery that Plath creates is framed by her diction and is used to convey her emotions toward all relationships and probably even her own marriage to Ted Hughes, who had rude, disorderly habits. Even the structure of the poem is strict in appearance as each stanza ends with a period and consists of exactly six lines. In addition, the persona of the poem is very detached and realistic, so much that it is hard to distinguish between her and Plath, herself. However, Plath insinuates that the woman actually wants love deep down, but finds the complexity and unpredictability of love to be frightening. As a result, she settles for solitude as a defense against her underlying fear.
After reading Sherry Turkle’s book Alone Together, I was left with mixed feelings. Ill thought the book was poorly written, and could have been structured better. The way Turkle structures the book made me bored and uninterested. On the other hand, it enlightened me about the conditions that technology has done throughout society.
Although readers might not figure it out at first, Plath is telling her story from the point of view of a mirror, and later, a lake. Plath does this by using human verbs to describe the mirror's actions in order to create metaphors for what the mirror is really doing. For example, in line two, Plath shows he mirror "swallowing," which in reality is the mirror reflecting. Plath's personification is essential to her message in showing readers how much power the personified mirror holds over the woman in the poem. She calls the mirror truthful, but not cruel, and the mirror itself acts innocent throughout the poem even though it can tell the woman is distressed because of it. The personification in "Mirror" shows readers that although the mirror believes itself to be blameless and honest, what the woman sees in the mirror is clouded by societally created stigmas and expectations, which create the gloomy and sad feel of the
The speaker in Sylvia Plath's poem "Mirror" is the actual mirror itself, which has been owned by a now "old woman" (16) for quite some time. This woman has looked into her mirror every day for many years now. The mirror is very aware of her presence and its environment when she is not present. The author provides many details in order for the reader to grasp the mirror's view on its ever-day sights, but this would be an impossible task without the major use of figures of speech. Plath uses many figures of speech for the benefit of the reader to completely grasp the tone and theme of the poem. Once analyzed, we see that all of these figures of speech come together to achieve one overall effect - expressing the ultimate idea of the poem.
The character, Alice, in Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll was created as a foil, a contrasting figure, to the residents of wonderland. She is kind, imaginative, and polite. Her traits differ from those of whom she meets in Wonderland. Those of this imagined world are often ill-mannered, but with good intentions. The Red Queen, for example, is the first human-like creature Alice meets and the Queen has all sorts of nitpicky comments for her. The Red Queen goes on about things in an arbitrary sense and is not very logical. “I don’t know what you mean by your way,’ said the Queen: ‘all the ways about here belong to me… Curtsey while you’re thinking what to say, it saves time,” (Carroll). Where at first the young girl can’t help but try