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Themes and poetic style of Sylvia Plath
Biography of sylvia plath in brief
Symbolism and imagery of sylvia plath
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The short story “Initiation” by Sylvia Plath, describes the story of a girl in high school, by the name of Millicent, who is going through her initiation to join a sorority, but has doubts about joining. Throughout the story there is a magical, mythological bird named a “heather bird” which largely functions as a symbol in the story. These birds represent being unique and carefree. As the story develops you can see Millicent is trying to push herself to fit with the sorority. She tries to be a sparrow, ‘pale gray-brown birds in a flock, one like the other, all exactly alike’, but she thinks of these wonderfully different birds that ‘[swoop] carefree over the moors… singing and crying out across the great spaces of air, dipping and darting, …show more content…
They represent this through their ability to fly carefree of judgements, as this different mythological bird, no one has heard of or seen. Furthermore, they convey that being alone may seem lonely at times, but leaving a flock allows you to be free, and gives you a more enjoyable life. Heather birds represent how you do not have to be in a flock, especially if you do not belong, since you never see a heather bird in a flock of sparrows. When the birds are first introduced, they show Millicent, where she really belongs and who she feels she is. It displays how ‘... you didn’t have to belong to a club to feel related to other human beings’ (246). The birds displayed in this story, and their expressive, and uncomparable selves, inspired her to do the same. Millicent didn't realize it, yet when first introduced, as the birds who ‘live on the mythological moors, and fly about all day long, singing wild and sweet in the sun. They're bright purple and have very tasty eyebrows’ (246), Millicent was largely affected and wanted to be the colourful expressive bird inside herself, to be unique and free from the constraints of a flock, or the
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
To briefly summarize this poem, I believe that the poem could be separated into three parts: The first part is composed in the first and second letters, which stress on the negative emotions towards the miserable pains, illnesses that the parents are baring, and also their hatred of the birds. The second part, I believe will be the third and fourth letters, which talks about the birds’ fights and the visiting lady from the church. And the last part, starts from the fifth letters to the rest of them, which mainly describe the harmonious life between the parents and those birds.
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
I think the canary symbolized Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale describes her; "She -- come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself - real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and - fluttery. How - she - did - change"; and like a bird, Mrs. Wright even sang in a choir. But after she got married, every thing stopped. She didn't sing anymore or attend social functions. Like a bird, her house became her cage. The only happiness that she appears to have is with this bird. The bird probably sang when she could not. He was probably a companion to her, she had no children. And like her, he was also caged. Because we do not know, we can only guess that her husband killed her bird. If he killed the bird then he would have killed the only thing that was important to her. He killed her once when he married her and caged her in that house, and he killed her again when he destroyed her bird. "No,. Wright wouldn't like the bird - a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too." When Mrs. Wright was used to its singing and her world became quiet again, it was too much for her take.
As a way to end his last stanza, the speaker creates an image that surpasses his experiences. When the flock rises, the speaker identifies it as a lady’s gray silk scarf, which the woman has at first chosen, then rejected. As the woman carelessly tosses the scarf toward the chair the casual billow fades from view, like the birds. The last image connects nature with a last object in the poet's
Birds are truly amazing creatures and all of their characteristics allow them to be used as symbols to express a variety of things. They can be used as symbols of love, of peace, of life, of death, of people, of freedom and restraint. “Jane Eyre” and “Sula” are two examples of how one symbol can have multiple uses. In both books, birds were used to develop the identities of the characters, to foreshadow different events in the stories and help develop the plots and settings of the stories. I believe both Charlotte Bronte and Toni Morrison made great literary choices by choosing to use birds as symbols in their stories. Both stories are beautifully written with their metaphors of birds. I think that it is great that one symbol can be used to express two opposing views – one of freedom and one of restraint
Bird usually portrays an image of bad luck that follows afterwards and in this novel, that is. the beginning of all the bad events that occur in the rest of the novel. It all started when Margaret Laurence introduced the life of Vanessa MacLeod. protagonist of the story, also known as the granddaughter of a calm and intelligent woman. I am a woman.
The birds show symbolism in more than one way throughout the text. As the soldiers are travelling from all over the world to fight for their countries in the war, the birds are similarly migrating for the change of seasons. The birds however, will all be returning, and many of the soldiers will never return home again. This is a very powerful message, which helps the reader to understand the loss and sorrow that is experienced through war.
According to the Louisiana society, Edna Pontellier has the ideal life, complete with two children and the best husband in the world. However, Edna disagrees, constantly crying over her feelings of oppression. Finally, Edna is through settling for her predetermined role in society as man’s possession, and she begins to defy this. Edna has the chance to change this stereotype, the chance to be “[t]he bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice” (112). The use of a metaphor comparing Edna to a bird proves her potential to rise above society’s standards and pave the pathway for future women. However, Edna does not have “strong [enough] wings” (112). After Robert, the love of her life and the man she has an affair with, leaves, Edna becomes despondent and lacks an...
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.
The Raven and Rime of the Ancient Mariner are two of the first horror stories ever written. They both involve a bird that has a huge amount of influence on the story. Keith French said, “Birds and other animals are vital parts of poems. One of the most vital birds in any poem is Poe’s Raven, without this bird obviously the events in this poem would have never happened, but it is more than just that. The type of bird, a Raven which symbolises fear or dread, was the perfect fit for the poem.” Each bird does something different in their respective story. Some things they have in common like that they both give a sense of false hope. Other things they do not have in common like how the Albatross is considered a good omen, where the Raven is considered a bad one.
The bird indirectly represents Enda’s failure to seek liberation and defy against the restrictions society sets upon her. The fall of the bird is reflective of Enda’s spiritual awakening as it represents society’s fatal misjudgment as she desires to rebel against society and participates an infatuation with her lover Robert. As the bird falls into the water, is like Enda as Enda rejects Victorian motherhood, only seeing destruction as an
The first function of the bird as a thematic image is to foreshadow. And the most important foreshadowing of the play is the inevitable murder of the King of Scotland, Duncan, by the Macbeth. It is first seen during the Captain’s dialogue describing the battle between Macbeth and Banquo against Macdonwald. He compared them to “As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion”3. From this phrase, the reversal of the roles can be clearly seen when the sparrow and the hare became the predators of the eagle and the lion became their prey. Another example is seen during Lady Macbeth’s beginning soliloquy, “The raven himself is hoarse/ That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan/ Under my battlements”4, the introduction leading to the murder scene of Duncan. The raven, which is the bird that symbolizes death, is the omen that signals Duncan’s doom.
bird as the metaphor of the poem to get the message of the poem across
...er readers. Dickinson’s use of literary devices and her creativity enables her to imaginatively describe the beauty and grace from a simple and familiar observation. It is through her use of tone, imagery, and sound that she exploits a keen sense of respect for at the very least the little bird, if not also nature itself. Dickinson recreates and expresses the magnificence and smoothness of the bird soaring across the sky. She uses tone to create the mood to emphasize the theme. She uses sound and imagery to not only tell the reader about the awesome flight of the bird, but to help the reader experience and connect to the little bird and nature in hope that they too will learn to respect nature.