Analysis Of Initiation By Sylvia Plath

Millicent is an average girl who no one really notices, when one day, a sorority group decides to allow her to join, but she must past their initiation test first. At first, Millicent is ecstatic, and proud that she can finally be a part of society, but slowing, and in the beginning

At the start of the new school year, Millicent Arnold, a typical teenage girl, receives an invitation to join the elite and exclusive girls’ sorority at Lansing High School. Before she becomes an official member however, Millicent must demonstrate she is fit to join the sorority by finishing the initiation process: a series of ridiculous and rigorous tasks that pushes her to her limits. During a mission, Millicent discovers the nasty truth and reality of the “prefect” sorority at her high school, and ultimately decides that being herself is most important and rejects entering the sorority altogether.

It tends to be the trend for women who have had traumatic childhoods to be attracted to men who epitomize their emptiness felt as children. Women who have had unaffectionate or absent fathers, adulterous husbands or boyfriends, or relatives who molested them seem to become involved in relationships with men who, instead of being the opposite of the “monsters” in their lives, are the exact replicas of these ugly men. Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” is a perfect example of this unfortunate trend. In this poem, she speaks directly to her dead father and her husband who has been cheating on her, as the poem so indicates.

Her moral weakness is that she cares more about her popularity status than loyal friends. “What girl at Lansing High would not want to be in her place now? Millicent thought, amused. What girl would not want to be one of the elect… Even Tracy had been wistful when she heard that Millicent had been one of the five girls to receive an invitation”

The Initiation short story follows a pattern where the protagonist is put up to multiple trials and challenges, and in the end when she is so closed to grasp finish the quest that she has longed for for so long,she realizes that she doesn't need to be part of an exclusive social group (Sorority) to belong somewhere. She belonged right there, and not until after all of her conflicts and trials she realize this. It’s when she has to make a choice whether to stay as herself or become something else, something that she is not.

The composition of texts during the post-bomb period are influenced by a chaotic and shifting atmosphere which compelled composer’s to reclaim the self from controlling forces within a patriarchal society. Sylvia Plath’s poetry serves as a manifestation of her feminist expression as a composer and intent desire to reclaim her personal identity and resultantly assert her power in a restrictive and patriarchal society, as witnessed in her captivating poems Fever 103° and Lady Lazarus.

On February 11, 1963, just under a month after she published The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath committed suicide ("Sylvia Plath Biography”).

“Alice and the bitches rule the school… decide is A grade or not. Group B relatively friendly.. and considered cool, C Group includes freaks and retards.., and below are the misfits” (pg 48). It can even be seen by Avalon’s ply to be seen as ‘cool’ the realisation comes that even if she does join the only group of kids that are nice to her, she “would be committing social suicide by joining them” (pg 56). The consequences of ones actions is also encompassed, through by wanting to be accepted and the actions done for this acceptance, the results can be uncomprehensive to the extent of suicide.

Mirrors reflect the innermost part of the soul. A mirror can show you at your most beautiful and your most unpleasant times. Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirrors”, conveys a message that is much deeper than the words printed on the page. The denotation of “Mirrors” provides the reader a basic reading of the poem, whereas the connotation gives a deeper meaning to the work. Plath’s word usage conveys two meanings to “Mirrors”, allowing the reader to better personalize the work.

“If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed” (Plath 20), are the insightful words of the adept dramatist Sylvia Plath. Sylvia’s formidable experiences as an adolescences and her vexing run-ins with others have shaped and molded her literature. Sylvia’s praise is not only well deserved but is proven by each and every one of her impassioned poems about the human condition. The struggle of everyday life is shed in a unique way displaying the ache of intervention. Sylvia’s unique writing style and tone amplify her relation to the struggles that everyone goes through. The pinnacle of her writing is in the form of two poems; these poems are “Mad Girl’s Love Song” and “Daddy”. Utilizing every literary device, Ms. Plath is able to immerse the reader in the conflict of her past. The immersion in a situation is so adept that the emotion is not only more natural but compelling as well. If Sylvia’s dialectical arsenal isn’t remarkable enough to appease oneself then her story of hardship, suffering, and venting is sure to suffice.

Initially, I wanted to copy my poem from last year as I had no idea what to write about. I did not do this because fear of failure prevented me from cheating. It was from this anxiety that this poem was inspired. The intended purpose of this poem was to convey how trying to succeed in year twelve stresses me out. I wanted to mirror Sylvia Plath’s expression of her mental illness through extended metaphors in her poem Ariel. Where Plath uses the extended metaphor of the fairy tale character `Ariel as a metaphor for her depression, my poem highlights anxiety through the extended metaphor of bed sheets.

In Sylvia Plath’s poem, “Mirror” we are looking at two perspectives within it. One may be so obvious to us while the other one is very subtle. The most obvious perspective is the mirror itself but the other one is the woman looking at her reflection. When we think about the perspective of the mirror, we imagine ourselves as an inanimate object that yet still has its own thoughts about what it sees. Taking the perspective as the woman we imagine ourselves as we are when we look in the mirror or we imagine the viewpoint from someone who is aging, worn down and feels defeated.

"You have to be able to make a real creative life for yourself, before you can expect anyone else to provide one ready-made for you." (Plath, 27 Timeless Sylvia Plath Quotes) Sylvia Plath was a transformative novelist and poet of the mid 1900s, known widely for her poems about death and suicide. She was born on October 27, 1932 to Aurelia and Otto Plath in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts. Jamaica Plain is an historical neighborhood with a tight-knit community that attracts many artists, authors and activists. Otto passed away when Sylvia was eight years old. Her father’s death deeply affected her later in life and provoked her to write poetry. She moved in with her mother and younger brother following her father’s death. At age 20, she attempted suicide for the first time. She was rescued and given psychotherapy, which included electroshock treatment. She wrote about her experiences later in her book The Bell Jar. Sylvia went to Smith College in Massachusetts, then Newnham College of Cambridge University where she met her husband, Ted Hughes. Around the same time, she worked as an editor for the college edition of Mademoiselle Magazine, which later published some of her work. She was briefly a teacher at Smith College, before realizing that it was not the job for her. Instead, she became a writer. Early on in her professional career, her work was rejected frequently. However, she succeeded in becoming an author and

Sylvia Plath is often described as a feminist poet who wrote about the difficulties women faced before women's right were a mainstream idea. From reading her poetry, it is quite obvious that Plath's feminism is extremely important to her, but she also wrote about a lot of day to day experiences and made them significant through her use of literary devices such as metaphors and symbols. Plath may also be best known for her autobiographical poetry written in a confessional style that appeared during the 1950s. She is considered a very important poet of the post-World War II era. She became widely known following her suicide in 1963 (Bawer). Through Sylvia Plath's poetry, readers are able to get a glimpse into her personal life. The particular time and place in which she wrote her poetry, the death of her father, her failed marriage, her battle with depression and others who influenced her all lead to the writing of some of her most cherished works. By examining the works and events in the life of Sylvia Plath, readers are able to get a better understanding of her work and her as a woman in the era that she lived in.

The stereotypical survivor could be described as someone who endured grueling physical obstacles, survived and returned to normal life, and developed as a person since then. Sylvia Plath does not fit the typical template of a survivor; she did not physically survive. However, the emotional and mental stress she withstood the ten years prior to her suicide made her just as much of a survivor as anyone who lived to tell their story. Although Plath eventually crumbled under the weight of her deteriorating emotional stability, she persevered for as long as she could until she could take it no longer, making her as strong as anyone who survived a physical challenge. The bell jar was a symbolic representation of her emotional state throughout the novel, whether it be pre-treatment, post-treatment, or pre-suicide.