Sylvia Plath Comparative Essay

The author of “Still I Rise” is Maya Angelou, a well-known poet, author, and civil rights activist. This poem is about a poet who struggles to meet the social pressure and injustices of her time. Her poetry thus concentrates on two kinds of oppression – both racial oppression, and sexism. Amidst the challenges and adversities, she managed to survive and successfully claims that she will not be broken nor will she be defeated no matter how many times she is brought down by society. In this poem “Still I Rise”, I will be looking at critical works by Sandra Cookson, R. B. Stepto, and Lyman B. Hagen and stating why I agree with them.

Sylvia Plath’s poem, “Daddy,” is a confessional poem that addresses an unknown speaker’s appalling relationship with her father. Plath’s unmistakable use of allusions enable her readers to have a clear understanding of what life was, and is, like with the speaker’s overbearing father. She describes him as all powerful, Godlike, and the speaker soon reveals that she intends to kill him. However, before she has the chance, he dies on his own. His death leaves the speaker with unresolved feelings towards him that are later converted to her surrogate father, her husband, until she finds the courage to free herself from his control. Throughout the poem, Plath reveals several representations that were relevant to her own life that suggest her and

America stands as the most prominent nation of liberty and freedom for all, yet some people still feel the reins of America’s oppressive past. Those include young African Americans and women, who feel that society places unequal expectations on them, simply based on their gender or race. Two young, American writers, Sylvia Plath and Langston Hughes especially feel this way through their works, Sylvia Plath at Seventeen and Theme for English B. Plath and Hughes employ tone, tone shift, and parallelism throughout their works to convey their message that young adults must stand up to demoralizing social expectations.

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.

Sylvia Plath was a troubled writer to say the least, not only did she endure the loss of her father a young age but she later on “attempted suicide at her home and was hospitalized, where she underwent psychiatric treatment” for her depression (Dunn). Writing primarily as a poet, she only ever wrote a single novel, The Bell Jar. This fictional autobiography “[chronicles] the circumstances of her mental collapse and subsequent suicide attempt” but from the viewpoint of the fictional protagonist, Esther Greenwood, who suffers the same loss and challenges as Plath (Allen 890). Due to the novel’s strong resemblance to Plath’s own history it was published under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas”. In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath expresses the

‘Still I Rise’ is a poem written by Maya Angelou, an African-American poet, and civil rights activist in the 1960s. She has struggled at many times in her life; when her parents divorced at the age of three, being raped by her mother’s boyfriend just after moving back to live with them, and refusing to speak for five years because she felt guilty for reporting the crime. The poem portrays an ironic response towards people who have persistently put her down, due to the fact that she is now overcoming this, and is most likely having a better current life than her last oppressors. The reader can comprehend Angelou’s strength to continuously fight her battles against subjugation towards her and others of the same race and gender. The basis of

Sylvia was born in Boston on 27th October 1932. She has grown up in a family environment which supports self-improvement and literal works. Sylvia’s father, Otto was a dominant presence in the house. He died when she was eight years old because of pulmonary embolism after an amputation surgery. After Otto’s death Aurelia worked too much to ensure a good living for her children. They moved from one place to another for many times. This situation caused an unstable family life for both children. Sylvia’s first published poem was published after her father’s death. She was a motivated and successful student at school. She earned a scholarship from Smith College in 1950 and continued to read

In 1963 on a cold winter day of February 11th, Sylvia Plath ended her life. She had plugged up her kitchen, sealing up the cracks in doors and windows before she was found with her head inside of her gas oven inhaling the dangerous fumes. She was only thirty years old, a young woman with two small children and an estranged ex-husband. A tragic detail of her life is that this is the second time she had tried to commit suicide. Plagued with mental illness her whole life, which is evident within her poetry. She would write gripping, honest portrayals of mental illnesses. Especially within Ariel, the last poetry book she wrote, right before she took her life. Although it’s hard to find a proper diagnosis for Sylvia Plath, it is almost definite that she at least had clinical depression with her numerous suicide attempts and stays in mental hospitals undergoing electroshock therapy. Sylvia Plath is now famously known for her writing and the more tragic parts of her life. Such as the separation from her husband, Ted Hughes, mental illness, etc… Plath may not have intended for her life and art to become inspiration to many people but that has become the end result. Sylvia Plath writing shows symptoms of her suicidal thoughts. To study specific moments in Sylvia Plath’s life, it can be connected to certain writing’s of her’s, such as “Daddy”, The Bell Jar, and “Lady Lazarus”.

The ballad still I rise is composed by Maya Angelou; an African American writer, instructor and social liberties extremist. The ballad's strict importance is a snide reaction towards the general population who look down on the speaker. To the storyteller, the sonnet figuratively depicts her quality to dependably survive the fight against individuals' feedback of her and her predecessors. All around, this ballad conveys the message of the human's fantastic quality and capacity to defeat hurt. In any case, the fundamental and most essential message this ballad gives is the storyteller's quality to counter against separation of races and sexual orientation; which offers seek after other people who experience the ill effects of a similar difficulty.

“Still I Rise”, written by African-American writer Maya Angelou, includes a character who rises “Up from a past that’s rooted in pain.” No matter what words are said against her, lies are told about her, threats are made towards her, or words are written against her, she takes the past and uses it to fuel her confidence. The way she writes creates a deep sense of pride and feeling, while giving the poem life and helping the audience realise that they, too can rise. The diction, literary devices, and theme help the speaker portray her feelings about the topic of oppression in her experience.

Shown in the phrase, “Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides...Still I'll rise.” Angelou compares herself and her unwavering willpower to the forces of nature. Evoking an image of something bigger than any single person. This is significant because it gives that audience of the attitude that she holds, her will is a force of nature, untouchable and certain, something that could not fall to a human. Diction plays another big part in her message as Angelou never explicitly mentions gender or women throughout her poem. Instead she uses words like “sassiness”, “hauntiness” and “sexiness” which society deems improper, holding negative connotation regarding femininity. By choosing these words, Angelou is reclaiming the meaning- that women can talk back and be proud. Through her choice of diction, the audience gains understanding that this is a personal battle, a defence of her identity. Furthermore, the repetition of “I

mirror. Who are almost getting in the way so to speak of its life and

Although everyone has a father, the relationship that each person has with his or her father is different. Some are close to their fathers, while some are distant; some children adore their fathers, while other children despise them. For example, in Robert Hayden’s poem “Those Winter Sundays” Hayden writes about his regret that he did not show his love for his hardworking father sooner. In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” she writes about her hatred for her brute father. Despite both authors writing on the same topic, the two pieces are remarkably different. Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” and Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays” have different themes that are assembled when the authors put their different uses of imagery, tone, and characterization together.

Sylvia’s Plath’s “Metaphors” is about a woman feeling insignificant during the midst of her pregnancy. Striking imagery is used to explore the narrator’s attitudes about having a child. Plath uses metaphors in every line, including the title itself, making the poem a collection of clues. The reader is teasingly challenged to figure out these clues, realising that the metaphors have

Wrapped in gaseous mystique, Sylvia Plath’s poetry has haunted enthusiastic readers since immediately after her death in February, 1963. Like her eyes, her words are sharp, apt tools which brand her message on the brains and hearts of her readers. With each reading, she initiates them forever into the shrouded, vestal clan of her own mind. How is the reader to interpret those singeing, singing words? Her work may be read as a lone monument, with no ties to the world she left behind. But in doing so, the reader merely grazes the surface of her rich poetics. Her poetry is largely autobiographical, particularly Ariel and The Bell Jar, and it is from this frame of mind that the reader interprets the work as a