Wherefore Art Thou, Father?

Allusions are used in literature for multitudes of reasons; usually to foreshadow an event in the novel, or to give the piece a deeper meaning. Sometimes, allusions are used to prove authorial purpose. In The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck uses allusions to prove the resiliency of the human spirit and how hope can persevere through even the worst of situations.

Everyone has a father. No matter if the father is present in a child’s life or not, he still exists and takes that role. A father has a major impact on his child whether he knows it or not, and that impact and example shapes the child’s perspective on life, and on love. The authors, Robert Hayden and Lucille Clifton, share the impact of their fathers through poetry, each with their own take on how their fathers treated them. The poems “Forgiving My Father” and “Those Winter Sundays” have significant differences in the speaker’s childhood experiences, the tone of the works, and the imagery presented, which all relate to the different themes of each poem.

The figurative language in the poem “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath can be used to discover a deeper significant of the poem. By using figurative language throughout the poem such as symbolism, imagery, and wordplay, Plath reveals hidden messages about her relationship with her father. Plath uses symbols of Nazis, vampires, size, and communication to help reveal a message about her dad.

Sylvia Plath uses her poem, Daddy, to express deep emotions toward her father’s life and death. With passionate articulation, she verbally turns over her feelings of rage, abandonment, confusion and grief. Though this work is fraught with ambiguity, a reader can infer Plath’s basic story. Her father was apparently a Nazi soldier killed in World War II while she was young. Her statements about not knowing even remotely where he was while he was in battle, the only photograph she has left of him and how she chose to marry a man that reminded her of him elude to her grief in losing her father and missing his presence. She also expresses a dark anger toward him for his political views and actions

In poems such as “The Victims”, “The Unborn”, and “The Clasp”, Sharon Olds demonstrates her ability to portray real life problems through generalized speech to show family problems that lead to unhappiness. Throughout these poems, she makes the reader empathize with her and feel as if the poem is speaking directly to them instead of it being just the situations that she has gone through. In order to achieve this, Olds uses an honest tone to portray her common theme of pain by aloneness, abuse and loss.

Poetry is like a song without music, it has the ability to awaken your emotions and the ability to tell stories that can paint beautiful, relatable, imagery in the viewer’s mind. Upon reading the poem, “My Son the Man” by Sharon Olds, she presents a unique view on her bittersweet experience of watching her son gravitate towards manhood, “Suddenly his shoulders get a lot wider” (line1), while realizing he is astute enough to escape his mother’s strong hold, “to learn the way out” (line 16). As a mother myself, I began to recognize how I can relate to the speaker’s challenges of understanding a child’s need to test limits and break free from dependency. I realized through the speaker’s obvious allusions to Houdini expressing the need to break free, the contrast used to convey the indirect references to Houdini, and the similes used to express emotion toward reflecting back on a time of innocence, accepting the need of a maturing child’s independence proves the strength of a mother’s love.

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.

Throughout literary history, authors have categorized mothers as nurturing, critical, and caring; works of literature characterize fathers, however, as providers who must examples for their children and embrace their protective, “fatherly” instincts. However, many works’ fathers fall short when it comes to acting the role of the ideal dad. Instead of being there for their children, they are away and play very miniscule roles in their children’s lives; instead of protecting he actually ends up hurting their kids. Thus, the paternal literary lens tries to determine whether or not the work’s father figure fits the “perfect father” archetype. This lens questions whether or not the father figure is his children’s active example, provider, and

In the poem “Daddy,” Sylvia Plath describes her true feelings about her deceased father. Throughout the dialogue, the reader can find many instances that illustrate a great feeling of hatred toward the author’s father. She begins by expressing her fears of her father and how he treated her. Subsequently she conveys her outlook on the wars being fought in Germany. She continues by explaining her life since her father and how it has related to him.

Compare the ways in which poets reflect on parental relationships – Daddy by Sylvia Plath and Mother Who Gave Me Life by Gwen Harwood

A father-child relationship can be a good thing for some people, and problematic for others. There are different types of fathers. There are fathers who are always around their children, who give unconditional love and guidance. Then there are hard-to-please fathers who drain their children with extremely high expectations, leading to a strained relationship. Moreover, there are fathers who cannot handle the responsibilities that come with fatherhood, this type of fathers walk out on the family when the situation gets tough. Many people see their fathers in one way as a child and grow to see them in a whole different light as adults. The richness and complexity of the child and father relationship are the reason many poets write about fatherhood and fathers.

Allusions are a literary device often used by authors to further some aspects of their work. This is especially evident in The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. Larson uses allusions in many ways to make help make connections in the readers’ minds.

struggle is never resolved, others take most of a lifetime. For a lucky few, they are

ia Plath and Elizabeth Bishop are famous American poets. Both poets are lonely They lose their fathers at a very young age Sylvias husband betrays her, and Elizabeths lover commits a suicide. Daddy by Sylvia Plath and One Art by Elizabeth Bishop share a common theme Longing for the deceased loved ones. Some readers may insist that the authors show indifferent or even hostile attitudes toward the you they talk to. However, they are indeed self-deceiving by hiding their actual loving emotions because they both show contradictory psychology, which ultimately reveals their longings for the you to come back. Sylvia Plaths Daddy vividly illustrates her feelings about the death of her farther a devastating nightmare, which is the start of her

The whole point of the poem “Daddy” is Sylvia Plath showing her emotions of how drained she felt from losing her father at a young age and how one death affected her whole life. The use of Nazi symbolism can be confusing, but plays a huge part in understanding the full meaning of what Plath was portraying. The use of intense imagery shows a story of Plath’s deepest emotions. The story Plath is describing is showing the reader her extreme depression and every big moment in her life that hurt her more and more. One could describe the poem “Daddy” as a collection of Plath’s most depressive memories in her life.