Plath Updike Analysis

Plath Updike Comparison Draft 0 By denying change, one gets stuck in the past. Comparing the similarities of Plath and Updike reveals both used speakers who live in fear of the future and instead live in the past. By using tone shifts and purposeful diction, both Plath and Updike display people's resistance to change and moving on. The tone shifts from each paragraph to paragraph, stanza to stanza displays Plath's and Flick's resistance to change as the authors shift from revealing their flaws to them resisting said flaws. Updike's tone shift from stanza three, describing Flick's past glory, to stanza four, describing Flick “never learn[ing] a trade...but most of us remember anyway,” reveals Flick resides in his heyday instead of moving on (Updike). Similarly, Plath's tone shift from paragraph four, where “at the present moment [she] is happy,” to paragraph 5, where “[she is] afraid of getting older...of getting married,” displays Plath's fear of growing up with new responsibilities …show more content…
This evidence lays out the similarities between Plath and Flick as they both hide from the future by residing in either their present or past selves and avoiding change. To them, the future precipitates change, so their rejection of the future instigates their avoidance towards change. Between paragraph five and …show more content…
Both Plath and Flick resist the idea of change due to their own stubbornness, which manifests because of their egotistical personalities. Improving requires acceptance of one's own faults, vices, and sins as by accepting these allows self-improvement, yet Plath and Flick reject the idea of imperfection and change. The very idea of change remains fundamental to the growth of mankind, yet some dare to challenge this idea. Those brave resistors must deny themselves growth emotionally and spiritually as they never change and move on from their