Sylvia Likens

Sylvia Plath seemed to have the ideal life on the surface but underneath was another side, tamed but on the verge of breaking out. Sylvia Plath started writing at age 11 in her journal and soon after pieces of her work began to be published. Even though she started writing at a young age, her best poetic works did not emerge until she and her husband, Ted Hughes, were separated. At this time of Hughes and Plath’s separation, Plath was living alone with her two children through one of England’s…

marriage, and any sexual act with their husband is for the sole purpose of procreation. The idea of conforming to these gender roles stemmed from the constant reinforced messages in popular culture. However, not all Americans conformed to these norms. Sylvia Plath, an American poet, novelist and short story writer, rebelled against the cultural norms by being a working woman in society. In 1963, Plath…

Similar to the indirect characterization of Lily, Kidd symbolizes the slips of paper located in the wailing wall as evidence of May's suffering, in order to demonstrate May’s struggle to deal with her concern for those around her. For example, during the novel, August explains to Lily that the wailing wall is similar to the one located in Jerusalem where the Jewish people go to mourn. Additionally, while discussing the wailing wall August expresses, “All those bits of paper you see out there…

Sylvia Plath, in her novel The Bell Jar, said, “If you expect nothing from somebody you are never disappointed”. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, reflects this idea of recognizing the falseness of society and distancing oneself from others in order to create a shield against societal superficiality. In the novel, we see Holden Caulfield interact with various personalities, all of whom bring out different aspects of his own character and attitude toward society. In order to convey the…

For our poetry unit, my partner and I were assigned the poem “Chess”. The poem was written by a woman named Rosario Castellanos. She was born in Mexico City, May 25, 1925. Throughout her career as a poet and author, she wrote numerous poetries, essays, and novels. At her time, she was one of the most important Mexican woman writers. Castellanos had the voice to write about the issues of cultural and gender oppression. Though, she died at a young age by committing suicide, but her work still…

Sylvia Plath writes to express the things that have happened throughout her life that also affected many young women her age. She also writes to discuss stigmatized or provocative topics. Plath takes to discussing subjects such as depression, double standards, and societal expectations, at length and candidly. Drawing from her own life and battles with depression, Plath herself went through some of the more invasive procedures as described in the novel. For Esther Greenwood, the therapy “took…

Amy Jade Winehouse was truly a diva with many demons (Rolling Stone, 1). She was born September 14, 1983 to Jewish parents in the town of Southgate, a suburb of London, England (Biography.com, Amy Winehouse). Winehouse’s career started at a very young age. At just 16 years old her talents were already being discovered when a classmate of hers passed on a demo (Rolling Stone, 1). She grew up surrounded by Jazz music, in fact many of her relatives on her mother's side were Jazz musicians…

Allen Ginsberg, along with a few of his close friends, founded the movement that we know today as the Beat Generation. Ginsberg wrote about many topics, including gay rights, the decriminalization of drugs, free speech, and the general perversion of America’s political system. He wrote directly from his experience of being a homosexual man living in a time of challenging the traditional authorities and rules that once governed our lives. Ginsberg never wondered if what he wrote was too raw or…

Sylvia Plath utilizes personification and simile to illustrate women’s struggles with accepting the ‘flaws’ that come with aging. Through the usage of personification, Sylvia Plath describes the harsh truthfulness of a mirror. The mirror says, I have no preconceptions. What ever you see I swallow immediately Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike. I am not cruel, only truthful (Sylvia Plath 1-2). The mirror doesn’t alter the appearance in its reflection; it has no bias.…

Lunacy: The Portrait of a Student Sylvia Plath once wrote, “The floor seemed wonderfully solid. It was comforting to know I had fallen and could fall no further.” I wish I could say my descent into madness was graceful, but yet that wasn’t the case. I had hit rock bottom. Actually I had cannonballed into it. I was a shadow of a girl then, but I wasn’t always like that. I felt on top of the world, I had graduated 20 out of 639, and I had gotten into my dream school. My collapse taught me that it…