Superman and Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit
The title of the story is fairly simple in a way, as the first part of the story is about Superman, and the last part about a snowsuit. The story starts with a pleasant fantasy but ends up unpleasant. Sylvia Plath uses her own experiences to tell the story, but it is not her autobiography.
The story tells how the narrator, who is unnamed (this gives a sense of mystery) plays games and makes up adventures for superman. She believes that Superman will be able to teach her how to fly one day. After her Father dies, the narrator looks up to her Uncle Frank as her idol, and sees him as her superman. In the main part of the story, the narrator is invited to the party of a wealthy, spoilt girl, Paula Brown. For her birthday present, Paula Brown receives a powder blue snowsuit from Sweden. After a while, Paula is playing tag with her friends, whilst wearing her snowsuit. She falls into an oil slick, and her snowsuit is ruined. Paula blames the narrator and the other children also join in the accusation. The narrator has no happy ending to her story as everyone is convinced that she is to blame for the damage to the snowsuit.
At the end of the story, the narrator is very depressed and feels completely alone. She pretends she is fine to her Mother and Uncle, but she is suffering deep down. She leaves a light room and decides somewhere dark to hide and think. This shows how everything has changed around her. She feels she has lost her trust in the people close to her, including her Uncle. This was a stage of the narrator’s life where she was growing up. She has left the childhood world of innocence and is entering the real world. The girl realizes that Superman won’t always be there, she will have to fight her own battles.
The story shows how people can shift the blame from their own actions onto someone else. This is related to the wartime setting of the story. In the War, the Jewish people were blamed by the Nazi party for past problems in Germany. In the story, it is seen how the girl is blamed for the accident to the snowsuit. Once the finger is pointed at her, every one else joins in. Paula appears to be popular, everyone follows her lead. Paula is frightened to tell her parents that the accident was due to her carelessness. If the narrator hadn’t joined in with the game, she wouldn’t have been blamed.
There are some elements of fantasy and reality to the story. Superman is ideal media for fantasy stories, because the writer can use creative language to make the text more appealing. For example, the writer talks about how the girl gets caught up in Superman’s adventures. This creates a sense of fascination.
In the story, the War is a major issue. There is an illustration of War when the children go the cinema at the party. They are expecting to see a children’s fantasy, but there is a supporting feature which is a US propaganda film. It shows how the Japanese torture and kill prisoners of war. The narrator finds these scenes unsuitable, and vomits in the toilet.
In this story, both time and place are important. The setting of the story is in the eastern USA; near Boston. Time can be seen as historical time, and the narrator’s life. The historical time is all about the War. During the story there are constant reminders of war. Time can also be understood in a person’s life. This story marks the end of childhood as a time of trust and innocence. Adults are seen as powerless, just like children themselves.
In the story everything is seen through the eyes of the narrator. This may make us accept all her judgments. This story could be told from different viewpoints. Sheldon, Paula and Uncle Frank would all tell it differently. The story is written in first person narrative. Sylvia Plath tries to show the thoughts of a nine year old. However, the structure of sentences, the vocabulary choices and the control of grammar suggest that an educated adult wrote this story.
Symbolism
In the story flying is a symbol of possibility and imagination. At the start, the narrator dreams of flying, and seems able to believe in her dreams. At the end, flight is no longer a possibility and the airplanes vanish with Superman's cape.
The story contrasts two costumes – one is Superman's famous blue suit, with the red cape; the other is Paula's powder-blue snowsuit. They seem to represent opposing ideas. Superman's costume is a symbol of justice. Paula's snowsuit comes to represent self-indulgence.
Snowdrops
The story appears to be about a boy and his day at school. He attends a school in Wales in a town that seems to be the author’s home town. His teacher has promised the class that they can go outside to look at the snowdrops that are now coming up. While the children are looking at the snowdrops, they can see a funeral procession passing the school. The boys' parents have spoken earlier about a young man, killed in a motorbike accident, and it is his funeral. Evidently the teacher knows this, for she stands watching and crying. The story is told indirectly by Leslie Norris, and is about the love between Miss Webster and the young man who died.
The title of the story suggests one of its themes; the story is about snowdrops literally. For the reader and the children in the narrative, snowdrops symbolize the renewal of life that comes in spring, and even eternal life beyond death.
This story does not have fully developed characters as they are not introduced properly. The writer does not describe the characters directly, but there are many details that enable us to form a sense of some of them. The boy (who is unnamed) is present through the narrative. The story is seen through his eyes, even though he is not the narrator. He takes interest in everything around him and he observes many things, but with limited understanding. He doesn’t know why his parents become secretive about the boy who has been killed, and he doesn’t understand why Miss Webster is late attending school on the day of the boy’s funeral.
The story is set in the valleys of South Wales - once a coal-mining and steel-smelting area. There is evidence to suggest this setting. The boy in the story does not speak Welsh but recognizes it because of his grandmother - this strongly suggests that the story is in South Wales; in the North of Wales he would have learnt Welsh from an early age. The boy's father speaks of working in a "rolling mill" - this would be part of a steelworks, similar to those once found in the valleys of South Wales.
The style of writing is vivid and direct. There are lots of simple sentences.
“The boy didn’t know.” Line 49
“The boy drew a robin”. Line 103
“The boy nodded”. Line 186
At some points the author uses a vocabulary that suggests that they boy is thinking, his sense of wondering is something adults may not pick up. The author makes the boy's wonder appear through his actions.
Symbolism
The snowdrop is seen as an emblem of new life. Through the story, the author builds up the boy’s hope, and that is finally rewarded with a sight of the flowers. The boy sees them as both resilient and fragile. They bend with the wind and survive in cold conditions. They come back every year, bringing new life with the spring.
Comparisons
Similarities
The stories are similar in many different ways. All of the stories contain symbols, which are used to provide a deeper meaning, of what things might represent. They help the reader understand the story in a clearer ways, and the reader is able to see views from different characters. The stories also contain images of relationships between different generations, and growing up in life. In “Flight”, Alice realizes she is growing up, and it is time for her to move on and get married. The young boy in “Snowdrops” sees the flowers as strong yet fragile at the end of the narrative, and the girl in “Superman and Paula Brown’s snowsuit” realizes that everything in life is not fair, sometimes you will be blamed for something you haven’t done, and there are always untruthful people out there in the World.
“Flight” and “Snowdrops” are both written in 3rd person narrative, this is because the author wanted the story to be written in view from a certain character. The stories are similar due to at least one of the characters in each of the stories being left anonymous. In “Flight”, the old man, the central character is left anonymous. In the story, I believe this makes him seen as less of an individual. In “Superman and Paula Brown’s Snowsuit”, the narrator’s name is also unknown, this is partly used to the story written in first person. However, in the text, the girls Uncle refers to her and “honey” and not by her real name. This is a good technique used by the author, because as we don’t know the girls name, it is as if she lonely and been abandoned, which is what has happened in the story. In “Snowdrops”, the young boy is left unnamed throughout the narrative. The story is seen through his eyes, although he is not the narrator.
The settings of the stories are quite appropriate. In “Superman and Paula Brown’s Snowsuit”, the setting of the USA is far away from Europe, where the War is being fought. The children in the story don’t realize that the War will interfere with their security. “Snowdrops” is set in South Wales, and there are many clues in the text that tell us this. The Author conveys a sense of a close community, where people know and care about each other. But it is also quite traditional, with clear roles for men and women, for example Miss Webster is excluded from the funeral procession.
In “Flight” and “Superman and Paula Brown’s snowsuit”, both Alice (Flight) and the narrator in “Superman and Paula Brown’s snowsuit” have had someone else filling in the father figure role, in their life, as their father is not around. In “Flight” the grandfather maybe does what any father would do; try to keep the family together for as long as possible. In “Superman”, “Uncle Frank” fits well in to the father role for the narrator.
“Snowdrops” and “Flight” are stories which have characters which are no fully developed. The writers to not seem to describe the characters directly, but we see them through views of other characters, in some cases the main character.
Differences
Although the stories have many similarities, they also have differences. When reading 3 narratives, it is easy to make comparisons between them, but maybe more difficult to find differences between the two stories.
There are many differences between “Superman” and “Flight”. “Flight” is written in 3rd person narrative, and is told entirely from the old man’s point of view, whereas “Superman” is written in 1st person narrative. The settings of the two stories are entirely different. The setting in “Flight” isn’t stated clearly, although there are a few clues as to where it is. These include: the frangipani tree, the dovecote, plates and cups of tea, the veranda, and the postmaster (job title). On the other hand, in “Superman”, we know that the story is set in the War, and the War is an important issue, this is shown by the author as she constantly refers to it- the narrator wins a prize for drawing the best civil defence signs, Sheldon pretends to be a Nazi, there is a War film showing at the cinema and the girl’s Uncle is waiting to join the armed services. The actual place of setting in Boston, in the USA, which is on the other side of the world to where “Flight is set. Although the two stories are close, in a sense they are quite different. Also, “Snowdrops” has a completely different setting to the other two stories. It is set in South Wales; the author gives us many clues for this setting.
In “Flight” and “Superman”, the two girls growing up have different people who affect their lives. In “Flight”, it is the grandfather who brings out the emotion in the girl at the end of the story, whereas in “Superman” it is Uncle Frank who has an influence on the girl, she looks up to him and respects him.
The symbolism is quite different in all of the stories. In “Flight”, Alice’s feelings are maybe shown by the rough time the pidgeon is also going through. This technique is used by the author to help the reader understand the situation and the character’s feelings. In “Superman”, there are 2 examples of symbolism, compared to just the 1 in “Flight”. The symbolism is used to creative an imaginative atmosphere the story, which underlines the themes of the story. In “Snowdrops”, the author builds up a sense of adventure, which is similar in some ways to “Superman”. In the end, the boy is rewarded with a sight of the flowers.
Overall, I found the stories interesting and sometimes out of the ordinary, which made them good to write about. I particularly enjoyed “Superman and Paula Brown’s snowsuit” due to the fascination and adventure of the story. The snowsuit could be compared to the cape of superman. In “Flight”, it was good to see the grandfather understanding in the end what his granddaughter wanted for the best. This story could no doubt be help for some people who have been at either end of that situation. In fact, all of the stories appeal to a wide range of people. E.g.- Many people can say they have been blamed for something they haven’t done, which is similar to the storyline in “Superman and Paula Brown’s snowsuit”. I thought the young boy in “Snowdrops” was a good character, as he is very aware of what is going on. It was a good technique of Leslie Norris to show the story in the viewpoint of a young boy, who is still going through learning processes in life.
