• Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Sylvia Plath's "Blackberrying". The poem is significant as it underlines the struggle of women in a male dominated world

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

BlackBerrying Ted Hughes Plath?s husband quotes that their daughter had been born and that they were returning to England when she wrote the poem in the 1960?s. The motif of role of women is exclaimed in the poem and the struggle for women to balance family and a job during the time. Plath?s style involves the use of extended metaphors as titles in her poems. The title BlackBerrying is an extended metaphor for traditional berry picking, traditionally done by women. (i)The persona uses obstacles as metaphors to show the block in the path of the artist which created inner conflict as she has mixed emotions between taking care of her family and children and maintaining a career dominated by men. (ii) The persona uses imagery of a journey to the climax of the poem to show the processing of thought, which shows inner conflict as the persona is forced to choose between family and passion. ...read more.

Middle

- repetition of ?protesting? emphasizing their criticism. (ii) Journey and the creative process for a writer (artist) - - repetition of ?nothing? ? lack of hope, portraying a creative block in the thought process of an artist. Reference to wintering ? extended metaphor, which is also a poem about the lack of creativity in an artist - ?bits of burnt paper wheeling in a blown sky? reference to wind, destiny fate - ?green meadows glowing, as if lit from within? colour imagery showing creativity ? positive - ?I come to one bush of berries so ripe it is a bush of flies? ? metaphor in reference to creativity shows aggression (frustration with how society works) ? ?blackberrying as the ball of my thumb, and dumb as eyes? refer to cut where the thumb is fallic symbol in reference to male domination (survival in a man?s world) ...read more.

Conclusion

societies rules and (2) male domination (iv) journey of the artist explained through structure of poem.. firstly it begins with an artist block (2) frustration (3) criticism (4) inflow of ideas (creation) (5) anticlimax where creation is overlooked because you are a woman in society as apposed to man.. In conclusion.. The poem is significant as it underlines the struggle of women in a male dominated world, which creates external conflict with society and internal conflict as we are put in a position to decide between family life or career. The poem identifies a significant time in her life as she had just given birth to her daughter still with her husband returning to England and the changes in setting must have caused the mixed emotions to flow through as the sudden realization of the responsibility of baby and the well being may hinder her own development in her career but also the drawbacks with her husband and his affairs causes mixed emotions to flow through in this poem also showing her frustration towards men. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our International Baccalaureate World Literature section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related International Baccalaureate World Literature essays

  1. Cut by Sylvia Plath is a very vivid poem that examines bleeding and pain ...

    There is a prevalent tone of gloominess and sadness throughout the poem which reminds the reader of death because of the metaphors that she puts forth us. An example of this is when she compared the gauze on her thumb to the Ku Klux Klan.

  2. Conflict, Conflict, Conflict: An Examination of the Protagonist's Struggle in The Stranger and Siddhartha ...

    The unattached manner in which Meursault treats his relationship with Marie, the woman he has been dating, also provides insight into his inability to have emotions towards another being. He admits that he "probably d[oes]n't love her," however, is still willing to marry her because "it d[oes]n't make any difference to [him]" (Camus, The Stranger 41).

  1. Free essay

    Sheikh Darwish's Role as the Prophet of Change in Mahfouz's Midaq Alley

    When he appears in western attire, the residents of the alley come to accept him. Sheikh Darwish's tendencies to don western attire, and his interactions with it, reveal the accepted creation of a vital link between Midaq Alley and the western world.

  2. In "Daddy", Sylvia Plath shows intense emotions towards the relationships she had with her ...

    In the sixth and seventh stanzas Plath describes her father as a n**i, "I thought every German was you". She calls her father a Pollack and says she is the jew "I began to talk like a Jew. I think I may well be a Jew".

  1. Bog Queen: Heaneys Metaphor for The Rebirth of Irish Societies

    The image of the socket creates a feeling of emptiness because the socket is devoid of an eyeball. This is also another reference to the process of the decay of the organs. Along with this, the Bog Queen explains that as she waits to be found, ?[her] brain darkening,[...] / fermenting underground (17, 19).

  2. Commentary on Three Women by Sylvia Plath

    Another example of imagery is when the second voice describes her position as shadowy and dark. She thinks of herself as a shadow, ?no woman nor man?. The darkness she accentuates in her description refers to her disappointment of herself and the fact that she is infertile.

  1. Commentary on the poem "Blackberry Picking".

    This would be the case because this is when the presence of the dark elements is felt and there is a change from the jolly mood to that of seriousness. The poem has a jolly tone and mood at the beginning and seems just like one more of those poems in which the poet is remembering their childhood.

  2. Commentary on "Arrival of the bee box" by Sylvia Plath.

    The fact that she has to "live with it overnight" implies that this inner conflict is at all times taking place, even in her dreams.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work