Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” and Regina Barreca’s poem “Nighttime Fires” are both being told by young women looking back at their early childhood years. Both poems involve the relationship between a father and his child. Plath’s poem explores the relationship of a dominating father and his daughter; and her struggle to break free from those memories and the ties that are keeping her bound. Barreca’s poem is also about a father and daughter, but more so of the unhealthy deteriorating life of the father.
In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” the reader needs only to read a few lines to understand the speaker’s overwhelming feelings of being oppressed by her father and later by other men. Plath writes in the first stanza,
You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white.
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.
Typically speaking the imagery of living like a foot in a shoe would give a sense of protection from the......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 1569
Approximate Pages: 7 (260 words per double-spaced page) |