Preview

Sylvia Plath and Spirited Away

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1356 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sylvia Plath and Spirited Away
Sylvia Plath and Unrelated Text

The inner journey is a metaphysical process in which an individual travels into their own psyche often resulting in form of self realization. Although the journey is not physical, an inner journey is a powerful tool in which one can enhance their knowledge of the world and their own human nature, commonly encountering imaginative obstacles which assist in the individual’s self-realization. The texts that I will use to illustrate the inner journeys are “You’re” and “A Birthday Present” by Sylvia Plath and The animated film “Spirited Away” directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Sylvia Plath utilizes the inner journey as a way to explore aspects of her life through the medium of poetry. Her poem “You’re” explores the emotional journey of an expecting mother, using poetic techniques to highlight the joys and mysteries of the baby in the womb, In contrast to Sylvia Plath’s poem “A Birthday Present” which explores the persona’s fear of death, despite desperation to end ones life, effectively using techniques to highlight the fear and want for death. Comparatively Hayao Miyazaki utilizes his film “Spirited Away” to demonstrate the protagonist’s, Chihro journey to develops and overcome circumstances to become a self-sufficient and self-reflective girl, by emphasizing the development with camera techniques and layout of particular scenes. These texts demonstrate the importance of inner journeys, demonstrating how journeys result in knowledge of their own nature and the world around them.

Plath’s poem “You’re” conveys, a deep sense of joy and excitement, as a mother goes through the emotional journey, going through the delight of bearing a child, while still going through the mysterious and vagueness of the child referencing it to the furthest place imagined, for the persona “farther off than Australia”. Plath uses a range of techniques to express the joy of bearing a child and the warm comfort of it being “wrapped up in yourself like a spool”, the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Perhaps the first thought to mind when the name Sylvia Plath is mentioned is pure ironic tragedy. What a destructive death for a woman with a seemingly jubilant life. It is know to most that she was a poet and author beyond her time, beaming with creativity and writing poetry in her early teen years. However, with longing for fame struck the bittersweet reality of holding the title for the most unfortunate life. How can it be, that a woman struck by dire occurrences, leave such an incredible mark in the guest book of all great authors and poets? It seems to be true that many a melancholy poet, tend to be of the male gender; at least those who are greatly remembered and studied. So why is Plath one…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sylvia Plath

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Sylvia Plath poetry is unique because of her use of language and the perspective and themes she explores, creating powerful images and original metaphorical ideas to evoke a strong climax of feelings which express the struggles she experienced in her own personal life. Her poems ‘Lady Lazarus’ and ‘Daddy’ are confessional poems that use contemporary form and respectively a childlike and mocking tone to convey the persona’s mixed sense of emotions . Plath’s poetry utilises unique language to express her anger, hope, desire and disappointment. There is a constant suicidal motif in her poems revealing her personal issues and problems which are linked to male domination in the patriarchal society she resided in. It is unusual that Plath’s poetry is written in a strong female perspective contrary to the passive domesticity which women were meant to abide by in her 1950’s and 1960’s context.…

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Blake/Plath Essay

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The speakers in “Morning Song” by Sylvia Plath and “Infant Sorrow” by William Blake express their attitudes towards infancy. They do this through the use of imagery and language in each poem. There is a range of emotions that are expressed by the speakers, who are both providing perspectives of childbirth from the parent’s point of view. The vivid images that are created by these poems reveal the attitudes of the speakers toward infancy.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Sylvia Plath

    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Throughout the poem, Plath contradicts herself, saying, ‘I was seven, I knew nothing’ yet she constantly talks of the past, remembering. Her tone is very dark and imposing, she uses many images of blindness, deafness and a severe lack of communication, ‘So the deaf and dumb/signal the blind, and are ignored’. Her use of enjambment shows her feelings and pain in some places, in other places it covers up her emotional state. She talks of her father being a German, a Nazi. Whilst her father may have originated from Germany, he was in no way a Nazi, or a fascist. He was a simple man who made sausages. ‘Lopping the sausages!’ However she used this against her father, who died when she was but eight, saying that she still had night mares, ‘They color1 my sleep,’ she also brings her father’s supposed Nazism up again, ‘Red, mottled, like cut necks./There was a silence!’. Plath also talks of her father being somewhat of a general in the militia, ‘A yew hedge of orders,’ also with this image she brings back her supposed vulnerability as a child, talking as if her father was going to send her away, ‘I am guilty of nothing.’ For all her claims of being vulnerable and innocent, she uses many images of Nazism and gore and images of murder, crimes and blackness. On top of her previous images of blindness, deafness and communication, or lack thereof.…

    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    To go on a journey does not necessarily require one to physically move from one place to another. A journey can happen anywhere, and at any time, even if you are not moving. An inner journey is to transcend above the physical and temporal world into a spiritual realm. This enables one to look at life attentively and be alert to the lessons learnt from experience. ‘Of Eurydice’ by Ivan Lalic, ‘Fax X’ by Gwyneth Lewis, ‘Wind in the Willows’ by Kenneth Graham, ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost, ‘The Red Tree’ by Shaun Tan and ‘Baraka’ directed by Ron Fricke are five texts that explore this concept of inner journeys. Collectively they present inner journeys to be inevitable, that they require you to make choices and that they make you ask questions of an ontological nature.…

    • 1238 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hsc Paper

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ted Hughes’ ‘Birthday Letters’ is an anthology of poems which cover his personal view of his relationship with his first wife Sylvia Plath, a well-known poet, who’s most influential works were released in ‘Ariel’ and ‘the Bell jar’.( posthumously after her 1963 suicide) .The poems of Birthday Letters explore contradictory perspectives two of Hughes’ poems ‘The Shot’ and ‘The Minotaur’ which are significant as they delve deeply into his perspective of Plath, their relationship and private moments between the two. The 2003 film ‘Sylvia’, directed by Christine Jeff’s and is based on Plath’s own perspective. The use of slow rhythmic music (non-digetic sound) and a voice over presentive of Plath which positions , teamed with Sylvia’s hidden insecurities. Which are revealed in depth and persuade the audience to empathise with her thus contrasting with Hughes view.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Inner Journeys

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Inner journeys are about the process in which we move from naivity to maturity. In this proccess we learn new things about ourself that help us grow and become wiser and better people. The texts cosi by louis Nowra, the film groudhog day and the poem the road not taken all depict journeys of the mind and spirit which open up a greater understanding of the sense of self.…

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Woman today would find themselves lost in the times of the mid-1900’s society. Through the novel The Bell Jar, the reader will experience society’s expectations of women, their relationships with men, and how they follow right along with what the main character’s beliefs. The reader will learn to understand that there are punishments of society when one does not do what they should. The search for her identity and the acceptance of her truth has inspired women in future generations. Through the character of Esther Greenwood, Sylvia Plath explores the oppression felt by women in the 1950’s in her semibiographical novel The Bell Jar.…

    • 1501 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    So we ask ourselves, how does poetry gain its power? To answer this question, we examine the work of poets Harwood and Plath. ‘The Glass Jar’, composed by Gwen Harwood portrays its message through the emotions of a young child, while the poem ‘Ariel’, written by Sylvia Plath, makes effective use of emotions to convey artistic creativity and inspiration.…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Themes In Pleasantville

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “Any Journey includes both realities and possibilities”, the three texts that we have studied in class, the film 'Pleasantville' by Gary Ross and the poems 'Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost and 'Journey to the Interior' by Margaret Atwood, support this idea as these texts include the protagonist having embarked on not only physical and interior journeys in reality but also imaginary. The journey is known to be imaginary for the audience, but for the characters of the text these journeys have led them to be in a different stage in life, not only physical but internally, evolving into different people or having what become completely different people due to these journeys.…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A journey can be described as a passage one may undergo in order to reach a destination. Journeys can be both physical and emotional. As well as this journeys can be a positive and negative experience. The notion of journey is apparent is “Beneath Clouds” by Ivan Sen, as well as in related texts “Stand By Me” by Rob Reiner and “Bushwalking” by Phillip Rush. The idea of Journey in these texts is portrayed through obstacles, various poetic and film techniques.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harvie Krumpet Journey

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Everything in life can be related back to a journey - our character and ability to deal with situations will greatly influence the kind of people we will become. By studying the concept of a journey through a variety of texts, it is clear that it is the journey, not the destination that ultimately matters. The texts, Harvie Krumpet a Claymation short film by Adam Elliot, Stefania’s Dancing Slippers by Jennifer Beck and Lindy Fisher, and Tim Winton’s short story, Big World, reoccurring themes emerge with respect to life’s journeys. Among these are that a sojourner may experience lead to self-realisation and personal revelation, and sometimes, maturity.…

    • 1597 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Initiation Sylvia Plath

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In Initiation by Sylvia Plath, the author suggests that conformity and having friends is a wonderful idea, yet the idea of having an individual identity and being an individual is stronger. In the excerpt, Millicent is slowly realizing that conforming and being a part of a sorority is not as exciting as it sounds, and being an individual offers more opportunities to become a unique person.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror” and Gwen Harwood’s poem “In the Park” explore the concept of loss diversely. Plath’s poem surrounds the distress regarding the inevitability of aging and its impact while Harwood’s poem explores how the truth cannot be hidden when faced with motherhood.…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    3) Gerisch, B. (1998). `This is not death, it is something safer': A psychodynamic approach to Sylvia Plath. Death Studies, 22(8), 735.…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics