Plath’s Daddy Essay Clusters of Images - 651 Words

Clusters of Images in Daddynbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Imagery in literature provides the writer with an instrument for establishing a viewpoint or perspective. The author can use an unlimited amount of symbols, similes, and metaphors that produce an atmosphere for the reader to visualize the story effectively. In the poem Daddy, written by Sylvia Plath, the author utilizes numerous clusters of images to represent the fury and wrath of a crazed woman haunted by her fathers frightening and domineering disposition. Plath uses this imagery to depict the emotional chaos controlling fathers inflict on their offspring. One of the most prominent groups of images Plath uses to show the turmoil and fear the narrator feels†¦show more content†¦In line 43, the neat moustache and Aryan eye compares her father with Adolf Hitler, the most ruthless, evil man in history. Panzer-man (l. 45) implies her father was like one of the most feared military machines, an armored tank producing a mind-chilling sound when approaching its target. She also says he is not God but a swastika (l. 46), the flag which signifies pure hatred. The speaker continues her assault with images of a devils hoofs and a demon-like vampire. The affiliation of the vampire to her father is an image that still haunts her day after day until she finally kills him, driving a stake in his fat black heart (l. 75). The mind-numbing emotions these images instill can rip apart any humans sanity. Plath focuses on images with somber and dreary shades of color that enable her to create a dismal backdrop for the poem. The narrator uses the color black throughout the poem to depict her father as a wicked man. She mentions a model she made of her father as, A man in black, with a Meinkampf look (l. 65). Here, Plath uses a German word that reminds the reader again of the Nazi empire. The color black associates the father with death and destruction. In the beginning of the poem, an image of a black shoe in which I have lived like a foot (l. 2) is mentioned. Consequently, the shoe is the fathers web, manipulating the speakers awareness. Line 47 describes the sky