On-line Response #2: Sylvia PLATH
As usual, summarize the Plath excerpt. In your response, consider one of the following questions or comments to discuss:
● Is this a female version of Catcher in the Rye — in other words, a story of youthful alienation written from a female perspective — or does the perspective bring out issues that you wouldn't find in a story about male coming-of-age?
● Draw a connection between the villanelle poem ("Mad Girl's Love Song") featured in Plath's autobiographical note and the text of The Bell Jar.
● Explain how the following quote from Stephen King's story connects with the Plath text: "...we always believe, on some level, the worst thing our hearts can imagine..."
● Interpret Esther Greenwood's self-description as a "numb trolleybus" — how does this capture the essence of not only the novel but also Marshall Berman's description of "modernism" in All That Is Solid Melts Into Air?
Or pick any of the following themes and elaborate on their relevance for understanding Plath:
modernism
Puritanism
American conformity
historicism
"literariness"
alienation (linguistic or social)
ideology
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