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/lit/ - Literature

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1302749 No.1302749 [Reply] [Original]

Hi there

First off, I don't want anyone to do my homework for me. So don't take what I have to say the wrong way.

What I will say, though, is that I am writing a short essay on Sylvia Plath's "The Cut"

Here it is, if you're unfamiliar with it.
-----

What a thrill—
My thumb instead of an onion.
The top quite gone
Except for a sort of a hinge

Of skin
A flap like a hat,
Dead white.
Then that red plush.

Little pilgrim,
The Indian’s axed your scalp.
Your turkey wattle
Carpet rolls

Straight from the heart.
I step on it,
Clutching my bottle
Of pink fizz.

A celebration, this is.
Out of a gap
A million soldiers run,
Redcoats, every one.

Whose side are they on?
O my
Homonculus, I am ill.
I have taken a pill to kill

The thin
Papery feeling.
Saboteur,
Kamikaze man—

The stain on your
Gauze Ku Klux Klan
Babushka
Darkens and tarnishes and when
The balled
Pulp of your heart
Confronts its small
Mill of silence

How you jump—
Trepanned veteran,
Dirty girl,
Thumb stump.

-----

cont in next post

>> No.1302750

Now what intrigues me about the poem is how the thumb seems to take on an identity of its own. Only twice in the poem is it actually referred to as a Thumb - the rest of the time, Plath uses metonymy and metaphor to refer to the thumb and its injury. Now it might seem like a feature independent to this poem, but from my perspective as someone studying Plath, it seems like alot of her poems have to deal with identity and suffering. But talking specifically about The Cut, I can see examples of how these motifs make an appearance: the speaker of the poem has no actual identity herself, and her experience is transformed based on the injury she has received. Basically, in the state of shock following the injury, her identity is based on the suffering her thumb sustains, and as a result her experience is described solely in terms of this idea of "suffering" as Plath sees it.

Notice I really didn't give any actual evidence in the above paragraph to support my claims. What I want to ask is the following: do you think this evaluation of the poem is fair? Don't feel like you have to look for evidence (as I said, I don't want anyone doing my homework for me), but I would appreciate it if you could give me your impression of my evaluation, based on reading this poem and any past experience you might have with Plath.


Thanks

>> No.1302756

Who could have foreseen the author of this poem killing herself?

>> No.1302763

>>1302756
ted hughes

>> No.1302770

>>1302763
>>1302756

This isn't funny you guys

>> No.1302785 [SPOILER] 
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1302785

bump

>> No.1302786

This & 'The Tower' are my favourites.

>> No.1302789

>>1302786
Do you find them analogous in any major sense?

>> No.1302792

>>1302789
>your two favourite poems are expected to be similar

>> No.1302795
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1302795

Plath was a fox

>> No.1302803

>>1302792
Thanks for contributing to the thread instead of vacuously posting whatever was on your mind. No but seriously, I try to engage your nonsensical and off topic comment and you respond like that? You might as well not post at all.

>> No.1302808

Sauce, OP?

Don't blame me, I have hemotolagnia.

>> No.1302813

>>1302803
sorry bro, i didn't bother to read OPs second post & thought it was a h/w thread as evidenced by my sage.

>> No.1302816
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1302816

>>1302749
>What a thrill—

>> No.1302822

>>1302808
I'll deliver the set if you answer the question in the second post.

>> No.1302824
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1302824

>With darkness and silence through the night

>> No.1302850

bump

>> No.1302866

>>1302808
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWZxThGh5wQ&has_verified=1

>> No.1302873

You did give evidence though

>nly twice in the poem is it actually referred to as a Thumb - the rest of the time, Plath uses metonymy and metaphor to refer to the thumb and its injury.

That paraphrases the poem and proves your statement.

>> No.1302885

>>1302873
Hmm, that's true, but is it enough to substantiate my thesis?

>> No.1302899

> but from my perspective as someone studying Plath, it seems like alot of her poems have to deal with identity and suffering.

I don't know about this. It's good, because you're showing your wider knowledge of Plath, but you can't substantiate this statement with evidence without going off track.

>Basically, in the state of shock following the injury, her identity is based on the suffering her thumb sustains, and as a result her experience is described solely in terms of this idea of "suffering" as Plath sees it.

Give evidence for this.

Otherwise you're ok so far. Your style of essay writing is very different to mine (I usually refrain from personal response until my usually bulky conclusion) but that doesn't mean I'm right and you're wrong.