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Although what stands out in Sylvia Plath’s poem "Daddy" is the Nazi imagery, it is interesting to note that the father is not called a Nazi in the first half of the poem. In the first stanza he is a "black shoe / In which [she has] lived like a foot" (2-3) which is certainly a stifling image but not yet a clear reference to the father's evil nature. Next he is "Marble heavy, a bag full of God" and a "Ghastly statue" (8-9), images which reveal the daughter's struggle to cope with his death but do not reflect any bad intent on the part of the father. From line 15 to the midway point of "Daddy," Plath begins to use Nazi imagery, but she still does not attack the father. Instead, the poem focuses on the daughter's frustrating attempt to connect with her dead father through his native language, German. In the second half of "Daddy," it is difficult at first to pinpoint where Plath starts to include thoughts of her husband. The speaker of the poem doesn’t make specific reference of a marriage until line 67, there is evidence before that which suggests that the speaker had found a replacement for her father. The language of lines 48 to 50, "Every woman adores a Fascist, / The boot in the face, the brute / Brute heart of a brute like you," connotes an abusive relationship between husband and wife, not parent and child. Likewise, the phrase "the black man who / Bit my pretty red heart in two" (55-56) is much more appropriate for a scorned lover than a daughter. In line 72 the speaker begins to speak of a vampire, symbolizing her husband who "drank my blood for a year/Seven years, if you want to know.” It is with the poem's climax, the killing of the vampire, that Plath finally separates the figures of father and husband. The daughter avenges the injury to her "pretty red heart" by stabbing the vampire's "fat black heart" (56, 76). By analyzing "Daddy" in terms of the vampire metaphor we see how the poem attacks the speaker's husband on a symbolic level while condemning her father on a literal level. The character of Joy/Hulga in Flannary O’Connor’s “Good Country People” is generally very negative and pessimistic in outlook. She seems to feel different from other people, and even inferior to them, because of her leg. Her pursuit of a Ph.D. in philosophy was possibly an attempt to compensate for and counteract those feelings. She even overcompensates for those feelings, as evident in her sense of being superior to the "good country people" living around her (including her mother). Her relationship with Mrs. Hopewell may have influenced her feelings of inadequacy and her attempts to compensate for them. Mrs. Hopewell continually speaks of Mrs. Freeman’s daughters as “two of the finest girls she knew and that Mrs. Freeman was a lady and that she was never ashamed to take her anywhere or introduce her to anybody they might meet.” This statement describes what Mrs. Hopewell wished that Joy/Hulga would be like. Mrs. Hopewell loves her daughter, but does not like her attitude towards life and others. Mrs. Hopewell, in contrast to her daughter, is very optimistic. Mrs. Hopewell epitomizes traditional southern mentality and the woman's role within this culture. It is possible, however, that Mrs. Hopewell isn't inherently optimistic, but is kind of putting on an act without being aware of it. Her constant efforts to see the best in everything may indicate how she is willfully ignoring the bad things around her and repressing her own negative thoughts. As Joy/Hulga pointed out, “Woman! Do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not? God!” Joy/Hulga condemns her mother's convictions and everything they signify, and instead she takes comfort in her study of “Nothing.” From the beginning of “Shiloh”, Norma Jean was portrayed as no more mature at the age of thirty-four than she was when she married Leroy at the age of eighteen. Mabel, her mother, was a dominating figure in her life, and treats Norma Jean as though she is still a child. She went over to Norma Jean’s house and constantly criticized the way Norma Jean kept the house. In addition to complaining about the house, Mabel blamed Norma Jean for the death of her baby, claiming that Norma Jean neglected the child. For years Mabel was after Leroy and Norma Jean to take a trip to Shiloh, the site of a Civil War battle that ended tragically. This battle was the first indication of how horrible the war would be, just as Norma Jean began to realized what her life would be like with Leroy home all of the time. Somewhere along the trip Norma Jean decided to end the marriage. Mabel pushed Norma Jean into marriage when Leroy got her pregnant, Mabel criticized her all of the time, Mabel seemed to always take Leroy’s side when discussing Norma Jean, and Mabel pushed for the trip to Shiloh. Norma Jean’s feelings of anger most likely stem from her mother’s overbearing qualities. Bibliography: Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”, Flannary O’Connor’s “Good Country People”, and Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Shiloh” Word Count: 925
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