y, but it was too late. Ottos toe was amputated in hopes of saving him. Sylvias father passed away in November, 1940. Source: Butscher, Edward. Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness. New York: The Seabury Press, 1976.The next passage, And a head in the freakish Atlantic where it pours bean green over blue, in the waters off beautiful Nauset. describes how Sylvia felt when she heard of her fathers infection in his foot. She thinks of it in a kind of hideous way that makes her sick. I used to pray to recover you. Ach, du, shows me that she still cared about her father and prayed for him while he was ill. It is amazing that even though she knew her father didnt care for her, Sylvia still cared enough for him to worry. But he still didnt care that she worried. The passage In the German tongue, in the Polish town scraped flat by the roller of wars, wars, wars,shows the plot of the poem, where everything took place. This also hints on the period in history when this happened, however, it doesnt tell us exactly. In the following stanza it explains further. But the name of the town is common. My Polack friend says there are a dozen or two. So I never could tell where you put your foot, your root, I never could talk to you. This tells me that she is looking for where he is from. She doesnt exactly know where he was raised or what his background is because there are many towns with the same name. Therefore, she is unable to understand his upbringing, which developed his coldhearted character. As Sylvia gets older and begins to understand the wars in Germany, she relates her life to the many conflicts they bring with them. The tongue stuck in my jaw. It stuck in a barbwire snare. Ich, ich, ich, ich, I could hardly speak. Again this describes her fear toward her father. She is so afraid of him that she cant talk and speak out against him. The barbwire represents the war that was taking place. She relates to the victims of war and s...
