Help with Plath-After the Bomb essay (1 Viewer)

[LoveHateSchool]

So I have an in class essay coming up soon about Sylvia Plath and After the Bomb. I don't have a specific Q because I assume they don't want people to memorize/regurgitate an essay.

But I'm at a loss of how to structure it really! You see;
1) Do I focus on just select poems, or incorporate examples from most of them?
2) Seeing as it's "After the Bomb" and about an overarching paradigm, should I split the paragraphs by theme and have integrated/mixed examples from the poem? Like have a paragraph about fate, questioning traditional family values, dis empowerment etc? It's a bit hard cause they all fall under questioning and fatalism etc. Or should I group them by their techniques like WW2 imagery, tone etc.

Argh this essay is a mess, rep and eternal gratitude is on the line here.

 

[avro]

I would focus on 3 poems. I tend to focus on Daddy, Lady Lazarus, and Fever 103 (only because I can relate these to more universal feelings, I suppose - they fit in to After the Bomb really well).

I would focus on the paradigms and themes, and then go on to say: the imagery of WW2 presented in Daddy explores the psychological dimension etc etc (loss of father, remorse, depression from war). I would try and pick out relevant themes from 3 or so poems that you can adapt to any type of question. Don't just forget the 'big world' issues such as war, but also try and focus on the personal (depression etc) and how this can be representation and reflective of how people behaved/acted/and their attitudes.

In summation, group them under themes. That way you can incorporate examples and it will be more logical.

 

[dwayne95]

I'm doing an essay on Plath too, and you advice was really helpful. I was just wondering please if someone could tell me about "paradigms". They seems to come up a lot but my teacher has never mentioned them - what are they? And how do they relate to Plath/After the Bomb?

Thanks!

 

[Hello2U2]

Paradigms is an important term to know/learn as it essentially means "ways of thinking". When you are talking about different paradigms of a text you are talking about different ways of reading a text eg. social, religious, philosophical, psychological.

 

[dwayne95]

Paradigms is an important term to know/learn as it essentially means "ways of thinking". When you are talking about different paradigms of a text you are talking about different ways of reading a text eg. social, religious, philosophical, psychological.

Oh thanks!

So basically you could say something like a "Marxist paradigm" or a "feminist paradigm"?