Para 3 - WW2 imagery

Question 1

Point

Answer 1

Furthermore, Plath successfully uses imagery as she makes heavy reference to the oppression suffered by Jewish people during WW2 and relates this to the speakers life because she has suffered greatly as a result of her father.

Question 2

Imagery (Jewish people)

Answer 2

The simile “an engine, an engine chuffing me off like a Jew” is one of the first points in the poem where Plath refers to the speaker as being a seriously oppressed victim. The quote shows that the speaker believes that her life was taken away from her when her father died, just like millions of Jewish peoples lives were taken away from them when they were sent to concentration camps. Plath then names the three biggest concentration camps “Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen” to emphasise the extent of suffering the speaker faced because of the treatment of her from her father when he was alive and also the suffering she faced following his death.

Question 3

Imagery (Nazi)

Answer 3

Plath then uses the quote “not God but a swastika” in relation to the speakers father. This metaphor tells readers that the speaker sees her father as a terrible and wicked man because she sees him as a Nazi, the greatest symbol of oppression and violence, this effectively paints the speakers father as the oppressor.