Blog 4

Question 3) Approach Plath’s “Daddy” from a reader response perspective.
Before reading the poem “Daddy” I expected the poem to talk about Plath’s relationship with her father. After I read the information on the author, I realized that her father died when she was eight so based on that I think the poem could be about the relationship she wished she had with her father. After reading the beginning of the poem it seemed like she grew up wanting more than what she could obtain financially because of her father’s death, “For thirty years, poor and white,”. After reading that line I assumed the poem would go on to talk about her childhood experience without her father. Plath goes on to say, “I used to pray to recover you”, which made me think that she really yearned for her father. Reading on further I predicted her to go into more depth about the relationship she wanted but didn’t have a chance to have, however I was wrong. Plath continues on in the poem and it seems like she thinks that her father’s death has oppressed her in some way,
“I never could talk to you.”
“The tongue stuck in my jaw.”
“It stuck in a barb wire snare.”
At this point I didn’t know what to expect as I continued reading. She continues on and ends up comparing her father to a Nazi, “I thought every German was you.” Then she compares her father to a devil, “A cleft in your chin instead of your foot, But no less a devil for that”. Stopping here for a minute I started thinking that the author is really hurt over not having her father in her life because he died. Just when I thought she couldn’t possibly compare her father to anything else she compares him to a vampire. “The vampire who said he was you and drank my blood for a year”. From this point I thought the ending would end up with the author continuing on being angry with her father. Again I was wrong and at the end she has resolved her conflicts within herself regarding her father, “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.” Overall the poem never met any of my expectations and I couldn’t really realate to what the author was going through.