Sylvia Plath's Childhood

Conclusion

The Schobers

Sylvia Plath childhood was riddled with ups and downs. Although she realized her gift for writing poetry at an early age, she suffered the death of her father as well. Many other aspects of her childhood, whether positive or negative, never left her mind and inspired some of her greatest works later in life.

• Lived in Massachusetts in location known as Point Shirley
• Grandparents house seen as "my Mecca, my Jerusalem" (Web. "Neurotic Poets")
• Named poem after Point Shirley
• "I would get from these dry-papped stones/ The milk your love instilled in them" (Plath, lines 41-42)
• In 1942 (onset of WWII), Schobers moved in and all relocated to Wellesly
• mother accepted position at University of Boston

Otto Plath, Her Father

• Otto Emil Plath was born in Grabow, East Prussia, Germany on April 13, 1885
• He was a scientist
• He had pro-german tendencies
• Sylvia said that she was a afraid of her father

Death of Father

• After being informed of her father's death, she said "I'll never speak to God again"
• She wrote a poem about her father, called "Daddy"

"I have always been scared of you, With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.

And your neat mustache

And your Aryan eye, bright blue. Panzer-man, panzer-man,

O You-- Not God but a swastika."

Childhood Overview

Works Cited

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 10: Sylvia Plath." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.

Seaman, Donna. "Sylvia Path: A Literary Life." Booklist. 01 Jul. 1999: 1918. eLibrary. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.

"Sylvia Plath." 2014. The Famous People website. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.

Sylvia, Plath. Works of Sylvia Plath: Sylvia Plath's Life. MacMillan General Reference, 1963. eLibrary. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.

"Neurotic Poets." - Sylvia Plath. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.

Dubois, Matt. "Assessing Sylvia Plaths Poetry." Humanities360. N.p., 27 Feb. 2007. Web. 04 Dec. 2014.

• Born October 27, 1932

• Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts

• Family of four

• Both parents were educators and passed down their “deep involvement with books” (Seaman)

• Showed interest in writing since an early age

• Was a lively child

• Grew up in Winthrop (a seaside town near Boston) mostly around her maternal grandparents

Aurelia Plath

Warren Plath

Born in Boston, Massachusetts 1906 –1994

Plath's semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, mother-daughter relationship

“I hate her.” Her doctor says, “I suppose you do.”

Died at 87, from Alzheimer's disease in Massachusetts.

• Was born 2 years after Sylvia Plath on April 27th, 1935
• father became ill around same time
• Family moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts shortly after birth in 1936
• Was only 6 years old when father died
• Sickly child, which encouraged family to live with grandparents

The Ocean

• Her poetry was influenced by her childhood proximity to the ocean

• She later said, "I sometimes think my vision of the sea is the clearest thing I own" (Sylvia)

• Also said that she lived happily believing "not in God nor Santa Claus, but in mermaids" (Sylvia)

No sea-change decks the sunken shank of bone

That chucks in the backtrack of the wave;

Though the mind like an oyster labors on and on,

A grain of sand is all we have.

-Excerpt from "Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Real Sea"

The Childhood of sylvia Plath