Sylvia Plath
...that person is depressed or crazy. Sylvia Plath was depressed and psychotic in certain stages of her life, which is why people were so fascinated with her. How could a young, beautiful, brilliant woman be so sad and dreary? As one looks at her life one realizes her life was very mournful and dark, which is why darkness and death are constant themes in Sylvia Plath's disturbing, but beautiful works of poetry.
Sylvia Plath lived a happy childhood living off the coast of Boston , close to the sea. Sylvia, later in life would say, "My ocean-childhood is probably
the foundation of my consciousness" (Barnard 13). Sylvia lived with her father; Otto Emil Plath, her mother; Aurelia Plath, and her brother; Warren Plath. Her cultural background was German American; German from her father and American from her mother.
Plath started writing poetry at the very early age of eight. Her first poem was published in the "Boston Herald's" "children section". Although she produced her first poem at the age of eight it wasn't until junior high when she really started writing. Her mother said, "it was in junior high that she developed work habits and skill in her favorite fields of endeavor, art and writing, winning prizes from the scholastic awards' competitions each year" (Barnard 15). After junior high, Sylvia went on to attend Smith College in 1950 with the help of the Nielson scholarship that she was offered. At this time in her life Plath was writing a lot of poems and her mom became her agent. Sylvia went on to enter writing competitions for magazines like Seventeen, Harper's, and Mademoiselle, eventually winning a contest at Mademoiselle. Plath, along with nineteen other young college women were offered the prize to publish Mademoiselle's famous college issue and Plath was awarded the role as managing editor. She packed her bags headed for...
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