Bitter Strawberries Essay

In life we must savor the sweet and endure the bitter challenges, when it comes to accommodating to a perilous situation. An ongoing war on terror is exacting a heavy emotional toll on families and other individuals that are in danger due to being surrounded by an atrocious environment that involves war. The life of apprehensive individuals has never been an easy one to live, with frequent upheavals of the individual’s and very little sense of control over their lives. Perpetually living around brutality, destruction, and violence links individual’s into obtaining bundles of emotions to a certain extent.

From a psychoanalytic point-of-view, war affects society in a way that is painful; the war engenders a deep effect on other individual’s lives as well as their perceptions and obtained views from the devastating experience of the surrounded environment fulfilled with hatred, mischievousness, and depravity. As war increases in brutality to a certain extent, society’s aspects are intensely affected;this issue can result in the destroying of land, culture, and other tangible aspects.

A poem, “Bitter Strawberries”, written by Sylvia Plath, is a sardonic way of describing a war that have occurred in Russia. While this piece offers little insight into human nature, it portrays some solid images, even though disconnected and often jarring. “All morning in the strawberry field”: the speaker sets the scene by distinguishing herself and one or more companions from the women who are talking “about the Russians. ”; one particular word that stood out the most within the first two lines was “the Russians. This specific clue can enhance an individual’s interpretation and observation of the hidden message within the poem. In history Russia was known for its dangerous, malicious war and obtaining the characteristic of being destructive of society, so this particular clue could be conveyed within the message as of being the poem’s topic of an atrocious war occurring that is gradually destroying the environment as well as many inhabitants sweet side of life, which turns into complete bitterness. Horseflies buzzed, paused and stung and the taste of strawberries turned thick and sour. ” Why did the taste of strawberries “turned thick and sour? ” Had they tasted thin and sweet before the horseflies stung or perhaps before the subject of the Soviet-American Cold War relations had been broached? The disconnect between the horseflies and the taste of berries is jarring and obstructs any real meaning of and purpose for this three-line versagraph. Certain literary devices were used to convey the meaning of the poem, by catching the reader’s interest.

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One of the devices that were used in this particular poem was “Symbolism. ”The literary poem contains symbolism because the bitter strawberries displays the overall mood of the Russian society as a whole. Strawberries are sweet but can lead to bitterness which portrays the atmosphere of the war. The world of Russia was tranquilent and quiet, but when the war occurred it led to bitterness and despair. Imagery was contained in the poem when it states that “the horseflies buzzed, paused, and stung. Stung is a feeling that was obtained from other’s in society as if they were actually stung by an insect ,but it was a feeling of pain obtained by the negative atmosphere of war; Sylvia uses horseflies sting as a way of comparing the inflicting pain of an insect to an actual emotion that were felt by others in the poem. “She stood up a thin commanding figure, in faded dungarees. Businesslike she asked us, ‘How many quarts? ’ She recorded the total in her notebook, and we all turned back to picking. ” By this point the reader is wondering when the point of it all will be made and how the speaker will tie all the loose ends together.

The last stanza: “Kneeling over the rows, we reached among the leaves with quick practiced hands, cupping the berry protectively before snapping off the stem between thumb and forefinger. ” The reader will experience a profound disappointment expecting the final stanza to save this piece. Instead of offering anything near a resolution, the speaker simply describes the act of picking strawberries. The emotion behind the country’s bitterness of fighting another country automatically affects society’s sweetness and joy being drained into a pool of woe, sorrow, and despair.

Since a war is occurring between two opposing forces, the countries may not like each other due to a different religious beliefs, race,etc. From a Feminist point-of-view the bitter strawberries represents the sweet females that have been tortured and dominated by the men of their Russian society as a way of practicing their religious belief; the women may feel beaten down and helpless to a certain extent, which leads them to feeling unwanted, worthless, and the abuse turns them into a bitter human being, because no man have appreciated their sweet characteristic.

From a Psychoanalytic point-of-view, the individual within the poem signifies the bitter strawberries as a way of comparing his/her attempted mistakes, cruel life, and harsh treatments from others. Experiencing something that is imposed as being dangerous to society can carry the process of gained perceptions or views of the experience. Emotions are portrayed among this topic because in order to sense the world and observe every negative/positive aspect, some feeling has to occur to make these assumptions upon a life experience.

To a certain extent war does affect a person’s views and perceptions obtained from a point-of-view to a life situation because if the effect is characterized as being bad, then the individual will build some form of hatred against every common piece of life that involves other countries;therefore the morals and ethics behind the perceptions are transformed into a new state of mind.

The little girl with blue eyes was fulfilled with a terror emotion because of the nefarious environment that she was surrounded by; this prime example represents the title above, the sweet girl that is filled with sweetness concludes at the end of the poem with a bitterness feeling because of fear. Until one have experienced this anguished situation, he/she does not know how it feels to automatically lose the sweetness of life to the cold, crucial life of bitterness.

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