Nothing can compare to the crucial element that is a strong and influential male figure in a woman's early life. In the early developments of a woman's life a father figure can be a contributing growth factor to self - esteem, confidence, and emotional refuge. Yet when the case is reversed, serious problems can leave agonizing scars. The emotional gap left between an indifferent (or otherwise disappointing) father and a resenting daughter can result in a rupture of the relationship between a creator and his creation. Through "Forgiving my Father," and "Daddy," both Lucille Clifton and Sylvia Plath, respectively, convey a common thematic in their writings: their anger and resentment towards their fathers.

Lucille Clifton's "Forgiving my Father," is a picture - perfect example of how the troubled relationship of a woman with her father can entice resentment. Through her "poetry of transcendence" (Waniek 3), Clifton evokes how her father's (or the narrator's father's) inefficiency to cope fed her growing anger. The author implies that the father was always using the daughter (as well as the mother) as a mean of ventilating anger and frustrati

Both Sylvia Plath and Lucille Clifton portray the effects of the lack of a father figure. Though both took extremely different paths along life, the anger felt towards a failed relation with their fathers marked their writings in an unorthodox way. Therefore, both of these authors agree on the thematic scheme of sorrow, anger, fear, and tyranny left by the scarred relationships with their respective fathers.

Another similar example of anger, this time much more radical, is Sylvia Plath's resent towards her late father. The "shock stemmed from the seemingly harsh anger" towards her father visibly marked Plath's writing (Wagner 1). The best example is the aptly titled "Daddy," a vain effort to exorcise her father's death. In an attempt to "lay the ghost of her father," Plath desperately sought after the tranquility of the acceptance of this death (Maloff 1). Yet, this attempt backfires, and Plath is overcome by powerful emotion and anger. Plath wishes she could kill him, but he "died before [she] had time" (Plath 350). Such resentment is personified by the fact that Plath resents the fact that her father abandoned her through death. She feels it is his personal wrong - doing in leaving her behind to live at such an early age. This could be considered a "revenge fantasy" that "[feeds] upon filial love-hatred" (Howe 11). After all, she always remembered her father w

Some topics in this essay:
Sylvia Plath's, Forgiving Father, Father Figures, Basically Clifton, Otto Plath's, Lucille Clifton, Sylvia Plath, clifton 344, Godoy English, sylvia plath, woman's life, father figure, anger towards, mother's suffering, father's inefficiency, forgiving father, lucille clifton, wrong doing,