Hammond, 1 Maeve Hammond AP Literature and Composition Mrs.

Rutan 21 October 2013 An Analytic Stoll Down Blackberry Alley In Blackberrying, author Sylvia Plath depicts a woman picking blackberries while following a deserted path. The poem consists of three stanzas, each of which portrays different sections of the path; in turn, as Plaths protagonist takes one more hook (18) into a new region of the path, she symbolically delves into her subconscious views on life, death, and desire. The woman makes her first hook into an abundant blackberry alley (3), and she contently picks berries them into a milk bottle. She references her search for a sea at the end of the path; in fact, the sea is mentioned in each stanza as the objective of her travel down the path. A darker tone is cast in Blackberrying by ominous callings of crow-like birds, which foreshadow the woman finding a bush of rotting berries being devoured by flies. The protagonists spirits dwindle rapidly as she reaches the final stage of the path, where she encounters a displeasing void of land, deficient of familiar berry bushes or the longed-for sea. Plath employs strong diction, tone, and literary devices to illustrate a womans uneasiness towards the life she leads. The poem begins by describing how deserted the blackberry patch is through the word choices of nobody and nothing but blackberries (1). The woman in the path is completely isolated and devoid of human interaction; however, she is surrounded by nature. Surprisingly, the woman is comfortable by being alone with the blackberries. Plath writes the berries are as dumb as eyes (5), which highlights that the protagonist has negative feelings towards the dim unintelligence of humans, who see the world unrealistically and do not understand its real implications and its meaning of life and death. Plath then relates the

Hammond, 2 blackberries blue-red juices (7) to blood, and uses affectionate tone to describe an abnormal relationship between the protagonist and the berries: as the berries squander [the juices] on [her] fingers (7), a blood sisterhood (8) is formed. This implies the protagonist feels she is equal with the berries, unlike with humanity. She would rather surround herself with nature and be completely alone than have any human interaction. At the end of the stanza, she then plucks a few berries and places them in a container, almost to preserve the blood sisterhood and keep it with her forever. A tone shift occurs as the second stanza, as the womans feelings towards her situation becomes more somber. Above her, crow-like birds swarm like bits of burnt paper wheeling in a blown sky (11). The birds are seemingly dressed in funeral black and they call out cacophonously, almost to draw the womans attention to their foreshadowing of death. Just following this scene, the protagonist discovers a putrefied bush of berries so ripe it is a bush of flies (15). Instead of lamenting the demise of her berry sisters, she instead regards the benefits and nourishment of a honey-fest (16) the flies received from the blackberries. This represents the character deems death as a natural occurrence in life, which follows a certain pecking order to help the world and environment, instead of being something sad and despondent. The woman leaves the dead berries and continues walking on the path of which she believes awaits a sea. She now has departed from the comfortableness the paths predictability of growing blackberries and timely death, and now has entered into course, capricious territory. In this scene, the womans displeasure towards humanity is again demonstrated by diction and similes. Once she steps out of the berry patch, she is uncouthly confronted by harsh wind slapping its phantom laundry in [her] face (20); human

Hammond, 3 characteristics are given to describe the rough wind through the personification of slapping and the word choice of laundry. Plath describes the hills of the path as having a face [of] orange rock that looks out on nothing... but a great space of white and pewter lights (24-26). The womans disappointment of not finding the sea is reflected in the humanly face of the rock, which views a desolate land of lights that look like pewter, a manmade mixture of metals. The woman negatively describes the sound of the land to be a din like silversmiths beating at an intractable metal (26-27), which again exemplifies the connection between the protagonists unhappiness and humankind. Additionally in the last stanza, the audience sees the protagonist reversing the relief she feels by being alone, as she now becomes dejected by her isolation. She no longer has the familiarity of the berries, as a land that reminds her of a life she does not want to lead encompasses her. The woman is also disillusioned by the land she has arrived on, which is too green and sweet to have tasted salt (22) of the sea. The sea in this poem ultimately represents something the woman desperately wants, but will never attain in a human life. Plausibly, the woman may desire complete tranquility and serenity, which she feels she cannot find among the roughness of society. Perhaps this is why she is attracted to the stillness of the blackberry bushes and why she admired the calm, predictability of their death by the flies. In Blackberrying, Sylvia Plath relates life to a walk through a blackberry alley. Plath struck a chord with readers by tapping into an innate desire each human holds. No matter a wants attainability, it feels constantly hindered by a certain presence or situation. This occurrence was depicted in Blackberrying by a womans quest to find placidity and escape from the tempestuousness of humanity.