Kailyn Reamy

Professor Susan Lago

ENG 1500-15: Experiences in Literature
30 January 2014
The Aid of the Internet
In todays society, children are being introduced to the Internet and electronic devices at
earlier and earlier ages. In fact, it seems that every day a younger child has access to the Internet;
and even knows how to use it better than some adults! Because the digital age is in full swing,
people are using Google for more than ever before. With the click of a few buttons, an endless
supply of information sits at the fingertips of millions of people. But, there is more than just pop
culture trivia and gossip that exists in cyberspace. Activists go on about the dangers of the
Internet for the youngest generation and how it is making the very things that got us to this point,
like books and newspapers, slowly obsolete. However, is it possible that the Internet and Google
can actually be helpful? Can they be used in ways other than social networking and YouTube?
Anything can be found on the Internet, including pieces of classic literature and their meanings
and summaries. For the average middle school, high school, and college student, the Internet is a
gift that is taken for granted. The knowledge and capabilities are endless, but are some of the
younger users really aware of that? In todays day and age, the Internet is a helpful asset in
reading and even understanding literature, and as later proved by the discussions of the works
Daddy, by Sylvia Plath, and Home is so Sad, by Philip Larkin, the Internet can help find and
interpret works on a deeper level than ever before possible.
Poems, short stories, and other general forms of literature are written by their author with
a certain message or point of view in mind. The thoughts of the author are, after all, what created

the work of literature in the first place. However, is all literature written so that it is
comprehended in the exact way the author understood it? Or is it meant to be a mystery, and
interpreted differently by every reader? The answer to these questions might vary between
poems, between authors, and between readers. But, the resources are there, and can be very
helpful in the interpretation and understanding of literature.
Poems can be enthralling. They can captivate their reader in ways that nothing else can.
They provide meaning and depth to peoples lives, just by the thoughts and feelings of another
person. So, although the Internet is within reach for any person, it is still important to obtain
those feelings of depth, to create another world that exists within the lines of a poem or short
story. Whether it is an assignment for a class or just a personal curiosity for a work of literature,
the best way to understand is to first reach within oneself and create meaning through a singular
mind. After a few read-throughs and interpretations is where the Internet comes in. It is
important to keep in mind that most literature was not written so that the reader could simply
look up the summary and meaning on the Internet. They were written to inspire new thoughts
and feelings, and to lead others down the path of creation. So, if first, the reader looks through
what they are reading and tries to understand it in their own way, the Internet can only be a tool
in helping them further their knowledge. In fact, after reading a poem and creating ones own
interpretation, the reader may not want to use the Internet, in fear that it will ruin the world that
they have created through that poem. Despite this, the Internet is there, it will not be going away,
and can still be used for beneficial purposes when it comes to reading literature in todays
society.
When one reads something more than once, the idea or message that is originally
obtained from the work could be completely different from reading it the first time. This is

apparent in the poem Home is so sad, by Philip Larkin. The first time I read through this short,
ten-line poem, I felt sad. I felt like Larkins take on home was not at all relevant to my life and
it made me sad to think about it being relevant in someone elses life. It made me upset to think
that some homes were empty and barren, craving life. Because I have lived in the same house for
my whole life, the feelings of leaving a home did not occur to me, because it was not in my
immediate knowledge or feelings. To me, home is a happy place full of love and laughter that
always takes me to a good place in my memories. But to read a poem that doesnt give me those
positive feelings about home? It was a bit of a shock. Home is so sad. It stays as it was left, the
poem reads in its first line (Larkin 1). But, through the help of discussion and thorough reading, I
took a new meaning to the poem. My mind wanted me to think of a new meaning, one that did
more for my love of my home. I wanted to understand how Larkin felt when he was writing the
poem, but I also wanted to feel something other than sadness. After reading through the poem
several more times, I found that other meaning. I found the hidden concept. Was it hiding within
the lines of the poem or was it hiding in my mind? That is certainly a question for the Internet. I
learned through my own will that home is the it that is consistently referred to in the poem. I
also thought, from the poem that home is like a heart. It longs for love and attention just like a
heart does. It gets comfortable in a certain situation, and does not want that to change. It falls in
love and will do anything to keep that love around, because it feels good. In this case, the house
is shaped to the comfort of the last to go/As if to win them back, (2-3). The family who made
this house a home has left, and just like a longing lover or a sad mother, it wants its family back.
It tries to change to get the family to come back, unknown if they even ever will. And then tries
to get back to exactly how it was when they left, a museum or a shrine to what used to be.

This poem really took me on a ride. I had two completely different interpretations as I
read it more than once. But, if I had given up on the poem and taken it as my first impression, I
wouldnt have gotten the full effect. I tried to read it and be happy with my first idea, but I was
not. So, I needed a little extra push. As I looked at the poem on my computer screen, I organized
my thoughts and gave it another shot. In this case, the Internet was able to help me find a
meaning to a poem that actually made me feel good. On the surface, I took this poem for one
thing, but was able to dig deeper with some help from Google. It bettered the poem, in my
opinion.
On another side, in the poem Daddy, by Sylvia Plath, the meaning was clearer to me
after my first read. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what Plath was describing in her poem
and what the general meaning was. Although it was hard for me to relate to, I did think I had a
grasp on what Daddy meant and how I could look at it to understand other peoples lives.
However, I was wrong. Our journal for homework was to look up the poem on the Internet and
get a better look at its true meaning. What I thought at first was changed drastically by what I
discovered about both the poem and the author on Google. At first, I took the poem as a letter of
sorts, written by a girl to her father, describing what he did to her life and how her life has
changed since he left it. But, it was more than just that. In the poem, Plath describes, At twenty
I tried to die/ and get back, back, back to you, (58-59). She was talking about how she wanted
to kill her father who clearly had a negative effect on her life, but she was still attached to him
and wanted to get back to him. She felt bad about how much she resented him. When I read the
poem, I took everything more literally than she intended. While she may not have literally meant
that her father was a Nazi and she was a Jew, the metaphor was powerful enough for the reader
to believe that. According to reference.com, Sylvia Plath's Daddy, is her declaration of

independence, although it ultimately failed as she took her own life at a young age. Never quite
able to find the forgiveness that she was longing for, after the death of her father, she continued
to fixate on his memory and the guilt of her own feelings towards him, (1). So, although the
reader might initially believe that all of Plaths words were literal, she was actually using them to
form a deeper meaning behind the words she used. The original meaning I had of the poem,
however, still sticks with me. It made an impact on the way I think and just because I may have
been wrong about the true meaning, it made me look at them poem in a different way had I
known the information about the poem beforehand. In this case, the Internet was extremely
helpful in helping me understand what Plath was thinking when she wrote the poem, and not just
what was going on in my mind when I was reading it.
Overall, I think that Google and the Internet are very beneficial. I still hold true to my
own feelings about reading through a work first, trying to interpret and understand it, and then
looking it up when a deeper meaning is desired. In this day and age, the Internet is here to stay,
and will continue to become more and more popular as the years go on and technology continues
to advance. For me, in my experiences, Google has helped me create better understandings of
works that I did not quite get the meaning of; whether it be the meaning that was intended by the
author, or one that I created in my own mind. It gives people everywhere the opportunity to
connect to literature on another level. Without the access to Google or to the Internet, many
people would leave poems and stories how they took them in after the first read-through.
Because the Internet is available, it has benefitted my literature knowledge tremendously. It has
given me and many others the chance to see deeper into the mind of a writer and not to take
things as they appear on their surfaces.


Works Cited
Johnston, Angela. "'Home is so Sad' - Philip Larkin." Model Essays. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
<http://modelessays.acadiau.ca/index.php?p=First+Year+Literary+Analysis+of+a+Poem
>.
Larkin, Philip. "Home is so Sad." 1964. Four Poems by Philip Larkin. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag.
Print.
McMahan, Elizabeth, et al. Literature and the Writing Process. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River:
Pearson, 2014. Print.
Plath, Sylvia. "Daddy." 1962. Ariel. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.
Reference.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
<http://www.reference.com/motif/literature/analysis-of-daddy-sylvia-plath>.