Daddy by Sylvia Plath

“You do not do, you do not do/ Any more, black shoe/ In which I have lived like a foot”

                Sylvia Plath writes about her life as a child growing up with her father, who appears to have fought under the reign of Adolf Hitler. Just as most soldiers fighting under Hitler’s tyranny, Plath’s father may have been strict and harsh therefore forcing Plath to live an obeying lifestyle. The shoe represents the shoebox in which she lived. She could not disobey her father nor disappoint him, which may have been difficult. By beginning her poem “Daddy” with this line, she is immediately expressing her resentment for father and the way he treated her as a child.

“Daddy, I have had to kill you”

                Sylvia Plath has to repress any memories she has of her father. She is distraught and enraged for the way he treated her as a child. She can no longer linger over these memories because they infuriate her even more. Her father passed away while she was still a child but her fear of him still remains. To free herself and her misery, she can mentally “kill” the memory of her father, forgetting everything he was and everything he did.

“So black no sky could squeak through”

                As Sylvia Plath continues to express her abhorrence for her father, she uses words such as black to illustrate how dark of a person he was on the inside. Black represents the evil emptiness within and the inability to show any affection towards Plath. She feels there was no emotion, no love for her. His feelings would act as the sky and he never associated feelings with anything, especially not his own daughter. Any emotion is long gone once he becomes a soldier in Hitler’s army. Her father becomes a beast and his humanity will be gone forever.           

Panzer-Man: the most feared military machines, an armored tank producing a mind-chilling sound when approaching its target. (“Daddy” 2)

Aryan eye-Hitler wanted a pure race with blue eyes. (“Daddy” 2)

stuck- power of adhering

            to puncture with a pointed instrument

            to fasten into place

            to attach with an adhesive material (“Daddy” 2)