The Influence of Internet on Literature: Analysis of Joy Harjo and Silvia Plath

Literature in not like it was in the past, where in the past to get a full understanding of a text one would have to have to read the text multiple times or have to discuss it between a party or individual in person. Today with the innovations that have progressed technology that is now a thing of the past. The digital age has made it easier for people to now find the meaning or interpretations of what they are reading while also making it easier to converse with other while not having to see them or meet them anywhere. The texts “Daddy' by Silvia Plath and “Rabbit is up to Tricks” by Joy Harjo are great examples of how the digital era has come to influence peoples understanding of reading text and interpreting them. Through the uses of different web site and blog posts that have other people's reactions and thoughts is now what can influence a person's understanding. 

The internet gave birth to different web site like Wikipedia, owlcation and many other sites which are now used to help people get an understanding of what they read or are reading. The poem “Daddy” by Silvia Plath is are very complex story that can be interpreted in many ways. The use of the site Wikipedia gives a more detail analyze of this poem starting from the kind of structure that it contains the rhythm and its form, while diving a general interpretation of the poem. While the web site owlocation does give a general interpretation but also with a line by line and a stanza by stanza interpretation. It also continues forward with a more in-depth analyze on the relevance to the authors life and the meaning behind the way that certain word is phrased and grouped, by doing so it is helping the reader be able to understand the purpose of the story without them over thinking it. 

The use of blogs when trying to read and gather information on how other individuals are interpreting and what conclusions that they have gathered from the reading is very useful. On the What We Write web site on the blog page for the reading “Daddy” by Silvia Plath, there were different reaction to how to interpret the poem. Though the general conclusion was that the story was that a girl was having problem with the loss of her father, people had drawn different conclusion to how the story was depicted. One blogger had said that the character in the story had hatred towards the father and another says that they had a longing to be reunited with him. Even though the reading is the same a different idea of the meaning of the story are different. Then there are comparable blogs that drew the same conclusion as one another saying that trauma was the cause for this displaced anguish and the hard ships that were being endured due to the loss of the father. 

With the use of web sites that can make it easier to get an understanding from lines in texts and even sometimes large sections that may be difficult to find the meaning.” Daddy, I have had to kill you. You died before I had time”. “Daddy” while reading the poem this line within the second stanza had cause great confusion due to how could she have killed her father but then say that he had died before she had a chance. While reading through an interpretation of the text it is supposed to be taken in a figurative form and not to be taken as her actually killing her father.” The tongue stuck in my jaw. It stuck in a barb wire snare. Ich, ich, ich, ich, I could hardly speak. I thought every German was you. And the language obscene” “Daddy” As she talks about how her tongue was snared in a barb wire fence makes it feel like she was hurt while fleeing from someone or something then from that it caused her to get greater pain. That wasn’t the case though after looking up what that’s phrase meant it is said to be that talking to her father would cause her pain and the word “ich “ in German means “I” so it seems like she couldn’t get her words out while confronting her father.” There’s a stake in your fat black heart And the villagers never liked you. They are dancing and stamping on you. They always knew it was you. Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.” “Daddy” As the poem concludes it still leaves a mystery behind in the ending about the villagers and herself being through with him, while reading through and with the help of and interpretation it reveals that no one really cares that he is gone and she has finally gotten over the fact that he is gone.

In the poem “Rabbit is up to Tricks” by Joy Harjo the meaning behind this piece of writing had made myself and others have a hard time grasping its true intent. From what I have read from another's interpretation of the story it tells of a rabbit creating a clay man to rid himself of his loneliness, but by telling this creation to do certain thing it had gains a degree of self-awareness and has decides to no longer listen and to do what it itself wants leaving the rabbit to suffer from his mistakes. But what it truly states are how the rabbit created the first human then teaching it to be destructive and when he tries to stop this from continuing, he realizes that what he created is to greedy and does not heed the rabbit's words no longer. “The poem is spiritual, funny, clever, clear-eyed and heartbreakingly sad” Maria Browning I agree with a part of what is said of how this poem is spiritual and sad but I don’t see the parts that make if funny or have a clever meaning behind its purpose. But after reading how her interpretation of the poem it starts to become clear of how she drew that conclusion from this text, and it starts to change my own way of seeing how the story what is being told mold into a different light. 

As poems and story are continuing to be created there is no shortage to how the internet will influence the way that literature can and will be looked upon. These two great authors Silvia Plath and Joy Harjo have both effectively changed the way poets and how poetry have expanded through time. The internet will continue to become more defined and bring forth a greater age where the work of these to esteemed poets will live through the ages enlightening people while expanding their knowledge on how poetry can be different depending on the authors. With the continues growth of the human population there is no definite way of understanding of how the new generations will come and decipher these poems and the people that many others have and will create.

References

• Spacey, Andrew. “Analysis of Poem ‘Daddy’ by Sylvia Plath.” Owlcation, Owlcation, 1 Mar. 2019, https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-Daddy-by-Sylvia-Plath.
• Browning, Maria. “Joy Harjo's Poems Celebrate Transcendence and Confront Fear.” Knoxville News Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel, 21 Jan. 2017, https://www.knoxnews.com/story/entertainment/arts/2017/01/21/joy-harjos-poems-celebrate-transcendence-and-confront-fear/96730254/.
• Daddy (Poem).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy_(poem).
• “Who Is Right?” What We Write, http://whatwewrite.weebly.com/what-we-write/who-is-right
• Harjo, Joy. Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems. W W Norton & Company, 2017.