Breathe Life In

If you go down a slope the second hour you are on skis, you will almost surely crash. The “collision” (Pynchon) is inevitable, it is like you know that it is coming and more than trying to avoid it you are waiting for it to happen. As you know it’s coming, you don’t have to worry about that and you can enjoy the moment. Carpe Diem. “I felt my lungs inflate with the inrush of scenery-air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.’…My teeth crunched a gravelly mouthful. Ice water seeped down my throat.” (Plath, pg. 79) We have all had the feeling of feelings our lungs inflate, but I think that there is more to this passage than just that. By saying that her lungs inflate Plath might be trying to say more. The lungs receive the most basic item needed for our lives: air. Without air there is no life, and by saying that the lungs expand the author might be saying that the experience and vivacity of life increase as she takes everything around her in. Esther was ignoring the fact that she would come tumbling down any minute, and like she had no worries clouding her vision she could take the time to look around and focus on the now. I believe that by showing us how things can be better if we look at each minute as it happens and not before or after it does Plath is telling everyone of her readers that humans complicate themselves too much and never enjoy what goes on because they are too worried about what will happen tomorrow or what happened yesterday.

Sylvia Plath makes many allusions to subjects like the one above that lots of people can relate to, and I think that they all have something she wants to say about life in general in the, It is not the easiest thing to find, however, and I think that there is where a lot of her talent is found. How, I ask my self, is it possible to insert subtle and almost invisible comments into what otherwise is a funny anecdote? I don't think I can. Maybe I will be able to do it as I get more practice, but right now if I tried to pull off a close writing, I would most probably fail. I hope that as I read more and deeper literature I will get better at this and one day is able to hint at something I want the reader to see without making it obvious.