...we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail among sacred islands of the mad till death shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.
Sylvia PlathRead
Why the hell are we conditioned into the smooth strawberry-and-cream Mother-Goose-world, Alice-in-Wonderland fable, only to be broken on the wheel as we grow older and become aware of ourselves as individuals with a dull responsibility in life?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the clash between the innocence of childhood and the weight of adult responsibilities.
Sylvia Plath's quote highlights the contrast between the idyllic, imaginative world of childhood and the harsh realities of adult life. It questions why society conditions individuals to embrace a fairy-tale existence, only to then impose the burdens of responsibility and self-awareness as they mature. This conflict can lead to a feeling of disillusionment as one grapples with the loss of innocence and the challenges of growing up.
Themes
ChildhoodResponsibilityDisillusionmentInnocenceGrowth
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the pressures of adulthood, I might use this quote to illustrate the loss of innocence.
More from Sylvia Plath
All quotes βThe hardest thing, I think, is to live richly in the present, without letting it be tainted & spoiled out of fear for the future or regret for a badly-managed past.
Sylvia PlathRead
It is as if my life were magically run by two electric currents: joyous positive and despairing negative--which ever is running at the moment dominates my life, floods it.
Sylvia PlathRead
You walked in, laughing, tears welling confused, mingling in your throat. How can you be so many women to so many people, oh you strange girl?
Sylvia PlathRead
I keep wanting to crawl back into the womb.
Sylvia PlathRead
It's the living, the eating, the sleeping that everyone needs. Ideas don't matter so much after all. My three best friends are Catholic. I can't see their beliefs, but I can see the things they love to do on earth. When you come right down to it, I do believe in the freedom of the individual.
Sylvia PlathRead
Similar quotes
Part of the reason people abroad resent the United States is something Americans can do very little about: envy. The richest, most powerful country in the world attracts the jealousy of others in much the same way that the richest, most powerful man in a small town attracts the jealousy of others.
Mohsin HamidRead
This revelation of the secrets of nature, long mercifully withheld from man, should arouse the most solemn reflections in the mind and conscience of every human being capable of comprehension. We must indeed pray that these awful agencies will be made to conduce to peace among the nations, and that instead of wreaking measureless havoc upon the entire globe, may become a perennial fountain of world prosperity.
Winston ChurchillRead
Each suicidal drama occurs in the mind of a unique individual.
Edwin S. ShneidmanRead
Hasn't there always been a moon?" "Bless you. Not in the slightest. I remember the day the moon came. We looked up in the sky - it was all dirty brown and sooty gray here then, not green and blue.
Neil GaimanRead
When someone lives as a minority, they experience the world differently than those of us who live in the majority. We may occupy the same physical space, but we don't occupy the same psychic space.
Jennifer GranholmRead
The psychic depths are nature, and nature is creative life.
Carl JungRead