Thursday, November 4, 2010

Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams by Sylvia Plath

Quote of the Book – “In a sense, these poems are deflections. I do not think they are an escape. For me, the real issues of our time are the issues of every time – the hurt and the wonder of loving, making in all its forms – children, loaves of bread, paintings, buildings, and the conversation of life of all people in all places, the jeopardizing of which no abstract doubletalk of “peace” or “implacable foes” can excuse” (65). I chose this excerpt as the quote of the book because it describes everything that Sylvia Plath writes, in her essays, journals, and short stories which are all included in this book. The stories are not crazy or unrealistic. They are all stories that genuinely reflect human life and the joy, sadness, anger, and hope that it brings. This quote is also significant because even though Sylvia Plath lived in a very different time period, everything she writes is completely applicable to modern day life. She writes about the little things that make up our lives, such as love, birth, and death. The stories focus on real things that really happen to people, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem. They are real and honest, and no extra fluff is added.
Connections
Through her writing, Sylvia Plath portrays the sense that she is a deeply disturbed and depressed individual, which are both common traits in immensely talented and creative people. Some examples of these types of people are Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, Van Gough, and Edgar Allen Poe. These people are all world-renowned for their creativity and insight, and they all experienced mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder or depression. Sylvia Plath is able to describe her passion for creativity and imagination in this quote: “What I fear most, I think, is the death of the imagination… if I sit still and don’t do anything, the world goes on beating like a slack drum, without meaning. We must be moving. Working, making dreams to run toward; the poverty of life without dreams is too horrible to imagine” (62). This represents the drive to be imaginative and creative that Sylvia Plath possessed, which relates to most other famous artists or writers. Another quote that Sylvia Plath says is this:
"I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad by ricocheting in between” (82).
This quote represents how Sylvia Plath is a very emotionally unstable person, she is either very sad or very happy and she can never seem to find a balance, which, as I previously stated, relates to many particularly artistic and creative people.

The namesake story of this book – Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams – reminds me of the familiar story of Joseph, the son of Jacob, from the bible. In the story of Johnny Panic, the main character, a nameless young lady, has a special calling for dreams. Her job is to listen to people’s dreams and write them down and interpret them. “Dream by dream I am educating myself to become that rare character, rarer, in truth, than any member of the Psycho-analytic Institute, a dream connoisseur” (157). This quote shows how she is simply fascinated by dreams and devotes her whole life to them. In the story of Joseph, his life is changed because he is able to predict the future through his dreams. Both people are alike because they are greatly impacted and fascinated with dreams, which gains them recognition.
Another quote that I can relate with is from her essay about growing up in America. “In those days I couldn’t have told a fruited plane from a mountain majesty and confused God with George Washington, yet warbled, nevertheless, with my small, snooty compatriots “America, America! God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea” (54). I can relate to this quote because growing up we were pushed to be “proud Americans”, before we even knew what it meant to be an American. We were forced to recite The Pledge of Allegiance everyday without knowing a word of its meaning. Nobody ever explained it to us; we didn’t really have an understanding of American history or how we got there. We saw images of famous Americans, from anywhere on our dollar bills to images of Mount Rushmore, but we never really knew who they were. And even now, I’m not entirely sure that I’m “proud to be an American”, even though that’s always what I’ve been taught to think. A lot of us have this view that America is the greatest without having any perspectives or understandings any other ways of living.


Visual Representation I chose this picture for a visual representation because the ocean is one theme that stood out to my in these pieces of writing. The ocean is the one thing that Sylvia Plath has a deep admiration for no matter what. It’s her safe, lovely place. Her greatest dreams and desires involve her love for the ocean. Growing up at the seaside, the ocean was deeply rooted into her being and when she left the ocean she lost a part of herself. Her love of the ocean is shown by this quote: “And this is how it stiffens, my vision of that seaside childhood. My father died, we moved inland. Whereon those fine first years of my life sealed themselves off like a ship in a bottle – beautiful, inaccessible, obsolete, a fine, white flying myth.” (27).
The ocean is portrayed in her fictional stories as an object of desire. “How often she and Jacob had promised themselves the legendary cottage by the sea, far from the city’s petrol fumes and smoky railroad yards—a garden, a hill, a cove for Jill to explore, an unhurried, deeply savored peace!” (81). This quote shows how in many different stories Plath uses the sea as an item of desire and admiration.

Questions
Is every fictional story that Sylvia Plath writes inspired by her real life?
What is the significance of the character Esther, since she reappears in so many of the stories?
In the stories, it seems like Europe is portrayed as a sad place and America as a hopeful and exciting, yet conceited place. Is this irony, or does she honestly feel that way about each country?

Reflection
Many people consider Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams to be a very minor piece of writing when compared to her other books and poems. Sylvia Plath was simply not as skilled at writing short stories as she was at writing poetry. I would definitely agree that the writing in this novel was not anything compared to The Bell Jar, however, I enjoyed it because it gave me more of a sense of who she was and how much she’s grown. It showed me that she doesn’t only write amazing pieces of work every time. It takes a lot of growth and revision, and these stories seem to be just her first, initial ideas. If I had not known of Sylvia Plath or read other of her books, I would not have been as impressed by this collection of writing. While some of the writing was very profound and impactful, some of the stories are very ordinary and at times boring. However, I even appreciated the “boring” parts because Plath has a way of turning the ordinary into something deep and exciting. All the stories and essays in this book gave me a lot of insight into her life and way of thinking, so I am very glad I read it.

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