Mirror's Truth
... In the first nine lines, the mirror describes itself and what it does. In the second half of the poem, the mirror is still talking, but starts comparing itself to other things. Overall the poem uses devices to show that the women needs to accept who the mirror is showing her, instead of trying to make herself someone she's not. One of the devices that Plath uses in this poem is personification. It is used to to show how the mirror tells the women that "I am not cruel, only truthful" (4). The mirror is talking to her, explaining to that it doesn't want her to upset her but let her realize the person she is. The mirror wants the women to know that she is still the same person inside and outside, but just a little bit older. Aging is a part of life and that's what the mirror wants the women in the poem to see. This effects the reader because its something everybody has to go through. This is the whole cycle of life and you can't change it because you don't agree with it. The second device that is used in this poem is metaphor. Plath uses this to show how the mirror is comparing itself to a lake. The women in the poem peers into the "lake, searching for what she really is" (10-11). The mirror is only doing its job and reflects her image back to her. The women "rewards it with tears and an agitation of hands" (14). Each morning she comes and then she goes. Every time she looks in the mirror she grows a day older. This effects that reader because you are seeing the pain that this women is going through. The thought of what this mirror is showing her, hurts her and she doesn't want to accept it. The last device that Plath uses in this poem is simile. She uses this to compare the bad that the women thinks that mirror is showing to her. The women in the poem said that "she has drowned a young girl" (17), indicating that she has become a women. Now "an old women rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish" (17-18). Now that she is old, her reflection is like a terrible fish. This effects the...