Holly Addington

“This is the time of hanging on”: No Food, No Happiness

Sylvia Plath utilizes something common to all of us to communicate her feelings; food, something that we all need to sustain ourselves. Plath uses images of food throughout her poems, although she often only uses it once in a poem. In “Mushrooms” and “Wintering” images of food show unhappiness due to unreachable abundance, crumbs of a need, and artificial replacements.

Being in abundance means that there is plenty of it, yet when it is unreachable a person often becomes frustrated trying to get it. Plath tells us “I have my honey, / Six jars of it, / . . . in the wine cellar” (“Wintering” 3-5). At this point in the poem the reader has no reason to see this as anything but good. There is plenty of honey, and it keeps well, but we find out “this is the room I could never breathe in.” (“Wintering” 12). This keeps the abundant honey out of her reach, it is in an unreachable place and this does not please her. Plath bought bees in order to have abundant honey, and now it will go to waste for she cannot get it, and this causes her to be unhappy. Plath shows this again when she tells us that women are “Bland-mannered, asking / Little or nothing.” (“Mushrooms” 21-22). The women can see the abundance that men have. The men rule the world and do not let women follow their dreams; dreams that would make them truly happy.

Abundance may not be able to be reached, but usually a necessity such as food is still given, if only in crumbs. “Diet on water, / On crumbs of shadow,” (“Mushrooms” 19-20) tells the reader how little they have. The word “diet” can be taken to understand that they have very little water. Shadow, taking on a food quality, is in small amounts, there is little to consume. Women here are standing in man’s shadow and can only come closer to him a little bit at a time. They need more, and are unhappy with how little they have. The bees in “Wintering” also have less and they must “make up for the honey I’ve taken.” (26). The abundance was stolen away from them and now must work hard to survive on the little they have. The bees worked all year to get their honey, and now they have very little and this makes them “so slow” (“Wintering” 23) with unhappiness. Drinking a few sips of water when parched only makes the drinker thirstier and in more want of water.

The bees must use an artificial replacement for the honey Plath has taken in “Wintering”, “It is Tate and Lyle they live on, instead of flowers. / They take it.” (29). The bees are reluctant to live on this replacement of syrup. Honey is what they want and the replacement only makes them miss it more. The “crumbs of shadow” in “Mushrooms” are only part of what the mushrooms want (20). They not only want to have shadow, they want to have the spotlight. “Our foot’s in the door.” (“Mushrooms” 33) they say. The women are ready to stop living on shadow, something only part of what they want, and to start living on light. These artificial replacements for the mushrooms and the bees are not satisfying. They cause unhappiness and simply more want. Coffee drinkers know that instant coffee is not near as good as freshly brewed coffee. The artificial replacement of shadow for light sates the want but not for long; the sugar the bees are using will serve until the flowers come into bloom again.

The unhappiness in these two poems is quite prevalent. The food imagery shows just how important the wants are, in fact they are needs. When the “food” is out of play, unhappiness abounds. Without this need, there is no reason for anyone to be happy.