The figurative language in the poem “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath can be used to discover a deeper meaning of the poem. By using figurative language throughout the poem such as symbolism, imagery, and wordplay, Plath reveals hidden messages about her relationship with her father. Plath uses symbols of Nazis, vampires, dimensions, and communication to help reveal a message about her father. In Plath's poetry she often uses figurative language about Nazis and the Holocaust. Plath describes herself as a victim saying she is like a Jew and her father is like a Nazi. Plath uses a train engine as a metaphor for her father speaking the German language, and also to represent herself as a Jewish victim who is taken away to a concentration camp. Plath states, “And foul language / An engine, and an engine / It snorts me like a Jew” (Plath 30-32). This shows the subtle metaphor of the train engine where her father speaks the German language and how she feels like a prisoner. Plath uses other subtle metaphors that subtly connect her father to the Nazis when she uses German words such as “Luftwaffe” (42) which is the German air force, and “Panzer-man” (45) which were the men who manned the German air force. tanks. Another example of Plath using figurative language to describe her father as a Nazi can be found when she uses an allusion to Hitler's mustache and the Aryans' blue eyes. “And your trimmed mustache / And your Aryan eyes, bright blue” (Plath 43-44). The use of this allusion gives the father the image of Hitler himself and helps build the metaphor of his father as a Nazi. Towards the end of the poem Plath begins to be more forthright in describing her father as a Nazi. He uses the metaphor of his father who is not like God, but rather like… middle of paper… voices cannot get through” (Plath 68-70) One metaphor compares the telephone to a plant, and the plant it was cut at the root and therefore communication was interrupted. The roots are almost a metaphorical telephone line that grew over his father's grave, but are now cut off and no longer available for communication. We can see the struggle that Plath is having in wanting so desperately to say something to her father but never having the chance to say it. By analyzing Plath's use of figurative language we can see a much deeper meaning to her poetry. We see how he depicted his father as a suffocating monster through figurative language. We also get a deeper insight into the type of relationship, or rather the lack of relationship between the two. Works Cited Plath, Sylvia. The collected poems. Ed. Ted Hughes. New York: Harper Perennial, 1972.