Book Secret 5

The cover of my book has a uniqueness of its own, an intimate connection with Sylvia Plath. The amazing and talented illustrator and I worked very hard to portray fundamental and important aspect about Sylvia and her life. Alone, I could not have succeeded in this work. While earlier drafts included a "bell jar," we just couldn't get it to look right or fit in. A "journal book" had also been inserted, but the cover just became too busy, too crowded, and both bell jar and journal book were removed. Centered on the cover are two images of Sylvia Plath. One is representative of how she typically presented her self to others, of how she wished to be seen by them and actually sought "to be"-smiling, happy, healthy. Yes, this was the real Sylvia, magnified, exaggerated, bigger than life. One might call this a public image. Bigger smile, accentuated voice, proper, polite. It was also the part of her I believe she had to continue to be to compensate for the anguish within, to make better what was believed to be inferior, "less than." Yet there was more to her, like with all of us, something, quite a bit that lies beneath, deeper, held within. For Sylvia, this inner part of herself seemed less acceptable, undesirable, bad, as if it were something that shouldn't be a part of her. It only popped up in expression when the force of emotion took charge and blocked logic and reason. This private image portrays the mostly hidden side of Sylvia, with the fear, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, hurt, and feelings of inferiority and inadequacy. This, too, was the real Sylvia. It was socially acceptable to express this in a poem, story or journal, but not as a more direct or public manifestation of her self. Sylvia often spoke and even wrote about this duality of self in life, seeing it as a split, division, following the example of Sigmund Freud. She saw this duality as more polarizing than shared, more as opposing forces than shared ones, one to be above the other rather than as part of each other and integrative. It was hard for her to see the value of sadness, loneliness, hurt, etc. She saw good-bad, life-death, right-wrong. As Aurelia said, Sylvia "always" viewed things in extreme, always-neverUnder these two images of Sylvia on the cover of my book are two flowers, a pink rose and a golden lotus. The pink rose was given to Sylvia on her wedding day by Ted Hughes, her husband-to-be. I do believe this day may have been the very happiest day of her brief life, although the birth days of her children may strongly compete. The lotus flower on the cover refers to Plath's resilience over the anguish and pain in life, until her final days, when she became overwhelmed with all. This lotus refers to the Sanskrit quote on her grave marker, given to her by that same husband. I dare say the day of her death was the lowest point of her life, a true expression of the hopeless and helpless state she experienced at that time. The Sanskrit quote on Sylvia's gravestone speaks to us all from the grave, telling us that hope and resilience leads us away from such a state of despair, if we reach out for help and seek solution: "Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted." Be strong! Keep the faith! Know that, no matter the circumstance, trial or tribulation, we may survive and even thrive! A unique and amazing individual may beautifully bloom from the mire of life's pangs. The "pen" on the cover is an obvious reference to Silvia's artistic talent and genius, especially her writing. The "swirls" at the bottom of the cover and the blue-grey background of the cover refer to the ocean or sea. The ocean was an intimate part of who Sylvia was and where she grew up. It represented calm and uproar or fury, the unpredictableness of nature, the control of forces outside of us to which we must accommodate, in order to live with harmony. This sea is the inner and outer forces, the "stressors," that act upon us in life. All in all, this book cover became an amazing co-creation by me and the illustrator of essential aspects of the life and death of this Golden Lady.