The_Image_Looking_Back

The Image Looking Back The Image Looking Back The poem “Mirror” is wrapped up in the idea of reflections. The author Sylvia Plath uses reflections to explore images that are not always pleasant. Plath examines the shortcomings and self-esteem issues that all people encounter time and again upon reflection. Looking at an image of ones’ self often brings questions of self worth and approval. The mirror and the lake as used by Plath are both effective ways of revealing her self-esteem issues by their constant reminder of faults in appearance and life, their brutal honesty about the aging process, and their ability to show the distorted way we tend to see ourselves. The mirror hangs as a constant reminder of our faults. It does not care that we have feelings, needs, or emotions. The mirror does not lie, no matter how long we stare at our reflection the image will not change. The mirror shows us each wrinkle as a cut into our once innocent beauty. The reflections that we see often bring us memories of hardships and pain we may have endured along the way. A bad haircut or severe acne as an adolescent that brought mirror, image, reflection, looking, way, ourselves, self-esteem, reflections, plath, often, lake, back, young, view, things, lives, approval, upon, time, tend, shame, self, reminder, process, place, out, one’s, once, old, matter, look, issues, hair, feeling