<p><b>A practical guide to Sylvia Plath¿s works for middle and secondary school students </b></p><p>One of the most dynamic and admired poets of the 20th century, Sylvia Plath wrote work about war, motherhood, jealousy, rage, grief, death, and mental illness that challenged preconceptions about what poetry should be about. The enduring power of Plath¿s poetry and prose continues to attract and fascinate a multitude of readers. Best known for her poems "Daddy"?and "Lady Lazarus" and the novel <i>The Bell Jar</i>, Plath starkly expressed a sense of alienation closely linked to both her personal experiences and the to the wider situation of women throughout mid-twentieth-century America. With an eye towards demythologizing Plath and focusing on her achievements, Breaking Down Plath aims to contextualize Plath¿s work in the larger scheme of Cold War-era gender politics, debates about mental health, and anxiety about global conflict. </p><p><i>Breaking Down Plath</i> informs readers of esse