During the 1950's "Confessional" writing was a term not yet created. America had rarely dealt with ideas one felt so bluntly publicized to the world. It was not until Sylvia Plath began to share her own angst to her readers that many people began to feel they could personally relate to a piece of literature. Plath changed the way many felt about reading altogether, and with that incorporated new ideas of expressionistic confinement in her writing. In each of her pieces reign hidden confessional themes surrounding resentment of her family, resentment of society for classifying her simply as a female, and her constant depression.

Fifty years ago the typical ideas of family revolved around ideas of the Cleavers and "Happy Days." For Sylvia Plath such ideas were not as one would expect but instead quite the opposite. When Plath was eight years old her father died of diabetes...