A Woman's Struggle AnalysisThe scourge of male domination and female oppression has spread across time and cultures like a pandemic infection, targeting women . “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath and “Suicide Note” by Janice Mirikitani show the struggle and pain that the forces of oppression have inflicted on women. However, both speakers are oppressed, the manner in which they end the oppression and the cause of it are very different. Patriarchy has always existed and it affects women all over the world. For example, banned bride kidnappings in Central Asia continued to occur, and women who resist the kidnapping risk death or ostracism from their countries (Werner 2). “Suicide Note” by Janice Mirikitani is a poem that attempts to capture the thoughts and feelings of a young girl before she tragically commits suicide. The speaker is an Asian American, as is the author. Addressed to his mother and father, the note read: “I apologize for disappointing you. I worked very hard” (Mirikitani line 7). The quote is an apology, not for the pain his parents will feel at his passing, but for their disappointment at not having met their expectations. The girl knows that her life would be different if she had been born a son. She says: “If only I were a son, with shoulders as broad as the sunset through the pines, I would see the light in my mother's eyes, or the golden pride in my father's dream” (10 -14). The speaker wishes that she had been born a son to her mother and father, because if she were, her parents would recognize her accomplishments and be proud of her. It is common in most Asian cultures to place women inferior to men, and for parents to have higher expectations of their daughter than of their son who has reached their expectations by the time... . middle of paper..... Her only means of escape is her own death, and in Plath's poem, the speaker kills the men who have oppressed her for so many years. Although the theme of each poem may not elicit the issue outlined, the vibrant imagery, metaphors, repetition, and rhythm of each poem tell the reader about the real issue, that of women crippled by the scourge of oppressive forces. Works Cited blasing, mutlu konuk. American poetry: the rhetoric of its forms. 1987. November 14, 2011. .mirikitani, Janice. essense 24 (1993): 46. November 13, 2011. .shmoop Editorial Team. hustle. November 11, 2008. November 13, 2011. .shulman, Ernest. “Vulnerability factors in the suicide of Sylvia Plath.” death studies (1998): 597.