Plath’s father is stuck in his ancestral background and the Nazi mindset. As if they’ve moved, he's still back in time and will not let go of the past. This detail can show the expectations of the American dream of present figures. Plath writes her father as a man who would not let go and held onto it despite the war being over. He takes pride in his German roots as the “better aryan being” as said on lines 44 & 45. To Sylvia, she is seen as the “lesser being” in his eyes. Emphasizing her desire to be seen as his ideal daughter, which she is not. 

The trauma plath…“I could never talk to you…I thought every German was you” (Plath 1507) hints at the beginning of the trauma being displayed in how she does not interact and cannot view other Germans as the same without hearing her father. Plath also included that she had “...always been scared of you” (Plath 1508), which also helps imply the Nazi character she had given her father, further playing into the power dynamic and how she considers herself as the “jew”. 

Plath also uses fictional characters to describe her father, such as a vampire with a black heart. Plath refers to her heart as red. I pondered on what the red could symbolize, possibly her desire for his love or embrace, which he lacks. The use of color in this poem has a contrast.  Plath has a sense of innocence that is not tainted with her father's darkness. Finally, in the last paragraph, Plath states, “Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through” (Plath 1509). This indicates that she wants to move on and wants him to move on from a tradition that he has learned and embraced.