The role of the Nativity in "Magi" and "Carol of the Brown King"What were the Three Wise Men looking for when they followed the North Star? They were obviously seeking the Christ child, but they were also seeking the truth and righteousness that he represents. Sylvia Plath in her poem “Magi” and Langston Hughes in his poem “Carol of the Brown King” discuss the merit of their respective minority groups through allusions to the Nativity. Plath uses the trip to discuss both the ignorance of philosophers' quest for "truth" and their neglect of women, and Hughes uses the righteousness of the Nativity to emphasize the importance of black people. Plath's poem "Magi" ridicules the theory of the intellectual. search for the truth: “They have the wrong star, these paper godfathers” (15). Instead of seeking the meaning of life by living, they seek it in inanimate books. Plath says of the summaries, "These are the real ones, all right: the Good, the True," however, her other references to these summaries are contradictory, indicating that this is a mockery (6). When she remarks that they "hover like dull angels", she explains that they are not spoiled by anything "so vulgar as a nose or an eye", and yet, what is a featureless face (1-2)? These summaries are “pure as boiled water, loveless as the multiplication table,” but how could something so lifeless describe life (8)? In describing the monotony of summaries, Plath indicates their inability to guide the search for truth. While the summaries lead the “paper godfathers” to the “cradle of a lamp-headed Plato,” Plath leads her readers to the cradle of a baby. daughter (16 years old). While the summaries are “pure as boiled water,” the infant is also pure: “the heavy notion of Evil that accompanies its cradle is less than a stomach ache” (7.13). However, although the theory-filled summaries are “as loveless as the multiplication table,” the child feeds on “the love of the mother's milk, not theory” (8, 14). The truth of summaries is grounded in theory; baby truth is grounded in love. Plath is happy that the “paper godparents” are not looking for her little girl’s crib. “What girl ever prospered in such company?” (18). This question attacks the male-dominated hierarchy in which no woman of her time thrived. The main message of Plath's poem is that we learn truth in the school of life, but why did she use a little girl instead of a boy ??