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Sylvia Plath and The Bell Jar


            At a young age women are taught to take care of their men. Young girls watch their mothers take care of their fathers only to later on pursue the same role to their husbands. It's so stereotypical, having women act so domestic. To be a woman in a man's world is quite a difficult thing. The need to be successful and self-fulfilled all while struggling to maintain house and home is quite the challenge that most women rise too these days. But back in the olden days not many young women could say the same. These women were jobless, surviving off the paychecks of their egotistical significant others, living with the sole purpose to cater to their mates and offspring. But what happens when a woman is faced with the socially accepted perception of women versus her own potential? Will she embrace the womanhood so many before her have or will she fight to preserve her own dignity no matter how rough the journey may be? This is the question that troubles Esther Greenwood in Sylvia Plath's novel "The Bell Jar." Esther Greenwood is a prestigious young college intern who, from a far, seems to have it all figured out but is on a quest to conquer the complexity of her biggest fears. In the novel "The Bell Jar," Sylvia Plath's style requests her readers to look inside the distraught mind of Ms. Esther Greenwood by utilizing detailed imagery, making prominent characterization of the roles of women in the 1950's, and illustrating the alienation of a misguided soul as she struggles to overcome the conflict of internal demons. .
             With this in mind, Plath's way of writing utilizes imagery as a technique to show the significance of the oppressive state of mind Esther Greenwood is in. Plath uses the imagery of certain phrases such as the words "electrocuted"" and "burned"" to help generate the picture of death; regardless, it's only later that we see the effect of Greenwoods fascination with heat. For example, while in New York Esther reads about the electrocution of the Rosenbergs stating, "I couldn't help wondering what it would be like, being burned alive all along your nerves"" (Plath 1).


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