In Sylvia Plath 's autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, the text takes the reader through the struggles of a young woman Esther, Sylvia Plath’s alter ego, who faces unruly patriarchal oppression which limits her ability to succeed within her community. This drives Esther to attempt suicide in a multitude of ways. Esther is aware of a female 's oppression within the 1950’s and relates imbalance between men and women to the battle between nature and technology. Esther is subject to patriarchal oppression throughout the novel and relates a woman 's struggle of inequality and restraint to the battle between technology and nature.
Throughout the novel, Esther is repeatedly oppressed by male characters and expected to act and become what they have …show more content…
When Esther and Doreen visit Lenny, Doreen plays into the generic gender roles of a female in the 1950’s and this makes Esther frustrated; While Lenny may not have been causing Esther any physical damage, his actions show that he "considers all women and nature as objects to be dominated, trophies worth showcasing.” Furthermore, Esther observes the how technology has encapsulated the living world when she goes to her father 's grave. When she arrives at her father 's grave, the patriarch of the family, she is effectively confronting all of the pressures that she feels in her life because of men. Her father 's grave is “crowded right up by another gravestone, head to head, the way people are crowded into a charity ward when there isn’t enough space. The stone was of a mottled pink marble, like canned salmon” (Plath 88). This thought of canned salmon is “symbolic of nature trapped by technology” and that not even death can prevent and reverse the damage pollution and patriarchy has done to Esther and the environment (Wilkins 51). In total, the graveyard, being an image of permanent oppression, paired with Lenny’s stuffed animal collection clearly displays how men have tainted the natural world and permanently damaged Esther 's
Throughout the novel, Esther is repeatedly oppressed by male characters and expected to act and become what they have …show more content…
When Esther and Doreen visit Lenny, Doreen plays into the generic gender roles of a female in the 1950’s and this makes Esther frustrated; While Lenny may not have been causing Esther any physical damage, his actions show that he "considers all women and nature as objects to be dominated, trophies worth showcasing.” Furthermore, Esther observes the how technology has encapsulated the living world when she goes to her father 's grave. When she arrives at her father 's grave, the patriarch of the family, she is effectively confronting all of the pressures that she feels in her life because of men. Her father 's grave is “crowded right up by another gravestone, head to head, the way people are crowded into a charity ward when there isn’t enough space. The stone was of a mottled pink marble, like canned salmon” (Plath 88). This thought of canned salmon is “symbolic of nature trapped by technology” and that not even death can prevent and reverse the damage pollution and patriarchy has done to Esther and the environment (Wilkins 51). In total, the graveyard, being an image of permanent oppression, paired with Lenny’s stuffed animal collection clearly displays how men have tainted the natural world and permanently damaged Esther 's