Transitioning Into Adulthood In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar

Transitioning into adulthood is hard for any gender but it was especially difficult during the 1950s, a socially conservative time. As a woman in the 1950s, transitioning to adulthood was difficult and for Esther it was nearly impossible. Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar provides the opportunity to view a young woman's journey into early adulthood during a period where gender roles, double standards, and social norms severely restricted the options and opportunities available to women. Further, when brief moments of opportunity arose, they were under the supervision of male oppressors, such as Buddy Willard.
Buddy is an oppressor who represents a stereotype of society’s treatment of women. He made sure that Esther knows the only way she will …show more content…
The fig tree is fast growing and full of options; then it slowly withers and dies. The figs are rotten representing her choices she no longer can make, and how she could never fit into one role, or one fig. “I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest.” (Plath 18). Esther is constantly in an internal struggle while trying to decide what role she wants in society, when she can only choose one. Similar to the fig tree, once full of opportunity, Esther’s dreams now begin to die (Wagner). Esther begins to have a more negative perspective on her choices, and eventually she has no choices and no way out of the social trap, like many 1950s …show more content…
Esther’s biggest struggle is that she can never truly be herself and fit into society (Ruden). The fig tree eventually leading to the bell jar only brought down the crushing realization of never becoming herself, while the fig tree had options, the bell jar did not (Wagner). The only way Esther could find a way out of the bell jar was death, which is the main reason she sank into depression. When a woman does not fit into society there is only two options to conform, or to be