Mariah Inghram
ENG 3060J
Katherine Berta
September 20, 2016
Reader’s Response Two
In Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, Plath examines the conventional role of American women during the 1950s through the perspective of the story’s main character, Esther Greenwood. Esther is the epitome of an unconventional American woman during the 1950s; thus she cannot identify with the pressures of conventional expectations of women during this time (Plath). Esther’s lack of identity to women of this time generates an internal conflict within her, in which she is torn between her own desires, such as to pursue a career in writing, and the expectation to become a housewife and mother (Plath). Although Esther’s is an intelligent writer with desires of her own, Esther is not only discouraged from pursuing …show more content…
Esther experiences episodes of darkness from the pressures put upon her by others to pursue purity, marriage, and motherhood as opposed to pursuing her own desires and passions, such as writing (Plath). Although Esther experiences such disconcertment, she eventually overcomes the darkness consuming her life and mental well-being through self-discovery and self-acceptance, especially in regards to her mental illness, but more relevantly, of her skepticism about societal norms, which she finds legitimacy in at the end of the novel (Plath). Though Plath uses Esther’s character in order to convey a message opposite of the “feminine mystique”, Friedan supports this same central message through the examination of real women during a similar time in American history, in which she finds that happiness and the “feminine mystique” are, in fact, not in tandem for women (Friedan). In the concluding pages of her essay, The Feminine Mystique, Friedan refers to a quote provided to her by a women she was analyzing in order to support her
ENG 3060J
Katherine Berta
September 20, 2016
Reader’s Response Two
In Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar, Plath examines the conventional role of American women during the 1950s through the perspective of the story’s main character, Esther Greenwood. Esther is the epitome of an unconventional American woman during the 1950s; thus she cannot identify with the pressures of conventional expectations of women during this time (Plath). Esther’s lack of identity to women of this time generates an internal conflict within her, in which she is torn between her own desires, such as to pursue a career in writing, and the expectation to become a housewife and mother (Plath). Although Esther’s is an intelligent writer with desires of her own, Esther is not only discouraged from pursuing …show more content…
Esther experiences episodes of darkness from the pressures put upon her by others to pursue purity, marriage, and motherhood as opposed to pursuing her own desires and passions, such as writing (Plath). Although Esther experiences such disconcertment, she eventually overcomes the darkness consuming her life and mental well-being through self-discovery and self-acceptance, especially in regards to her mental illness, but more relevantly, of her skepticism about societal norms, which she finds legitimacy in at the end of the novel (Plath). Though Plath uses Esther’s character in order to convey a message opposite of the “feminine mystique”, Friedan supports this same central message through the examination of real women during a similar time in American history, in which she finds that happiness and the “feminine mystique” are, in fact, not in tandem for women (Friedan). In the concluding pages of her essay, The Feminine Mystique, Friedan refers to a quote provided to her by a women she was analyzing in order to support her