The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath - 1753 Words

The Bell Jar is a book written in 1963 written by Sylvia Plath. It is a story about a girl who under goes many different traumatic life events that had the destiny to make or break her. The things she used to enjoy in life are no longer bringing joy to her life. She can’t find anything that gives her importance of the will to go on. The Bell Jar is a story that will take you on a journey with a girl who lets the gender roles of 1950s get the best of her. She lets people tell her what she can and can’t do and loses what it means to become your own person. The Bell Jar teaches the audience a lot about the expectations, opportunities or restrictions on American Women in the 1950’s. As gender roles have become more diverse between a man and a†¦show more content†¦Ester was constantly pushed around by men which was a stereotype in the 1950’s that men controlled the women and were always in charge. Ester had a relationship with a man named Buddy who was expecting that she was just going to marry him. Men believed that they had everything a woman may desire but actually they didn’t. Women were forced to marry men because of their fortune or family relations. The Bell Jar teaches us that every opportunity a woman had received in the 1950’s was a gift and should be taken immediately. Women had certain expectations they must meet and ways they must look in order to be accepted by society. Women were compared to the look of models, they were expected to look just as good as they still are nowadays. For example, â€Å" A model named Bettina was known for her tall, slim figure, youthful movements, short bobbed hair, shapely eyebrows and bright red lipstick† ( Sherrow, Modeling and Models). This shows how women were expected to be slim, with youthful energy and have short hair. Ester was one of those women who were expected to look like this. She used to have youthful energy but events over her life started to take aw ay that energy. Women in the 1950’s had to compete with the models image. â€Å"Women in Beauty Pageants were judged basis of physical appearance and named best looking or most beautiful† (Sherrow, Beauty Pageants). The idea that people would be considered beautiful or best looking just because of