Essay+on+American+Women

= __ ​ ​ __ Essay on American Women  =

Preceding the 1950's, when // The Bell Jar // took place, there was much commotion in the world. World War Two was in effect, and the roles of women drastically changed in this time. They were called to work instead of be mothers. Women were forced to keep the world of business and industry afloat while men were called to fight. Through this time, women found that they had the ability to support themselves and function in a 'man's world'. This paved the way for women to become independent in American society.

In // The Bell Jar, // Sylvia Plath shows how women's minds are changing and calling for more education and business-like roles. The main character of the novel, Esther Greenwood, is in college for journalism and writing. Before the Second World War, a woman in college was a very rare thing. But as soon as the 1950's came around, there were colleges JUST for women all over the country. Sylvia lived through this time, so it's obvious that she was heavily influenced by it.

Also, in // The Bell Jar, // women seem to be more frequently going crazy. They would go insane on different levels though. For some, all that they needed was to go to parties and get wasted to get them through life, like Doreen. But for others, like Esther and Joan, they needed to be institutionalized and given treatments such as shock therapy.

One could suggest that when people pursue things that they are not meant to pursue, it can mess with the internal workings of their psyche. Joan ends up hanging herself, Esther is planning on killing herself when she gets out of the institution, and Sylvia DID kill herself by taking a bottle of sleeping pills and sticking her head into a gas oven. These characters and people all went to college to learn how to function in a working setting, and all of them felt suffocated by life. All people have limits, and when these limits are breached, bad things happen.

Despite the fact that women are more prone to go insane when thrust into a world of work and stress, they have contributed a great deal to society since then. For example, Gertrude Belle Elion synthesized the leukemia-fighting drug 6-mercaptopurine, contributing greatly to the medical field of cancer fighting. Ella Fitzgerald contributed greatly to the world of entertainment. She was considered the greatest jazz singer of her time.

So women becoming a part of the working world is not necessarily a bad thing. The only problem is that phychological issues tend to formulate when a person is in an environment that they were not meant for.

= Works Cited  =

Goodwin, Sue. //American Cultural History//. Lone Star Coll. Kingwood Lib., July 2008. Web. 13 Jan. 2010. . "National Women's Hall of Fame." //Infoplease//. Pearson Education, n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2010. .