According to Laura Frank, fear is something that comes naturally when you experience something new for the first time. The fear becomes smaller once a person does it more over time. In her own, experience her fear comes from her personal hardships. She has faced humiliation and she has learned to overcome it. She has also chooses to go against stereotypical ideas of women when she says, “refused to play gender games in public”(Frank51). She has learned to live the remarks and the fear goes away over time. However, with Esther in the Bell Jar, she shows the clear and evident fear revolving around her gender role. Unlike Frank, Esther Greenwood has a more difficult time overcoming some of her fears. Her fear of her future and choices around gender roles are evident when she mentions the fig tree and its significance. “One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion” (Plath77). Each fig represents a potential future for Esther. She is excited about each one for her future. But she couldn’t decide which future she would chose. “I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest” (Plath77). She feared that if she chose one fig or option the others would become unavailable. Eventually the fear of losing all other option would force her to lose all future options. Even the fig wherein she has a husband and a home and a family, which most women at the time would have easily chosen.