There isn’t a day that goes by that i done see some sort of poverty in NYC. Most of what I see occurs in the subway everyday. Almost everyday someone comes in the train and announces that they are homeless and would value anything you give them. But in a city where people are always on the move  and speed is always increasing there is not a lot of attention to the homeless. As well not everyone can afford to give money to every homeless person they see in the subway. With this recently concluded election, who knows what will be done to change the amount of poverty in the country. Mayor Bill De Blasio just over a year ago announced a plan to help reduce the poverty rate by raising the minimum wage to give everyone a chance but that faces difficulty as raising the minimum wage is a state decision. What I seem to notice most about the homeless is that, while New York is a very diverse city, most are either Hispanic or African American or Asian. I read a few months ago that just under fifty percent of New York’s population is homeless. That mean just under fifty percent in made up of those three ethnic groups. In all honesty those are pretty disheartening numbers. Most of the time on the train, i have my headphones in my ear but those times when i listen to them explain their situation, one thing reoccurs. They receive little to no help from the government. Somehow you have to acknowledge that the homeless seek help from society and its officials. As Audre Lorde says in Age, Race, Class, Sex: Women Redefining Difference, “change means growth, and growth can be painful. But we sharpen self-definition by exposing the self in work and struggle together with those whom we define as different from ourselves, although sharing the same goals.(Lorde123)

Chapter 7 in Americanah is important to the plot of the book because it highlights Ifemelu and Obinze’s relationship. It is the first time Ifemelu and Obinze have sex. Ifemelu starts giving Obinze a massage and then they having sex. But Obinze tells her that he is certain that they will get married so they decide not to use a condom. The moment was so spontaneous that Ifelmelu wished it was a more carefully planned. Afterwards, she feels a bit of discomfort and a bit disappointed because it was unplanned. She kept imagining how she would tell Obinze’s mother and how they should have planned it better. ” But now she could not see how. What would she say? What words would she use? Would Obinze’s mother expect details? She and Obinze should have planned it better; that way, she would know how to tell his mother. The unplannedness of it all had left her a little shaken, and also a little disappointed. It seemed somehow as though it had not been worth it after all” (Adiche115). It seems as though the sex is something that isn’t done freely but rather its done with caution. Sex is something she must be cautious about because the potential of marriage can arise from it. This is shown when she experienced the pregnancy scare. The vision of Obinze’s desire to marry and have children with Ifemelu seem realistic. For Esther in The Bell Jar, sex was different. She has adapted a lose and free attitude which is different from Ifemelu. She wants to have sex more than Ifemelu does and for her sex is something that she must do any at cost to achieve some sort of relief. The relief comes from escaping traditional chaste women. The main difference between the two character is that for Esther, sex can happen under any circumstances. For Ifemelu, sex has to planned out in order to make it more comfortable.

At the beginning of Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the symbol of hair was introduced in the setting of a hair salon in Trenton. In fact, most of the setting was the hair salon as it played a flashback role. Naturally in a salon setting, hair would be a reoccurring symbol but Chimamanda manages to use hair as a representation of multiple things. One of the first things hair represents in Americanah was identity. Hair represents Ifemelu’s identity and her struggles with identity. When she moved to America she was told by her Aunty Uju that she had to lose her braids. “I have to take my braids out for my interviews and relax my hair. Kemi told me that I shouldn’t wear braids to the interview. If you have braids, they will think you are unprofessional.” (Adiche146) Having her hair braided represented Ifemelu’s confidence as a smart black American and it represented her identity as a Nigerian. Changing her hair meant changing her independence and reduced her confidence. Changing her hair to make her look more professional meant that she was conforming to American standards rather than staying true to her own. Changing her chair and getting rid of the braids reminded her of when her mother came home and abruptly cut off some of her own braids. Her mother did it for the sake of religion and Ifemelu interpreted the act as her mother also giving up her own independence. But also for Ifemelu, changing her hair highlighted the racism associated with American ideas of beauty. A black women was expected to straighten her hair to look professional and this also represented changing ones identity.

3) In The Color Purple, some of the reoccurring themes present early on are violence, sexual violence, sexuality and ones voice. In the first letter Celie writes to God and she in the letter she writes about getting raped by her stepfather. This is one example of violence early on and shows that as the book progresses Celie will be facing a lot of violence. Another example of violence towards Celie happens in her fifth letter. “He beat me today cause he say i winked at a boy in church”.(Walker5) This is the first example of domestic violence and one can predict that this will affect Celie to becoming a stronger and more vocal person. Her voice will become a stronger theme in the book. She is fond of Shug Avery. She believes Shug is a beautiful and gorgeous and she dreams about Shug Avery. This shows a bit of her sexuality because she seems attracted to Shug Avery. The book treats the themes of sex and violence in an addressing manner by bringing it up multiple times. In a another letter, Celie says, “He beat me like he beat the children. Cept he don’t never hardly beat them”(Walker22). In this instance, the book addressed violence by showing how often Celie gets beat and this time by a different man.

The Bell Jar Essay 1 Outline

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Historical Background

1. Women Role in 1950s

B. Summary of Esther

C. Introduction of main points

1. Esther experience at magazine
2. Feminine Mystique: Media Influence on Women’s Role
3. Influence of other characters

D. Thesis Statement

1. Esther’s pressure on herself to choose between being a housewife or a working woman or something else to make her happy is fueled by the media and other women around her.

II. BODY 1: ESTHER’S PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

A. Experience at magazine

1. Quote
2. Analysis of quote and relations to thesis
3. Quote #2
4. Analysis

B. Concluding Sentences

III. BODY 2: FEMININE MYSTIQUE

A.  Examination and summary of the feminine mystique

B. Quote about portrayal of American Housewife

1. Analysis of quote

IV. BODY 3: OTHER CHARACTERS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON ESTHER

A. Background of Doreen

B. Quote of Doreen and her influence

1. Analysis

C. Background of Jay Cee

D. Quote of Jay Cee and how she helps Esther in her career

1. Analysis

E. Show the difference between Jay Cee and Doreen and how it puts Esther in two minds

VI. CONCLUSION

A. Restatement of thesis: The people and media around her influence her uncertainty of her role as a woman and leads her to pressure herself

B. Recap of Esther’s Experience

C. Recap of Feminine Mystique analysis

D. Recap of surrounding character influences and how it adds to her self-pressure

There are not many references to race in the novel, The Bell Jar. They certainly are not directly but rather indirectly. In the book, the characters and their races are not specified but based on descriptions, they are interpreted. Race and discrimination in the 1960s was one of those topics that created separation in society. At the time, it was at its peak so it would make sense that in novel where there were white characters that the issue of race would be indirectly mentioned. Race may not have been a central theme in the book but the separation of gender and class was. Women in general faced heavy scrutiny for wanting to step outside the stereotypical gender role of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of a family and most notable, remaining pure until marriage. By gender, both black and white women were forced to remain in these roles. Most women wanted to escape it through sexual means.

Esther was no different in the book. She was confined in the stereotypical gender role of women and wanting to break out of it made her face mental and physical instability. For Esther sexual experience truly divided the world as she said in chapter seven.”When I was nineteen, pureness was the great issue. Instead of the world being divided up into Catholics and Protestants or Republicans and Democrats or white men and black men or even men and women, I saw the world divided into people who had slept with somebody and people who hadn’t, and this seemed the only really significant difference between one person and another” (Plath82). Esther doesn’t view a separation on race but rather between women who have slept with someone and women who haven’t.Esther sets out to defy conventional expectations by losing her virginity with someone she does not expect to marry. But Esther has a certain freedom to have sex, Unknowingly its not the same for colored women. Rape and sexual aggression was something that took away that freedom. Audre Lorde acknowledges this in her writing, “Age, Race, Class and Sex”, as well. “Black women still refuse to recognize that we are also oppressed as women and that sexual hostility against black women is practiced”(Lorde119).

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.

Jay Cee is a crucial character in the book, The Bell Jar. Jay Cee is the editor of the Ladies Day magazine and she is also Esther’s boss. Primarily, she acts as the role model for Esther. Esther idolizes Jay Cee due to the fact that Jay Cee is a career oriented and ambitious woman. While most other women at the magazine concern themselves with their physical appearance, Jay Cee is the opposite. Jay Cee isn’t very beautiful and has lack of fashion but carries self-confidence. Jay Cee is married to a man although she represents a self sustaining woman.Jay Cee and Esther share a common quality, they both greatly value their intelligence. As much as Esther looks up to Jay Cee, Jay Cee has also taken a liking to Esther and wishes to help Esther succeed. Jay Cee can read a couple of languages and advises Esther that learning new languages would be beneficial to her career development.“You ought to read French and German,” Jay Cee said mercilessly, “and probably several other languages as well, Spanish and Italian–better still, Russian. Hundreds of girls flood into New York every June thinking they’ll be editors. You need to offer something more than the run-of-the-mill person. You better learn some languages” (Plath33). Jay Cee is well respected by Esther. In my opinion, Jay Cee represents the type of woman that works hard and earns her success by herself. So its easy to see why Esther would aspire to be like Jay Cee. Most young woman are stereo typically expected to get married to a successful man and become a housewife but Jay Cee defies those expectations. Jay Cee represents a positive role model because she breaks away from what a woman should be. For Esther, Jay Cee is positive role model because of her marital status and her success

Hello, my name is Dinesh Surujdeo and my preferred pronoun can be anything but he/his would suffice. I am a second year student here at City Tech. My major is Mechanical Engineering Technology. At the end on this year, i will get the associates degree, however my overall goal is to get my masters in Mechanical Engineering. I plan to transfer at the end of the year to another school. Right now i am deciding between City College or Farmingdale State to get my masters. My career choice of engineering was influenced by the fact that like working with my hands. I find that I do my best work when I work with my hands. I love working with cars especially since my dad works with Lexus. The picture is of a 2006 Mitsubishi Evo I had been working on with some car enthusiast friends.

I was originally born in Guyana and my family moved to New York when I was seven years old. Since then, i grew up in Queens. One thing I love as much or even more at times than cars is sports. I am naturally attracted to my county’s sport of cricket(most American haven’t heard of it). It is a big part of my family and I grew up with it. I played it all four years of high school. But growing up in Queens, I i fell in love with basketball and especially football. My favorite teams are the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Giants respectively.  I like to exercise and workout on a regular basis.

I am a very easygoing person. I am also ambitious and dedicated to becoming a successful engineer. I enjoy making my friends and family laugh.