In Americanah the main character Ifemelu thinks that she is pregnant after having sex with her boyfriend Obinze and starts to be angry towards him. Ifemelu is encouraged to have sex with Obinze because he tells her “But, Ifem, we’re going to get married anyway” while encouraging her to have sex with no protection (Adiche, 114). When Ifemelu tells Obinze that she thinks that she is pregnant he states that is too soon to know and he seems to be confused (Adiche, 115). While getting the results at the doctors she seems to be upset at everyone, having this kind of worry seemed to stress her out and take out her frustration on everyone including the lab girl. Even with the results coming out negative, Ifemelu does seem to be relieved that she isn’t pregnant but has the courage to tell Obinze’s mother that they had sex.

In The Color Purple, the main character Celie experiences sex differently. In the beginning of the story we find out that Celie’s stepfather rapes her (Walker, 1). Celie thinks that she isn’t a good girl anymore due to the tragic things that she goes through with this man (Walker, 1). She asks god to show her a sign of what is happening to her to prove whether she deserves this or not (Walker, 1). Celie doesn’t really show whether she’s stood up for herself or not but it’s obvious that she just takes the pain. This sexual experience differs from Americanah because sex isn’t a choice for Celie, she doesn’t experience having the decision on when to have sex and with whom. This experience has an effect on Celie and makes it clear that she is afraid of men. When she gets beaten because she was accused of winking at a boy in church and states that she don’t even look at men but look at women since she isn’t afraid of them (Walker, 5). Celie is traumatized has she experiences pain physically and mentally.

In the book Americanah by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie, tells a story about a journey of a black women in America. The book is written in a third person point of view meaning that as readers we get to see the story from a narratives point of view. The narrator is both reliable and omniscient meaning the narrator has complete and unlimited knowledge on all of the characters and things involved in this story. This point of view doesn’t change even when the story changes perspectives within characters and when it changes in time within the present to the past. For example, when Obinze gets an email from Ifemelu saying that she is moving back to Nigeria and the narrator describes in detail his thoughts on the email. Adichie not only gets into a female view in the story but also gets into the male’s views as shown in this narration:

When Obinze first saw her e-mail, he was sitting in the back of his Range Rover in still Lagos traffic, his jacket slung over the front seat…… First, he skimmed the e-mail, instinctively wishing it were loner…… He read it again slowly and felt the urge to smooth something, his trousers, his shaved-bald head. She had called him Ceiling. In the last e-mail from her, sent just before he got married, she had called him Obinze, apologized for her silence over the years, wished him happiness in sunny sentences, and mentioned the black American she was living with. A gracious e-mail. He had hated it.  (Adichie, 23)

This narrative shows the thought process of a second character which reveals to the readers his personal emotions to the main character which is Ifemelu. This point of view gets the reader to get to know the characters involved and develop an interest in what happens to them.

In the book The Color Purple has many themes between violence, sexuality and voice. One of the themes that stand out the most is sexuality; within the first page of the book the main character introduces the fact that she is raped from her father. This quote shows an example how sexuality is shown in this story, “Just say You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t. First he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around…. He start to choke me. saying You better shut and git used to it” (Walker, 1). Sexuality in this book is referred to rape against the main character as she has no control of the situation. The story starts off as the girl thinking that she has always been a good girl but now she doesn’t think that she is due to the fact that she is getting raped from her father. The next theme of the book is violence. This quote shows an example on how violence is shown in the story, “He beat me today cause he say I winked at boy in church. I may have got something in my eye but I didn’t wink” (Walker, 5). Violence in this book is shown to the main character as if she is a bad person. This quote refers back to her thinking that she isn’t a good girl but her father shows her otherwise. The final theme of the book is voice. This quote shows an example on how voice is shown in the book, “Well, He say, real slow, I can’t let you have Nettie. She too young……But I can let you have Celie. She the oldest anyway.” (Walker, 7). This quote shows that the main character doesn’t have a say or a right to her own voice. The story shows that this takes place in a time period that females didn’t have a right to their own opinions or had a say in anything, the book was written in 1982 as it was a time of the women’s rights movement.

The Truth Behind The Bell Jar
OUTLINE

The book The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is an example of what woman had to deal with when it came to problems with their own identity as woman. The mains character of the book struggles with experiences as a woman, dealing with expectations as a woman and restricted role of women of that time.

The Bell Jar shows the experiences as a woman.

• When Esther goes to New York; she meets several guys,  Lenny Shepherd and they find out that he is famous. Esther then realizes that Lenny’s friend that was with him wasn’t really a friend of Lenny but he was getting paid by him to keep Esther company that way Lenny can try to get with Doreen
•  Buddy Willard, confesses that he loses his purity to a waitress while dating Esther.  propose to Esther but she didn’t want the normal life of a woman.

The Bell Jar shows how women dealt with expectations from society.

•  she should be happy and confident, but in reality she feels gloomy and has dark humor.
•   her relationship with men, which aren’t romantic as she daydreams. daydreams this fantasy with men that she meets and how it would turn out if she were to marry him or have a relationship with them.

The Bell Jar shows the restricted role of women in the 1950’s.

• Esther’s relationship with Buddy also gets her this approval from society as she is living up to those expectations from the norms.
• last night in New York for Esther when she goes out with Doreen and realizes that woman are identified either virgin or whore.

Esther goes through a lot of personal experiences as she starts to determine her sense of self and direction with life. In the book she challenges the regular norms of being a woman but she does it with courage. She stood up for what she believes she deserves even if it’s not the regular getting married and settling down lifestyle.

The treatment of race in the book The Bell Jar is addressed in certain ways but there aren’t many scenes that deal with racial issues. There is a part that she does specify how there’s an African American man that is helping in the Asylum, specifically calling him “The Negro” (Plath 179). This shows that every time there was a person of color around that’s what they would go by. This part of the text also reveals how people went about with race and the mistreatment that “Negros” had gotten from people back then. Esther does end up kicking this helper in the leg and told him “That’s what you get”; when he didn’t do anything wrong (Plath 182). This action from Esther does show that she is very well aware of her status as a white woman because even in the worst predicament for a woman to be in she still chose to mistreat the African American helper. This shows that women the 1980s were still racist even if they weren’t happy as being housewives which was the common issue that woman shard back then. In the book there isn’t many racial interactions but when there was a scene with one interaction is was something that was surprisingly weird from a readers perspective. Just to read the mistreatment to someone because of color is just wrong but back then it was normal for these people. In connection to the issues raised by the Combahee River Collection article it brings up a point that black females and black males shared in common. “We struggle together with Black men against racism, while we also struggle with Black men about sexism. This shows that this mistreatment wasn’t just targeted to a specific gender but to the community the African Americans.

When Laura Franks says that she refuses to play gender games she means that there’s a difference in being female and male and what the expectations are for being one. This has to do with fear because she states in her article Components of Gender, “It’s safe having an identity- it’s secure. It’s safe having a gender. But there’s a price for that safety and security within some hard shell ” (Franks, 55). When one identifies themselves a gender and their identity they’re trapped within the standards of that gender identity and gender role. Laura Franks is try to make a point that we shouldn’t just live up to those standards but be willing to find new ways of experiencing the world and living out of the regular norms of being a specific gender. In the book The Bell Jar in Chapter 11, Esther goes against the gender role of being a female when she says that she hasn’t washed the clothes she came home from New York in three weeks and she also didn’t wash her hair either for those three weeks (Plath, 127). Her explanation for her behavior was that it was silly to her to wash one day when she would only have to wash again the next (Plath, 128). Readers would react to this by being grossed out since she isn’t really caring about her hygiene. Females are expected to be on top of their hygiene so for Esther to go against that norm of being a female, its very surprising.

In the book The Bell Jar, Doreen is a character that is introduced as this beautiful female that can get any guy that she wants. Doreen is from a society girls’ college down south (Plath, 4). Doreen is described to be this girl form the South that has her hair compared to cotton candy fluff and her blue eyes transparent like agate marbles (Plath, 4). When Doreen is funny and kind of witty but is also very mature for her age as she wears lace and nylon gowns to sleep and smoke cigarettes compared to the other girls that just wear regular cotton summer nighties (Plath, 5). Doreen’s primary job wasn’t talked about in the book but as in the things she values you can tell that she’s up for any adventure but when it comes to men she seems to be blinded. Doreen’s interest seems to be mostly men so far. Esther perceives Doreen as a good friend in the beginning of the book but later on when she notices that Doreen flakes out on the activities meant for the girls to be with some guy she realizes her friendship with her. Esther seems unhappy that Doreen treats her like that as in she only comes to her when she needs something or is bored. Doreen represents the opposite role for a woman that was looked up to at that time, even though she had the appearance of the role of being skinny, blonde and blue eyed but she seems to speak to many guys which was something I don’t believe woman did back then was speak to many guys. In Chapter 9, a guy does reference that Doreen and Esther as “sluts” (Plath 109). He is only judging Esther by the actions of Doreen, like if she friends with a slut she might be on herself.

Hey guys! My name is Geannel Vargas. I would prefer any female pronouns like she or hers. This is my second year in New York City College of Technology studying Fashion Marketing; I will be getting my Associates very soon. I’m in this major because fashion has always been a part of me. Since young I went to many Arts schools and learned that throughout each Art I studied or majored in I still looked up to Fashion as my favorite. In High School I majored in Dance, which was an advantage for me because I would always help my dance teacher pick out the costumes for each show and number that we had. Not only did I help put together shows but I also made sure everyone looked their best while they performed, which I enjoyed doing. Before choosing my career path I realized maybe I should see what Fashion is really about and see where it takes me. Now that I studied my major a bit, I came to the conclusion that I would like to become a wardrobe consultant or a stylist. I noticed that I love to help those who want to look their best and I feel like I have that talent. While studying at City Tech I enjoy to share the same interest with many others in my major, as it is motivating for me to get to where I want to be. I guess you can tell already that I’m a very ambitious person and go for what I want no matter what it takes. I look forward to learning a lot in Women’s Studies and to share our perspectives on the subject. The picture I’m sharing is from a Christmas show that I performed with my senior cohort in High School, you can see that The Nutcracker was the theme of our show.