In the Amazon, as Esther lies in bed recovering from food poisoning, she picks up a magazine story which revolves around a fig tree. It’s a tale where a Jewish man and a nun meet under a tree, touching hands as they watch a bird hatch. When their relationship ends, and Esther comes to the end of the story, Esther draws a similarity between her relationship with Buddy Willard and the two characters of the story: “We had met together under our own imaginary fig-tree, and what we had seen wasn’t a bird coming out of an egg but a baby coming out of a woman, and then something awful happened and we went our separate ways.”(Plath 55) However, her version is already corrupted: the magazine story depicted new life emerging gently, whereas Buddy showed Esther a clinical and traumatic childbirth. In a sense, her “fig tree” was poisoned from the beginning.
A couple of pages later into the story, as Esther sits in the UN building surrounded by people she perceives as genuinely talented, the fig tree makes its way back into her mind. Now however now the tree has become a more clear idea of the ideas that haunt her: "I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig-tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose." (Plath 77) Having represented romantic possibility a couple of pages earlier, the fig tree has now paralyzed her. To her, each fig represents a different future–a husband, fame as a poet, traveling the world–but Esther can't reach for any of them. Instead, she watches as "the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."
Paired with her thoughts of Buddy Willard and his hypocrisy, the idea of the fig tree and her inability to choose a path for her life leads to her spiral into mental distress. Buddy represented one possible fig–marriage–but his hypocrisy and condescension revealed that his fig was rotten. Eventually, depression convinces her that all the figs are beyond her reach, that each fig will contain the same rottenness of Buddy, and that choosing one will mean watching all the others die. To me, the fig tree seems very similar to the bell jar, trapping Esther while life happens outside, just beyond her reach.
Hi Jason, I like how you compared the fig tree and the bell jar. Throughout the novel, Esther repeatedly uses the bell jar to represent her serious isolation and mental illness, stating that she’s completely trapped in “sour air” of depression and is unable to connect with the outer world. I agree with you that Esther’s depiction of herself starving under the fig tree shows the same sense of despair and trappedness. Her mind is too overwhelmed by the different future possibilities and would rather cut off her mind than make the wrong decision.
ReplyDeleteOooh Jason this is a really interesting perspective. I think it could also be in a way that she sees all the men during this era to be figs that she would rather have them rot than going out of her way to reach them. I liked how you gave a specific quote saying how she would starve to death because of her indecisiveness of which fig to take. Even though Buddy was a "perfect" fig for her, she still didn't commit to him because she knew that he would trap her for good and there was no way that she would do that to herself, especially after all that she went through. This is a really good blog!
ReplyDeleteHey Jason! I really liked your analysis of the fig tree because you showed how its meaning shifts throughout the novel. The contrast you made between the gentle magazine story and Esther’s traumatic experience with Buddy was especially strong. Connecting Buddy to one of the “rotten” figs was a smart way to show how her disillusionment with him feeds into her broader despair. Overall, this was such an unique approach and I am exhilarated to read more of your work!
ReplyDeleteTo be completely honest, I haven’t thought at all about the fig tree and its symbolism. For me, the idea that there is a fig tree with many different figs to choose from is a beautiful metaphor for life. Being only 19, Esther has so many figs to choose from, but her depression prevents her from being able to reach for the figs. She claims they are rotten, but are they really? Arguably, Buddy isn’t a hypocrite but is simply a man living by the societal standards of the time. I’m not sure exactly how depression works, but for this idea of the fig tree, is depression holding Esther back and rotting the fruits? Or is it revealing the ‘truth’ about all of these possible futures? Or is it creating the illusion that some of the figs are rotten? Also, from my perspective, by choosing a fruit, it doesn’t mean that all of the other fruits die; it simply means that you get to enjoy the one you chose. And maybe you can choose multiple fruits. I don’t think that in life you’re locked into 1 fruit. Anyways I think it’s clear that depression/the bell jar distorts someones view on life.
ReplyDeleteHi Jason,
ReplyDeleteThe fig tree was something I remember noticing in the beginning of the book but soon forgot about as numerous other events occurred. I thought it was really interesting how you were able to connect to much of Esther's experiences with the fig tree. I really enjoyed reading this blog. Great work!
Hey Jason, I like how you linked Esther's inability to choose a "fig from the fig tree" to how her mental state worsens. I also like what you said at the end, and how her bad experience with Buddy makes her think that any experience will love will bring the same sort of hypocrisy that buddy did. Sick blog dude!
ReplyDeleteDear Jason, this was a very demure and deep blog. I like how you were able to dissect such a seemingly trivial story and turn it into a metaphor for Esther's life: she sees these different future paths and she doesn't know which one to choose, so she mentally spirals. I think one part of the story that stood out to me reading your blog was the one where she chooses to be a "Doreen" or "Betsy" - here, the reader can clearly see she is debating her future (just like she debates which fig to choose!) Great blog.
ReplyDeleteHi Jason,
ReplyDeleteIf I am to be honest, I never thought about the fig tree linking to Esther's depression in that way. When I first read this part of the book I thought it was more of a decision paralysis of what she wants to do with her life. Although you may have a point about the depression having something to do with it. Nice Blog.
I like this reading of Buddy Willard as a kind of root-level poison to his and Esther's "fig tree" of a future--his insistence that she'll get married when she says she won't; his confident assurance that she'll forget all about this silly poetry thing once they're married. The fig-tree metaphor partly reflects Esther's inability to "choose" a particular future she desires, because she wants so many different things and is frankly unsure of a specific path (Jay Cee: "She wants to be everything"). But Buddy (and the system he embodies) is always there as a drag on her aspirations, a reminder that her future might actually already be constrained--there IS no fig tree, so to speak, if a marriage to him will make her a "numb slave in a totalitarian state" who has lost all desire to write poetry.
ReplyDeleteHello Jason,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed being reminded of this particular analogy from The Bell Jar, which Esther seems to ascribe a lot of importance to. Both of the fig tree analogies work well on their own, but what I'm more interested in is how they fit together. I think it's important to mention that the two connotations of the fig tree in Esther's mind focus on separate parts of the story Esther reads in the magazine. Esther's relationship with Buddy is represented by everything in the story OTHER than the tree itself: the two people who meet under it and the baby bird they see. Conversely, the version of the analogy that applies to Esther's career path bears no mention to any part of the story other than the tree. I think it's interesting how Esther utilizes the different parts of the story for their own purposes. Still, I like the way that you connect the two analogies together by pointing out that a life of marriage with Buddy is represented by one of the figs on the tree in addition to the people beneath it.
Nice blog Jason! Honestly when reading the book, I didn't think too much about the fig tree. Only when reading your post did i realize how much meaning was in the fig tree itself. I like how you followed the shifts what the fig tree resembled, from romance to desperation and being stuck. The tie between the fig tree and bell jar as a smart ending to the post.
ReplyDeleteWow I loved this analysis! A couple of weeks ago, I was watching a video essay that organically referenced the "fig tree analogy" and I was very surprised, because this section of the book hadn't been super compelling to me. So, I'm really glad to have read your blog, because this whole set of metaphors is now coming back into focus in a way that feels much more relevant to the overall arcs in this book. These imaginary figs really are significant to the way that Esther views her future, and I wonder how Esther would imagine her fig tree at the end of the book. I wonder how Holden would view his own fig tree at the end of his book...
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