Courage to be Different

Imagine you are a young lady growing up with the expectation from others of having no future goals for yourself except for finding a suitable husband, getting married, having children, and being a perfect housewife. This was the typical and accepted outlook of most women of the 1950’s. Now the majority of girls grow up with just as many plans for their future regarding jobs as boys do. If you compare these two it is easy to see that the general public has changed quite a lot through the decades. One remarkable lady who contributed to this transformation in the role of women is feminist, author, and poet Sylvia Plath. Sylvia Plath’s life, ideas and work influenced the society of the day by showing women that it was okay to be a wife, mother, and career woman. She also influenced American literature by writing one of the first well-known personal autobiographical novels. The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath’s most famous book which, along with her poems expressed her thoughts on the...