Suburbia as Dystopia
In Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar , suburbia represents failure. To Esther Greenwood, it's the ending of everything she's ever wanted, and essentially her greatest fear. It represents what she spends hours contemplating, the end of her life as she knows it, the thing which repulses her to an unimaginable degree: settling down and becoming a mother. In the beginning of the book, Esther is not at all interested in settling for anything. Even though her career is taxing and makes her unhappy, it's far better than getting married and starting to have babies with someone like Buddy Willard. Esther doesn't understand Doreen's obsession with relationships, and is completely horrified when Buddy takes her to his hospital and she witnesses a birth. The idea of motherhood is one she can neither fathom nor stomach, especially in the context of how drastically it would change her life. Esther is repulsed by the idea of ever being married. In the beginning of the book, she is d