CELIA

Question 1

MIMOSA TREE

Answer 1

motif of FEMALE EXPECTATIONS, cutting it down is an act of resistance against such expectations

Question 2

a woman whose insecurities are bred by her inability to conform to the SOUTHERN BELLE ARCHTYPE of the 1960s and thus PUNISHED by SOCIAL and BIOLOGICAL MEANS.

Question 3

‘i don’t really know anybody. I don’t… get out much’

Question 4

‘kids is the only thing worth living for’

Question 4

‘No ma’am. We ain’t friends’

Answer 4

Celia believes that race cannot hinder her friendship with Minny

Question 4

‘it slipped out, like it wanted out of me’

‘it smells like meat like hamburger defrosting on the counter’

‘what’s he going to do with me?’

Answer 4

explicit, visceral account of Celia’s miscarriage

Celia’s body’s rejection of motherhood is similar to how Plath can’t find a place for motherhood in her identity.

sense of hopelessness, women need men to validate their role

Question 5

‘He should’ve married proper. He should’ve married…Hilly’

Answer 5

awareness that her home town of SUGAR DITCH has had a large influence in her current alienation

Question 6

‘he doesn’t know about this one or the one before’

Answer 6

embarrassed by her inability to conform to the biologically determined expectation of motherhood

Question 7

‘white trash’

Question 8

‘everything about her oozes sex’

Answer 8

opposite of the expectations of the southern belle