Big Juicy Figs
The tree of your life– filled with possibilities and the fruit of your hard work. Your future branching off from the main life source, into a maze of possibilities.
Some of you may be familiar with Sylvia Plath– the poet whose pieces were filled with stories of sorrow and isolation. You also may be familiar with the fact that she tragically took her own life at age 30– if you weren’t, well, now you are.
Even though people regard her work, and even her life, as a depiction of tragedy– she became one of the most well-known female poets of her time, because young women, like myself, feel connected to her and her soul.
Plath’s most famous piece is a book called “The Bell Jar” and this piece follows the story of the protagonist, Esther. She is the eldest child, an accomplished student and well on her way to becoming an accomplished writer. Though she has achieved so much, Plath’s writing follows Esther’s descent into depression and isolation.
In “The Bell Jar,” Plath paints a picture of a tree– a fig tree with many branches and big fat juicy figs dangling throughout. Each fruit represents a possibility, a life path, for her character Esther. In the excerpt, Esther is seated in front of her life tree and is careful in searching for the biggest jewel of the bunch.
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. Like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked from the tip of every branch. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America,” said Plath, in her book.
When picturing your future, what do you see?
Your lush life mapped out, with your future career, family, house and so on? If this is true for you– good for you. I, like many others, am envious of your sense of direction. Most of us see a vast sea of possibilities, filled with uncertainty. Most of us are teetering on the edge of hope and fear– deep-rooted fear that tells us that things will not work out how we hope.
As our brain tricks and taunts us, sometimes brightness peaks through– exposing a world full of excitement and possibility. Yet, we are trekking this journey with no map; no direction to start in. For me, I can imagine myself living in so many different places– surrounded by different people, having different life goals and career paths. Which most of the time, fills me with excitement– but the worst part of this green fig tree, of all the wonders, is the little nagging voice in the back of my mind which says that one cannot have it all.
That I must choose one path. That I might regret the path I choose.
Not knowing what fruit of life is the juiciest, which to pick, can be among the toughest of battles. But we must persevere, or the fear of not having it all can turn into a shriveled and unfulfilled reality.
“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. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet,” said Plath.
Now I am not going to tell you how to live your life, but even Sylvia Plath is basically telling you to grab at least one fig. Even though Esther doesn’t get her happy ending, take this as a lesson.
Being a young person with so much potential can be almost paralyzing– What if it doesn’t work out? What if I did all of this for nothing? What if I’m not good enough?
These thoughts have a funny way of sneaking in and clouding judgment, which is normal– but it is up to you to make these thoughts and doubts temporary. You must snap out of this spell, this episode of loss of confidence– before everything goes rotten.
Reach for as many figs as you can and you might be able to hold on to one… And guess what– it may be the juiciest one of your whole life.
Strike Out,
Writer: Reanna Haase
Edited by: Delaney Gunnell and Olivia Wagner
Orlando
Reanna Haase is the Blog Director for Strike Magazine Orlando. When she is not writing for Strike, you can probably find her out in nature or journaling. She is the mom to her cat, Stevie (like Nicks) and her leopard gecko, Harry (like Potter). Follow her writing journey @byreannahaase on Instagram or reach her at reannahaase@gmail.com.
