The way the Ladies' Day women are waited on hand and foot. I was somewhat taken aback by the sponsor's reaction to the girls being ill after eating crab meat at the luncheon. They were concerned the women might sue them for being poisoned but I did not realize a woman would be able to file a legitimate lawsuit in this time period.
I found Buddy being able to bring Esther into the same room a child birth was happening in to be the most interesting part of the reading assignment. Not only did I think it was weird for a friend of a med student to be allowed to watch a stranger's birth, but the way Plath used the birth as a kind of catalyst to tell readers about the history between Buddy and Esther was creative. The way she described the pregnancy pain medication "as something a man would invent," relates to the idea she later brings up on how a woman's purity is valued more as well as looked down upon more if it is gone than a man's purity and whether or not he still has it. I thought this was an interesting way to lead up to her prior relationship with Buddy Willard. I am a bit confused as to why she still feels one day they will be married but then talks about him with so condescendingly.
Susan--there are a couple of things going in your post. The Ladies' Day episode seems a bit unrelated to the baby imagery, though. I think Buddy just took Esther along to impress her, which does not necessarily mean that Esther's presence was legitimate. But you're right that this somehow pertains to their relationship--the family that Buddy hopes (and she occasionally thinks)they'll have together and Esther's recognition that this is all part of a patriarchal plot, something that will force her in a mold where she feels she doesn't belong.
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