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[deleted] t1_iu3zrak wrote

I love Plath's prose, it's a bummer we didn't get a whole lot more.

>“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. 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, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. 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.”

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St_Vincent-Adultman t1_iu4qwv8 wrote

“"I don't know what I ate, but I felt immensely better after the first mouthful. It occurred to me that my vision of the fig tree and all the fat figs that withered and fell to earth might well have arisen from the profound void of an empty stomach." Everyone forgets this part!!

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havidelsol t1_iu4015c wrote

Adore this paragraph. So well articulated, and I appreciate it even more as I get older.

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Stankin_Jankins t1_iu46v7n wrote

I have a tattoo of a fig tree because of this!! My all time favorite.

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salon_i OP t1_iu4vnci wrote

I can't describe in words how relatable and validating this passage is

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Barjuden t1_iu49yeg wrote

That was the single passage that stuck with me the most. It's so beautiful and sad. I think about it on occasion.

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FredR23 t1_iu4ccis wrote

if only the "why not both?" meme was popular at the time

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