Esther's Goodbye to New York
One of Esther’s most symbolic scenes during her time in New York comes right at the end. After finishing her internship and struggling with serious challenges that came to her in the city, Esther stands at the window of her hotel, the Amazon, and slowly releases pieces of her wardrobe into the wind of the night, one after the other. This scene is not only reflective of Esther’s mood after she returns to her hotel that evening, but it is symbolic of her entire time in New York and her struggles during her stay there. While the scene is powerful by itself and in its simplest form, I think that there may also be lots to unpack and analyze in these final paragraphs of Esther’s New York chapter. To narrate Esther’s experience, Plath first writes, “at that vague hour between dark and dawn, the sunroof of the Amazon was deserted” (111). This sentence helps to set the tone for the coming paragraphs and also sets a scene that is representative of much of Esther’s time and feelings in New York.