The short story “Bliss” focuses on the complexity of thoughts that go through the protagonist's mind to accepting feelings that are strange by society's standards. The story shows how Bertha discovers she is bisexual and how she feels about it. It is also a representation of the conventional patriarchal society where the man works and the women of the house wait for her man to come home. The short story is filled with symbolism to show various examples of the protagonist's feelings. A symbol is very important throughout the story. A pear tree in Bertha's garden is marked as Bertha's sexuality because throughout the story she looks at this tree and tries to make it correspond to things happening in her life or more specifically to her feelings. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay First of all, the pear tree represents Bertha's virginity. The tree is described as “not having a single bud.” This means that the tree is not fertilized. Likewise, Bertha is definitely not a virgin because she has a child, but she acts like young Bertha. At the beginning of the story, we see that she behaves childishly. She wants to “run instead of walk”, “throw something in the air and catch it” shows that she is childish. The author writes "She looked at them, hands at her sides, like a poor little girl in front of the rich girl with the doll" shows that in reality she does not know how to take care of her own child and this sentence reveals that she sees her child is more of a toy than a living being. Her baby is like an adorable, fun thing to play with sometimes, but viewers don't see that she has any maternal instincts towards her child. Readers do not see the deep maternal love in her. All these examples in the story show that Bertha is not mature. She does not represent a 30 year old woman. Her virginal character is particularly visible when we see her inexperience in sexual arousal. When she meets her lover, she gets excited but she doesn't know what to do with this excitement. The phrase “all her feeling of happiness came back, and again she didn't know how to express it – what to do with it” literally expresses her calm feelings. All of this shows that she is a virgin (not technically) which is symbolized by the barren or untouched pear tree. This is an aspect of Bertha's sexuality. The handstand symbolizes another aspect of the protagonist's sexuality, namely that she is bisexual. The author writes that the tree looked "almost like the edge of the round, silvery moon." Here, the moon is symbolized by Bertha's lover, Pearl Fulton. Pearl is also seen in the story wearing a silver dress. And the pear tree obviously symbolizes Young Bertha. Bertha feels like she and Pearl share an internal connection as they look out the window at the moon. She feels Pearl touch her hand but it was actually her imagination or fantasy. This shows that the protagonist not only admires Pearl mentally, but also desires her physically. The fact that Pearl is symbolized by the moon shows that Bertha will never be able to reach her as she wishes. Indeed, the moon is a mark of femininity because it goes through its own 28-day menstrual cycle. This is how Bertha is symbolically disconnected from Pearl since Bertha is symbolized by the virgin pear tree and Pearl by the feminine moon. Bertha has constant confusion in her mind as to how she feels towards Pearl. Whether she is impressed by her and looks up to her as a role model or falls in love with her. All..