Fear of Flying by Erica Jong 
Essay “Life has no plot. It is by far more interesting than anything you can say about it…” –Erica Jong, Fear of Flying
“The power to determine action without restraint” is the definition of freedom. In Erica Jong’s novel Fear of Flying, themes of sexuality and freedom take over the novel. Through the author’s detailed portrayals of sexual encounters between the main character, Isadora, her husband, Bennet, and her lover, Adrian, the reader senses Isadora’s desire to reinterpret herself as a woman. Her carefree sense of writing makes for a story about the boundaries of society and how anyone can overcome them if they choose.
Jong explains it as “when you came together, zippers fell away like rose petals, underwear blew off in one breath like dandelion fluff. For the true ultimate zipless A-1 fuck, it was necessary that you never got to know the man very well. The attraction of this is the absence of emotional attachment: the basis of the idea of no strings attached. One of the main reasons that this idea is so appealing is because most sexual relations are passionate yet complicated between two people who love and respect each other. She has sexual relations with a man who is not her husband, an action that is extremely taboo, especially during that time period. Fear of Flying is a novel about self-discovery. Most books in the 1970’s were about old-fashioned romance such as Erich Segal’s Love Story. Other non-fiction books were related to Nixon and other political events.
The book has been translated into twelve different languages showing that it was and has become a novel for women to identify with all around the world. Fear of Flying told and continues to tell woman that it is OK to live beyond the normal expectations set upon them. The novel preaches a sense of personal freedom. “We’d fuck each other and all our friends. We’d live without worrying about possessions or possessiveness”(167 Jong). Context in the novel like this show her carefree
“The power to determine action without restraint” is the definition of freedom. In Erica Jong’s novel Fear of Flying, themes of sexuality and freedom take over the novel. Through the author’s detailed portrayals of sexual encounters between the main character, Isadora, her husband, Bennet, and her lover, Adrian, the reader senses Isadora’s desire to reinterpret herself as a woman. Her carefree sense of writing makes for a story about the boundaries of society and how anyone can overcome them if they choose.
Jong explains it as “when you came together, zippers fell away like rose petals, underwear blew off in one breath like dandelion fluff. For the true ultimate zipless A-1 fuck, it was necessary that you never got to know the man very well. The attraction of this is the absence of emotional attachment: the basis of the idea of no strings attached. One of the main reasons that this idea is so appealing is because most sexual relations are passionate yet complicated between two people who love and respect each other. She has sexual relations with a man who is not her husband, an action that is extremely taboo, especially during that time period. Fear of Flying is a novel about self-discovery. Most books in the 1970’s were about old-fashioned romance such as Erich Segal’s Love Story. Other non-fiction books were related to Nixon and other political events.
The book has been translated into twelve different languages showing that it was and has become a novel for women to identify with all around the world. Fear of Flying told and continues to tell woman that it is OK to live beyond the normal expectations set upon them. The novel preaches a sense of personal freedom. “We’d fuck each other and all our friends. We’d live without worrying about possessions or possessiveness”(167 Jong). Context in the novel like this show her carefree