The Bell Jar starts out in a macabre tone, as Esther ponders the Rosenberg execution. This sets up the idea that Esther feels disconnected from life. In its subsequent chapters, we already begin to see signs of depression, in contrast to an external portrayal as an excellent student versus her internal anxiousness, where she feels something is wrong with her. Basically, she is having symptoms of depression, but doesn't know that she's having them. The city only further exacerbates her symptoms, pushing her to the point where her usual code-switching doesn't work and she is forced to confront the fact that even when she is at the seeming pinnacle of her life, she doesn't know her true goals or values. Concerning her relationship with Buddy Willard, she calls him a hypocrite, nodding to the idea that, even though one may not categorize Buddy as a hypocrite, greater society is hypocritical in its unweighted value of purity in men and women. In women, it's expected, but for men, it's seemingly an afterthought.
This sounds like a pretty good summary of Esther for the majority of the book.
Now, obviously, there isn't one factor that pushed Esther into her suicidal ideation as seen in the last few chapters, but the tipping point was certainly crossed when she returned from New York. This is where the future starts to blur; she faces rejection from the writing course, and all structure disappears. She herself says, "I had nothing to look forward to." From here, her dissatisfaction kind of folds into itself, consuming Esther in a downward spiral. When using the analogy of that turning point with something pushing her over the edge, I kind of contradict myself, as the reason she regresses so quickly from that point on is simply a loss of forward motion.
Hi Lucas,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good take! I don't think I've seen that many people commenting on the book and its relation to coming of age as a whole, so finding something on the topic is refreshing. I really like how you incorporate and analyse Plath's extended metaphor for her situation.
I agree with your conclusion that Esther's coming of age does not come from her academic success, but instead realizing what she has failed in by prioritizing that success above all else and that she doesn't know where it will lead her. I think that, as we discussed somewhat in class, it instead comes from being able to survive her illness and learn from the experience.
Hi Lucas,
ReplyDeleteI think that although her depression in the later half of the book is more severe, there are still very recognizable signs of depression in the 1st half--particularly in the scenes where she has decision paralysis and feels like she can't do anything for herself. I agree that her idea of coming-of-age changes as she unlearns societal pressures put on her to excel academically. Great blog!
Lucas, Lucas, Lucas, what have we here... I agree with this notion that it is not success from society that leads her to come of age, however, at the same time, I have some hypocrisies of my own to address. At the start of the book, she did a lot of forward thinking, a lot of opposition to the way of the world, but by the end-- with her small victories of opposing common culture (losing virginity)-- she did walk off that path briefly, but still ended up in the same position. Her healing ultimately lead to motherhood, ultimately undermined her prior ideas. I agree that this is not a coming of age story, but I'm not sure it's so strictly not. LOL
ReplyDeleteI like your reflections on the ambiguity of coming-of-age at the close of this novel. Because, in a sense, she HAS learned the limitations of investing all her ideas of success in her grades, scholarships, and awards--she has been humbled by this ordeal, as seen in the final chapter, when she contemplates how things will be different when she gets back to school. BUT, she IS still going back to school, much more decisively than Holden, and we have to assume that she'll slide right back into over-achiever mode (she's got that thesis on _Finnegans Wake_ lined up). A big part of her incipient depression had to do with the sense that this string of applications and acceptances is coming to an end, and the loss of the summer writing program precipitates her steep decline, as you note. But at the end of the novel, when she is "repaired" and "approved for the road," she has no real option other than to reenter the same system. So there's optimism--she is owning her experiences, she now understands how "all girls" at her school are "under bell jars of a sort," and she is no longer under the sway of the sexual double standard. She seems better equipped to deal with "the same old landscape," but we also realize that she is diving back into the same system that generated all the anxiety and self-doubt in the first place. The question "what are you going to do after college?" is still hanging there.
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