Second Quarter of the Bell Jar

Themes, predictions and critical approaches from chapters six to ten.

The difference between the first quarter and the second quarter is that the characters are more established and fleshed out. As the book progresses we learn more about the relationship between Esther and her mother, as well as the relationship between Esther and Buddy Willard. I like seeing Esther’s development as she explores her sexuality and the outside influences she experiences. For example, she sees a baby being born with Buddy, who later confesses that he isn't a virgin. This completely changes Esther's opinion on sex. The tone of the book has remained consistently dark and mysterious, but it’s getting more intense as the story moves forward. I like that Plath always brings something unexpected, and isn’t sticking to a generic format. I think what I’m struggling with the most is how intense the story is becoming. There are a lot of aspects of this new section that are very real to me and understanding what the character is going through makes the text harder to read.

One quote that stood out to me in this quarter was about Esther’s fear of commitment; “From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked…. 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.” (page 78)

This quote was one that I liked before I even read the book, so reading it in full context really added the backstory I was looking for. I had made my own interpretation of it, but I finally found out where it came from, and I appreciate it even more now. I chose this quote because it’s a great visualization for how difficult it is to choose a path. Esther mentions that she’s only ever been good at getting good grades and awards, and she doesn’t know where to go from there. Even worse, she has nobody leading her in the right direction. When I got to high school, I didn’t really think about my future because I had always done so well. I had a path laid out, and I thought I would always stick to it. But after a couple of years, the path became foggier and I wasn’t sure if it was the right one. I had to edit my plans a lot, and I don’t think Esther ever learned how to do that, which creates a sense of dysphoria for her future.

In this quarter, Esther has Buddy trying to define who she is. She has her mother trying

to tell her which path to follow. Esther is losing herself, but it’s hard for her to find out who she is when everyone around her is trying to lead her down a different path. Having to apply to post-secondary and not knowing which program I wanted to go into, I understand what Esther is going through. It was the same when my parents wanted me to get a job years ago and I didn’t feel ready. I understand how hard it can be to find a future that doesn’t feel like someone else’s dream. I’m seeing a lot more of myself in Esther the more ups and downs I get to see her go through.

Death and rebirth are major themes right from the beginning of the novel. Esther experiences a form of death, or something that makes her feel unclean, almost every chapter; spending time with Doreen and her boyfriend in chapter 2, and getting extreme food poisoning in chapter 4. Then, she finds a way to revive herself, such as taking a long bath and scrubbing her skin, or embracing what happen and feeling “purged”. She gets broken and then puts herself back together the best she can, but it’s becoming clear that she’s deteriorating as the book progresses.

Sex begins to be more prominent in Esther’s mind as well. Once she finds out that

Buddy has slept with another woman already, she feels the pressure to sleep with someone as well. Before this, she talked about remaining “pure” and saving herself for marriage, but now it’s all she can think about. She reads articles about how different prejudices affect woman when it comes to sexuality. She meets a man and sleeps next to him but they don’t have sex. Then, Esther is called a “slut” by her blind date while she’s at the country club with Doreen, and he unexpectedly attacks her and tries to rape her. She experiences the extremes of innocence and violence of sex, and she begins to lose sight of herself and who she is because of this.

Uncertainty is also a theme that’s becoming more evident to me. Esther is uncertain about her future, her relationships, and even herself. She doesn’t understand what’s going on in her head and she doesn’t know who to talk to because nobody in her life is helping her. Her mother tells her there is nothing wrong with her, and Buddy Willard uses manipulation to try to get her back. She uses several metaphors to describe the possibilities of her future that she sees, but she can’t decide which one to follow because she is so uncertain.

I think that using a moral or feminist approach would work best for the text. The book discusses topics like how women are treated and seen by men, the treatment they endure because of their gender, and topics like these could be explored morally. However, this book is also telling of the time period, as the feelings toward mental illness and treatment have changes significantly since then.

At the end of chapter ten, Esther is having trouble sleeping and hasn’t slept for weeks. Her depression is surfacing more and more, and she cancels plans and shuts herself away from the world. She goes to the doctor to get help, but her doctor refers her to a psychiatrist. I know that in her time period the psychiatric hospitals used extreme treatment such as shock therapy on their patients, so I think that she will get help from the psychiatrist but I’m not sure how much he will actually help her. In her time, mental illness wasn’t seen as real, it was only a “label” for people perceived as “different”. I’m thinking that her down-spiral is coming, but I’m not sure when it will be.