We're Coming of Age

Shortly after Joan’s death in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, a fresh snowfall covers the ground around the asylum Esther was staying in. I pictured this like a clean, white slate covering up the horrors of both Joan’s death and the difficulties Esther has faced. The snow was described to have “blanketed the asylum grounds—not a Christmas sprinkle, but a mid-high January deluge,” one that buried Buddy’s car into the ground and was accompanied by a sunny day (Plath 236). This was a turning point for Esther, a breath of fresh air both physically by stepping outside and mentally by closing ties with Buddy. She was no longer obligated to see him, a nd when she had her final goodbye she placed herself in a position of showing her competence by moving the snow away from his car. I do think Esther shoveling snow, a task seen by many as masculine or chivalrous, weaves strongly into Esther’s development of “evening the playing field” of her gender disadvantages, though that is for a different blog...

       Although we can’t diagnose a fictional character with a mental illness, there were signs throughout the Catcher in the Rye that Holden was sending a cry for help. Holden, in my opinion, was struggling with a mental illness that only became more evident, or worsened, throughout the book. As we got to know Holden, he seemed, to me at least, a major whiner that had difficulty applying himself to anything despite his underlying intelligence. What was fronting as the laziness of a classic teenage boy only wanting to mess around with girls and friends unraveled into an isolated kid attempting to sugar coat his competence in the world. Multiple times Holden called himself “Crazy” or a “Madman” but peeling back this layer of absurdity, he admitted his true emotions. Confiding in the readers, he “felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead,” (62). Sure, some kids in modern day will make jokes about wishing they died so they could avoid an exam, altho...