Bell Jar

As an intense novel The Bell Jar, focuses on real life situations that occur in Esther Greenwood’s life. “I felt like a racehorse in a world without racetracks or a champion college footballer suddenly confronted by Wall Street and a business suit, his days of glory shrunk to a little gold cup on his mantel with a date engraved on it like the date on a tombstone. (77)”, is a key passage in The Bell Jar. Esther Greenwood sees herself in the future, in the same predicament as the college football player. Esther sees herself being shocked, stunned, and unprepared when faced by her near future. Esther must have faith that her future opportunities are prosperous. She must also continue to have faith in herself, because other people may not believe that she has potential. Esther Greenwood has always had exceptional intelligence. Esther has constantly received straight A’s through primary and secondary school and also through college. She declares “All my life I’d told myself studying and reading and writing and working like mad was what I wanted to do, and it actually seemed to be true, I did everything well enough and got all A’s and by the time I made it to college nobody could stop me. (31)” When it comes to receiving an education, Esther can succeed with ease. Now that Esther’s days of education have come to an end she must concentrate on her future. Esther states “The one thing I was good at was winning scholarships and prizes, and that era was coming to an end. (77)” Esther now realizes that she can not obtain a substantial income by just winning scholarships and prizes through her entire life. Her years of winning of scholarships and prizes have ended and Esther must now find a way to apply her knowledge to find a suitable career. In her search to find a suitable career, Esther must reflect on her current skills and abilities. Esther must keep the faith in herself alive. She must believe that even though her era of winning scholarships and prizes has ended, a new era of possibilities will emerge. Esther must now seek employment and focus on a career for her future. She must try to find the most suitable career for her interest by reviewing her strength and opportunities for development. In her opinion she sees that her decision making is an area that has aided to her success thus far. Esther declares, “I was a terrible dancer. I couldn’t carry a tune. I had no sense of balance, and when we had to walk down a narrow board with our heads out and a book on our heads in gym class I always fell over. I couldn’t ride a horse or ski, the two things I wanted to do most, because they cost too much money. I couldn’t speak German or read Hebrew or write Chinese. I didn’t even know were most of the old out-of-the-way countries the UN men in front of me represented fitted in on the map. (76)” Esther has focuses on all those areas that made her journey harder than she may have liked. She needed to focus on those areas that have brought her success, peace of mind and happiness. It would be forthright for Esther to talk about her role as the correspondent for the town Gazette and her position as editor of the literary magazine. One aspect that stood out to was her experience as the secretary of the Honor Board. This is an opportunity that allowed her to interact with academic and social offenses. From this position she gained recognition and became the mentee of a well-known, female poet at one of the largest universities. Esther was obviously very gifted in the field of writing; and extremely excelled in editing and poetry. She had an intense love for writing; therefore this would be a suitable career path for her to pursue. Esther must continue to have faith in herself, because there may not be anyone who believes that she has potential. If she does not believe in herself it will be hard for others to trust and have confidence in her abilities. Esther’s mother was not a great supporter of her daughter. She was not confident that Esther’s skills and knowledge would not allow her the ability to be successful in college nor did she believe an English degree would find her employment in the future. Esther’s mother obliviously did not have much faith in Esther’s career. She states worriedly, “This seemed a dreary and wasted life for a girl with fifteen years of straight A’s, but I knew that’s what marriage was like, because cook and clean and wash was just what Buddy Willard’s mother did from morning till night, and she was the wife of an university professor and had been a private school teacher herself. (84)”

The key passage, “I felt like a racehorse in a world without racetracks or a champion college footballer suddenly confronted by Wall Street and a business suit, his days of glory shrunk to a little gold cup on his mantel with a date engraved on it like the date on a tombstone. (77)” This shows how Esther imagines her future. Esther was afraid that when confronted by the real world she would not be prepared. She feels that all of her years of working hard in school and receiving straight A’s would not assistance in her near future. When Esther imagines her near future it consists of: her career, wife and motherly duties. “What I always thought I had in mind was getting some big scholarship to graduate school or a grant to study all over Europe, and then I thought I’d be a professor and write books of poems or write books of poems and be an editor of some sort. Usually I had these plans on the tip of my tongue. (32)” If Esther keeps these dreams alive then she will have no problem with her career in the future. And if Esther puts as much energy into her duties as a wife and a mother, as she did with her school work then she will have no trouble fulfilling those duties. If Esther remembers to believe in herself and work diligently then her future will merit much success. .

Comments:
Be careful not to make too many assumptions. Analyze the author’s message rather than what you think Esther should/could do?
Key:

In this essay we had to use the claim, evidence, and warrant format.

Claim= your opinion argument or point your trying to make; your idea about the text or topic

Evidence=your proof or support; the lines from the text or documents

Warrant=explaining how your evidence supports your claim

We also had a 1,000 words or more limit. Nothing lower than 1,000.

Everything my teacher said is highlighted in red. And the words heighted in yellow are passive voice. We are not allowed to use a lot of passive voice in our writings ex: be, was were, is are…

Our objective for this assignment is to receive three A’s on three essays and to reflect on them. This was my third draft and submission of this essay, you keep going to she approves it.