Reason for Ban/Challenge: The Bell Jar has been banned for a number of reasons, including perceived profanity and its coverage of both suicide and sexuality. The novel also rejects “typical” ideas of a woman’s role as both mother and wife.
Then, does Esther self harm in The Bell Jar?
Once Esther builds upon her own self-loathing, her thoughts and attempts at self harm increase. This is the stage in the novel where Esther’s path into neurosis is solidified, as her thoughts lose a sense of reality and sanity.
| ATOS Book Level: | 7.2 |
|---|---|
| AR Points: | 11.0 |
| Rating: | |
| Word Count: | 66506 |
| Fiction/Nonfiction | Fiction |
Herein, what are the main themes of the bell jar?
The Bell Jar Themes
- Mind vs. Body. …
- Purity vs. Impurity. …
- Women and Social Expectations. The Bell Jar offers an in-depth meditation on womanhood and presents a complex, frequently disturbing portrait of what it meant to be female in 1950s America. …
- Personal Ambition. …
- Medicine.
What are the major themes of the bell jar?
Themes
- Growth Through Pain and Rebirth. The Bell Jar tells the story of a young woman’s coming-of-age, but it does not follow the usual trajectory of adolescent development into adulthood. …
- The Emptiness of Conventional Expectations. …
- The Restricted Role of Women in 1950s America. …
- The Perils of Psychiatric Medicine.
What does The Bell Jar teach?
But although The Bell Jar concerns a young woman’s eventual breakdown and suicide attempt, it also tells a story of recovery, redemption, rebirth and starting over.
What is Esther’s diagnosis in The Bell Jar?
Esther’s development of psychotic depression is Plath’s interpretation of the classic “rite of passage” journey. The bell jar of confusion that descends on Esther hampers her personal progress, yet it protects her from being overwhelmed by a highly competitive social world.
What is the message of The Bell Jar?
The Bell Jar addresses the question of socially acceptable identity. It examines Esther’s “quest to forge her own identity, to be herself rather than what others expect her to be.” Esther is expected to become a housewife, and a self-sufficient woman, without the options to achieve independence.
What literary devices are used in the bell jar?
Throughout the novel Plath uses many different elements of figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, personification, and symbolism, to highlight Esther’s intensifying mental illness.
Why is The Bell Jar important?
Published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, just a few months before her death, The Bell Jar was Plath’s only novel and arguably the most eye-opening portal into her tragic life. … The Bell Jar gave teenage girls a voice, a voice that had been ignored and belittled for so many centuries before.
Why was The Bell Jar banned in schools?
In the late 1970s, The Bell Jar was suppressed for not only its profanity and sexuality but for its overt rejection of the woman’s role as wife and mother. For these reasons, the book was deemed unsuitable for high school students in Indiana.