Power to Esther

    Personally, I think that one of the bigger themes of The Bell Jar is power and its effects. Just think about the title. A bell jar essentially enables onlookers to take all power away from the trapped specimen. Onlookers have a lot of control over the specimen, and the only way the specimen can take back its control is through refusing to cooperate, either by becoming limp and refusing to engage or by fighting back. If you step back and think about the bigger picture it’s clear that Esther’s journey conforms very well to this metaphor.

                In New York, Esther has some semblance of power. She has taken control over her life in applying to the summer program, and all the options and freedom that a big city offers gives her power. Unfortunately, this power is ebbing away by the time the novel starts. Esther mentions that she feels like everything is happening around her and she’s just going from photoshoot to party to work to more events. I think the program’s obligations and extreme schedule have taken some of Esther’s power away from her. Mix in the expectations of becoming a perfect housewife and machine churning out baby after baby that only increase in the suburbs, and the world around Esther has far more power over her life than she does herself. Thus Esther resorts to refusing to engage (as I mentioned before) as a method to revive some of her power, which I think is a major factor causing her depression. She goes so far as to attempt suicide to feel like she actually has some control over her life. It’s not until she learns to fight back that Esther starts to get better.

                In giving Esther birth control and teaching her that sexual double standards are mere propaganda, Dr. Nolan gives Esther a means to fight back. When Esther finally has a choice as to whether or not she wants to follow the path of life that her gender is expected to, she recovers her power. And later, in having sex simply because she wants to, Esther takes back the power that was stolen from her by men and their sexual double standard. While there are clearly more factors at play in Esther’s depression, I think the power and control that she feels she does or doesn’t have over her own life has the biggest impact on her mental health, hence the title of the book.

The Ambiguity of Antolini

Even though we’ve moved on from this book (because this post is super late), I’d like to delve into the odd ending to the encounter between Holden and Mr. Antolini. This is such a strange interaction, and since we were busy talking about bigger things in class, I’ve decided to use this blog post to discuss the scene.

The main question that Salinger leaves ambiguous is whether or not there’s a history of sexual abuse between Antolini and Holden. In my opinion, both answers would be perfectly logical, but I’m leaning more towards the theory that Antolini has abused Holden in the past. Not only would this theory explain Holden’s frantic reaction to waking up to Antolini, but also the close relationship that they have. Speaking from what I’ve gathered about the general view of sexual abuse (aka don’t take it for total truth), child molesters often have a close relationship with their victims. There are many cases of coaches, teachers, etc. who formed a close relationship with a child and used the relationship to manipulate the child into enduring sexual abuse, which makes their relationship even closer. As Holden just calls Antolini up in the middle of the night, knows his wife well, and is invited to stay over, the two have a relationship that is far closer than your average teacher-student relationship. In addition, this theory could possibly explain Holden being stuck in childhood and purity. Perhaps Holden is jealous of and idolizes children because he sees his life as before the abuse and after the abuse, longs for the happiness and innocence that he had before the abuse, and thus finds comfort in kids around the age that he was before the abuse. He idolizes Phoebe and young Jane because he has experienced firsthand how fucked up adults are and Phoebe and young Jane represent the innocence and goodness of children. Finally, this theory could fit with the “catcher in the rye” thing that Holden talks about. Holden wants to be able to catch children and prevent them from being screwed up by the world, or falling off the edge. Since adults are the only corrupt beings, a makeshift-Neverland that is full of children who never grow up would be ideal for preserving a haven of innocence and goodness. The sexual abuse theory only strengthens this idea, because Holden sees himself as having been corrupted by an adult and wants to be able to save all the other children from enduring the same pain and corruption that he had to.

Now I could definitely be wrong. Holden’s rapidly deteriorating mental state could be the sole reason for his frantic outburst to waking up to Antolini. Even still, I think that because this encounter ends so ambiguously it’s worth diving into and looking at it from all sides.