joseph's amongus blog

  Throughout the book, we slowly start to piece together Allison's personality. Specifically, her identity as a lesbian. One such scene that really pieces her together is where her and her dad witness a butch trucker entering the place they are dining at. The scene is pictured here, if you need a refresher.  Allison witnesses this woman in pure admiration. This may be the very first time, or at least the first time Allison recognizes it, that Allison sees a person who she can aspirate towards. To simplify: Allison is drawn towards dressing/looking/acting as a man, though she is still a woman and identifies as such. This trait is not only something that leads her to cause conflict with her father, for example in the first clip where she protests her new pink flower wallpaper, but it also unifies them. Allison's father expresses his feminity (as a gay man) through Allison, creating the perfect daughter as if she were a dress up doll to play with. This is crucial in understanding...

  photo credits from google <3  So at this point, I think everyone knows the bell jar being a metaphor for the prison of mental illness. But I want to touch more on the potential second meaning that the bell jar has on Esther. Nate pointed this out in his blog, so I want to mention that (protecting me from the incoming copyright claims, I'm sure), but the bell jar could also relate to the societal pressures of Esther's world.  Esther fears the looming expectation of marriage, children, and family. When the novel isn't dwelling on her hospitalizations, it features her fear of failure. Esther is running out of ideas on what to do with her life, she's stuck. She's lost motivation for her job prospects, and as a scholarship student who has high expectations upon her to succeed, this is terrifying to her. Very relatable here, haha.      The bell jar represents how she feels trapped in her life. There's limited space for her to go-- either she becomes like JC ...