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 ...

  thank you to google for the photo! In Chapter 22 of Catcher in the Rye, Holden introduces the title... but more specifically the significance to him and why  the book is titled as such. We already see earlier on in the book as a little boy charms Holden by singing "if a body, catch a body. Coming through the rye" on the street. Holden tells Phoebe about these lyrics, when she asks him what he wants to do. Holden cites that he wants to be that Catcher in the Rye, to catch the children who are playing who come too close to the edge of the cliff.  While Holden's fantasy is mildly delusional- and purely based on a misheard lyric- it holds obvious symbolism. Holden wants to protect the little children, those innocently playing and unaware of the dangers that loom just beyond their vision. We see this theme through multiple scenarios- with Jane, Phoebe, and Sunny-- to name a few.  With Jane, he pictures her as the girl he had known. So, several years younger. He never go...