Blogging the "Open" Question: The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar

"So What?" Category

Discuss an Important Character

In the novel, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, the protagonist and narrator of the story is Esther Greenwood. Esther is a young woman that travels to New York City, and is expected to progress into adulthood and follow the ways of society. Although she seems to enjoy her time in New York City, upon returning home to Boston, her disgust and opposition to the way society expects her to act is revealed. She believes that society wants her to act happy and cheerful all the time which is contradictory to her apathetic personality. One obvious way Esther contradicts society's expectations is by wanting to lose her virginity when she is in New York City, although she never does. At that time (1950s), women were supposed to save themselves until marriage, where they could be a perfect wife for their perfect husband. This obligation to society eventually drives Esther mad.

"So What?" Category

Essential Plot Elements

• Introduction: Esther, a young women from Boston working in New York City, struggles to fulfill the society's expectations.
• Rising Action: After working in New York City as an intern for a magazine editor, Esther returns to her home in Boston and finds she is no longer able to do the things she loves, like reading and writing, even sleeping and eating. Esther and her mother both become concerned about Esther's attitude toward life so Mrs. Greenwood begins shock treatment for Esther. Obviously, this treatment is unsatisfying for Esther, leading her to consider suicide as a suitable option.
• Climax: As a result of the shock treatments, Esther is nearly effective in killing herself by taking massive number of sleeping pills and hiding in a basement crawl space. Luckily she doesn't succeed.
• Falling Action: After Esther's suicide attempt, and a stay a city hospital, Mrs. Greenwood admits Esther into mental hospital where she is allowed to recover. While she is there, Esther meets Dr. Nolan, a psychiatrist. Through a combination of talk therapy, injections and PROPER shock treatment, Esther begins to recover and trust Dr. Nolan. Also while Esther is at the mental hospital, she meets a math professor from a local college named Irwin while she is out on the town. Eventually after talking and flirting for most of the night, Esther finally loses her virginity to Irwin. Soon after this, Esther recovers and leaves the mental hospital.
  

"So What?" Category

Setting

The novel, The Bell Jar, begins in New York City in June 1953. Due to societal obligations and Esther Greenwood's (the narrators') apathetic nature, the novel takes a cynical and isolated tone both while she is in New York City then when she returns home to Boston. The novel ends in January 1954.

"So What?" Category

Central Conflict

Internal: The central internal conflict of this novel is Esther's struggle within herself to fight  apathy and going crazy as a result of an oppressive society.

External: Esther, obviously, fights the society that oppresses her, but Esther's family and friends also have to fight Esther because she doesn't realize that her suicidal tendencies are hurting the people around her.

"So What?" Category

Major Themes

The central themes in this novel are the oppression of women during this time, the ridiculousness of societal expectations and renewal.

This novel reveals important insight about humanity by showing what oppression and societal expectations can do to a person.

"How?" Category

Motifs

Two motifs that author Sylvia Plath uses in her novel, The Bell Jar, are mirrors and blood. Throughout the novel, Esther sees herself in mirrors, but it seems she doesn't ever recognize herself. By using this motif, it seems that Esther's inability to recognize herself may coincide with her inability to understand herself completely. Another motif Plath uses is blood. Each time the book, and Esther, transition, she bleeds. This is a representation of Esther losing a part of herself. 

"How?" Category

Symbols

Two symbols that author Sylvia Plath uses in her novel, The Bell Jar, are the bell jar and a fig tree. The bell jar is a symbol of insanity throughout the novel but at the end of the novel, the bell jar is lifted as a symbol of Esther recovering. The next symbol used in the novel is a fig tree that represents life and life choices. Esther cannot choose which "fig" she wants because, in reality, she wants them all. This results in Esther being incapacitated with uncertainty and doubt.

Blogging the "Open" Question: Huck Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

"So What?" Category

Conflict

One evident conflict in this novel is Huck's struggle against society and it's "sivilied" ways. Author Mark Twain uses Huck's childish voice to give the novel an open-minded tone and a playful spin on the book to make the reader feels as if they are learning something through the eyes of a child. This brings more importance to the morals of the novel because Huck, who is a child, fully understand thing that the adults around him do not. Huck befriends Jim despite what society makes him think about the black race but then struggles between the thoughts that society has buried in him and what he really thinks. 

“So What?” Category

Setting

The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn takes place along a part of the Mississippi River. The author Mark Twain used this area because it was an area he knew well. By doing this, the author created kind of a homey feeling for Huck as he moved along the river. Some of the cities that are in the novel are New Orleans and St. Louis. Also, the river areas that Twain describes give the novel an adventurous feel because of the grandness of the cities. More specifically, the houses that are mentioned in the novel seem to represent life in society because the mood during the passages in the households are strict and rigorous, contradicting the mood when Huck is traveling the river. Also, the social conditions in which Huck is forced to set the tone for the book and also the reasoning for Huck to set out on the adventure. It seems that Miss Watson is a controlling character, contradicting what Huck is looking for in his free spirit. In my opinion, Pap represents kind of an out-of-control, fearful character, surrounded by chaos.

“So What?” Category

Major Theme in the novel

One major theme in this novel is how society is wrong. It seem that the river is Huck’s sanctuary from society, and the strictness that surrounds it. When Huck is on the river, he is finding adventure and learning new things that he otherwise would not have learned through “normal” acts of society. By doing this, Twain wants us to see that some aspects of society are absurd… There are things in our world that we cannot learn from a textbook or a movie. Adventures, like mistakes, are meant to be made and learned from. Also, it seems that in the book, Huckleberry Finn learns that black people are as much a part of this world as others. By contradicting his use of the word “nigger” and the lesson that Huck eventually learns, Twains shows the change a character, or person can go through, and how society is not always necessarily right in the way they think.

“So What?” Category

Discuss an important character

In the novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, author Mark Twain introduces a number of characters. One of these characters is Jim. He is a runaway slave with an unbelievably big heart and sense of simplicity. As the novel progresses, Jim’s qualities become increasingly distinct. Twain uses Jim in the novel to express his feeling toward slavery, and blacks as people. It is noted that Jim become a father figure to Huck on their adventure down the river, and Huck learns what a caring and beautiful person Jim really is, despite what society wants him to believe. By having Huck learn this lesson in the novel, Twain expresses that what society thinks of blacks and how they are treated is utterly ridiculous. Because Jim has a very big heart, Twain also makes him out to be gullible, or completely trusting in his friends.

"So What?"

Why are you moved by the story?

This novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain is moving because Huck's childish ways prove how ridiculous it is that blacks were viewed the way they were during Huck's time. Obviously Twain uses the Huck's childish ways to tie the novel together. The excitement Huck brings to the novel as the narrator gives the reader a sense of childishness, although Twain is still able to portray the moral of the novel with lasting intensity. Also, Huck's ability to befriend Jim in the time of slavery, when society bares down strongly on the black race, shows that Huck is still naive enough not to be affected by everything society claims to be right. Finally, Huck's meakness and eagerness to explore outside of the realms of society draw connections between him and Jim that the reader can use to learn that Twain thinks racism in white society is ridiculous. 

“How?” Category

Figurative language

Because the story is told from the point of view of a young boy, it is hard for Twain to realistically use things like personification and metaphor because the character of Huckleberry Finn is more or less an uncivilized character. Yet, there are cases in which he uses similes, like when he’s talking about the duke and king, how they’re sleeping like the dead.

One important aspect of figurative language that Twain uses in this novel is irony. Because he is writing the novel from the point of view of a young boy, the words and expressions he uses are contradictory to himself. A use of ironic humor in dialogue is in the beginning of the book when Huck is explaining about Tom and “his new gang”…

“But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable.”

This irony is taken to be humorous because it is obvious that a band of robbers are not going to be taken as respectable, although Tom makes it clear that that is what Huck needs to do to become a part of the new gang. 

“How?” Category

Diction: What do you notice about how the author chooses words and how does word choice contribute to his, or her, message?

Author, Mark Twain, tells the story through the voice and point of view of Huck Finn, therefore the speech and dialogue in the book are that of a south boy in the time of slavery, and very casual. By doing this, Twain makes the diction “easy to understand” and contradictory to how a notable author would normally write. The author also pays close attention to the diction of the different areas as Huckleberry Finn travels down the river.

“Jim had plenty of corncob pipes and tobacco; so we had a right down good  sociable time, there we crawled out through the hole, and so home to bed, with hands that looked like the’d been cawed.  Tom was in high spirits. He said it was the best fun he ever had in his life.”

This is an example of the casual and easy-to-understand diction Twain uses via Huck throughout the novel.

Blogging the "Open" Question: The Bean Trees

The Bean Trees

“So What?” Category

Discuss an important character.

So far in the novel, The Beans Trees, Marietta, or Taylor, Greer is the main character of the story. In Chapters One through Three, we’ve learned that she is an ambitious young woman who is growing up in a town where girls like her aren’t common. She wishes to make something of herself but making it through high school, without getting pregnant, then going on from there. We also learn that Taylor has an odd fear of tires. During her last year(s) of high school, Taylor gets a job at the hospital in town doing blood work, and other odd jobs. By doing this, she manages to stay out of trouble and make it through high school. Also, Taylor seems to have a strong relationship with her mother, who is a strong woman like Taylor. Her father, though, isn’t around anymore because, as explained by Mrs. Greer, her mother had to choose between her father and Taylor. Finally, after finishing school and finding a workable car, Taylor sets out on a journey westward. On her way, she meets a Native American woman and inexplicably inherits a child from her, leaving Taylor in a predicament she was trying to escape from all along. Although she doesn’t plan on inheriting the child, she keeps her anyway and continues traveling westward with “Turtle” in-tow. As she reaches Tucson, Arizona, Taylor discovers that she has two flats tires and needs to have them repaired as soon as possible. At “Jesus Is Lord Used Tires”, Taylor meets a woman named Mattie who agrees to hold her car while Taylor and Turtle settle in Tucson and find enough money to replace the tires.

Taylor is important to the story because, besides being the main character, she drives the plot to turn different ways and she teaches us something about ambition and want.

“How?” Category

Structural or organizational elements.

In the novel, The Bean Trees, author Barbara Kingsolver has alternating chapters in the beginning of the story. The chapters alternate between the stories of Taylor Greer and Lou Ann Ruiz. By doing this, we learn specific things that a necessary when Barbara Kingsolver finally brings the two characters together. Also, all of the chapters about Taylor are told from a first-person point-of-view; all of the chapters about Lou Ann are told from a third person point-of-view. By doing this, the author reiterates the fact that Taylor is the main character of this novel. Once the two characters meet in chapter five, the author stops alternating chapters and the story of the two characters is told from Taylor Greer’s point-of-view. By doing this, the author made it easier for the reader to see the importance of both characters and the commonalities between them. Lou Ann grew up in Kentucky, where Taylor is from. Then she moved to Tucson, where she ended up meeting Taylor. Also, both characters are single mothers now dealing with the demands of parenthood. Clearly, the author is trying to foreshadow the importance that Taylor and Lou Ann are going to have in each other’s lives.

“How?” Category

Figurative language in the novel.

On pg. 95, Barbara Kingsolver uses a simile to describe how Mattie, Estevan, Esperanza, Lou Ann and Taylor looked when they were laying out in the middle of the desert for their picnic.

“We were flattened and sprawled across the rocks like a troop of lizards stoned on the sun, feeling too good to move.” 

By doing this, the author provides a sense of imagery. The reader can feel the sensation of the heat baring down, providing a source of warmth for the characters. Like lizards, the characters are thriving on the heat from the sun.

Also on pg. 95, the author uses personification to describe the actions of the nature aspects around them in the desert.

“We’d come to a place you would never expect to find in the desert: a little hideaway by a stream that had run all the way down from the mountains into a canyon, where it jumped off a boulder and broke into deep, clear pools. White rocks sloped up out of the water like giant, friendly hippo butts. A ring of cottonwood trees cooled their heels in the wet ground, and over hard leaned together, then apart, making whispery swishing noises.”

By using personification to describe the scenery and nature aspects around the characters, Kingsolver led the reader to imagine what the landscape was like through actions that made the natural aspects seem human-like.

In the book, Jesus Is Lord Used Tires is mentioned as one setting, and then mentioned later in the book is Fanny Heaven, a kind of gentlemen’s club. Fanny Heaven in located next to Jesus Is Lord Used Tires, which is ironic because Jesus Is Lord has a religious connotation while Fanny Heaven has an opposite effect of… Well, not so religious. This use of irony shows the faults of humanity in a humorous way.

“So What?” Category

Central conflicts (internal or external).

One of the central conflicts in the novel, The Beans Trees, is man vs. society. At the end of chapter twelve, Taylor struggles to find reasoning for what has happened to the people she’s seen. First, Turtle came from an abusive home before she was given to Taylor, making it hard for her to trust an adult figure but Taylor assured her it wouldn’t happen again. Sadly, it did, and now Taylor is back to square one with Turtle. Next, the refugees from Guatemala, specifically Esperanza and Estevan, are political prisoners that Mattie has rescued and taken in. If the United States government catches them, they will be sent back to Guatemala, then imprisoned there, because they don’t have proper proof that in Guatemala they were being treated unfairly and had to leave to stay alive. Finally, the homeless people in the park by Taylor and Lou Ann’s house are treated unfairly by the law. They have a hard enough time surviving by eating out of trashcans and finding items to clothe their children with; being manhandled by the police, etc. is an unjust act in Taylor’s eyes. The author uses this conflict to show the problems with humanity, specifically America, today. Through Taylor she expresses that “nobody feels sorry for anybody anymore, nobody even pretends they do… It’s like it’s become unpatriotic.” This shows the tension between Taylor and her thoughts of humanity. This conflict provides information about what the author is trying to make of the plot of the story.

“How?” Category

Imagery in the novel.

One instance of imagery used in the novel is when Taylor, Lou Ann and Turtle are at the park by their house, and Turtle spots something that looks to her like a bean…

“Some of the wisteria flowers had gone to seed, and all these wonderful long green pods hung down from the branches. They looked as much like beans as anything you’d ever care to eat.”

The author uses this image, as well as the events surrounding it, to portray the meaning of the title of the book. This is important to the reader so that they can understand, and find, some of the meaning around the title, as well as what the author is trying to explain by writing this novel.

Another instance of imagery used in the novel is when Taylor (Barbara Kingsolver) is describing the night-blooming cereus on Edna and Virgie Mae’s porch…

“… We saw what looked like a bouquet of silvery-white balloons hanging in the air. Flowers… It hung in the dark air like a magic mirror just inches from here yes… The flowers themselves were not spiny, nut made of some nearly transparent material that looked as though it would shrivel and bruise if you touched it. The petals stood out in starry rays, and in the center of each flower there was a complicated construction of silvery threads shaped like a pair of cupped hands catching moonlight. A fairy boat, ready to be launched into the darkness.”

The scene is described on the night before Taylor leaves to find Turtle’s real parents, and to bring Estevan and Esperanza to the safe house in Oklahoma. By using this imagery, the author describes the beauty of the situation and foreshadows the event of change, seemingly positive. 

"So What?" Category

Why are you moved by this story?

I think this book is important to read because it explains the dynamics of family and love. In the beginning of the book, Taylor is leaving her home to find something new and escape for a while. By the end of the book, she has changed completely. She had learned how to love others, such as Turtle and Lou Ann, as family but also how to love someone, like Estevan, in a passionate way. Although she understands that she can’t do anything about her love for him, he teaches her that it’s okay to fall in love. Also, I really enjoyed the symbolism and meaning of the title of the book. The wisteria plant thrives in poor soil and the secret is rhizobia, tiny bugs that live under the soil in little balls on the roots of the plants, and turn the soil into fertilizer. Therefore, the wisteria plant has a dependence on the soil and the bugs, and visa versa, although the bugs may not be useful to other plants. Like in the novel, each character is dependent on the other, and useful in his, or her, own way. So in order for each character to “bloom”, they need help from the other characters.

"So What?" Category

Major Theme

One major theme in the novel is the parallel between the wisteria and the bugs. Taylor and Turtle encounter the wisteria plants, or "bean trees", at the park by their house in Arizona. This is an important theme of the novel because it reveals the true meaning behind the title of the book and it's significance towards the plot. Earlier in the novel, when Taylor and Lou Ann are at the park with Turtle and Dwayne Ray, Turtle is playing and spots the bean pods hanging from the wisteria vines in the park. She points to them and tells Taylor, "bean trees," there, the title is introduced to us in context. When Taylor is talking to Turtle about the wisteria plant, in Oklahoma, towards the end of the book, the true meaning of the phrase is revealed. The wisteria plants are dependent on the rhizobia, the microscopic bugs that live on the roots of the plant and produce fertilizer for the plant. Because the rhizobia live and produce the fertilizer for the wisteria, the wisteria thrives and produces the bean pods. Without the bugs, the plant would not survive and have the ability to be as beautiful as it is. By using this as the title of the novel, the author is trying to show the relationship between the wisteria plant and the bugs, and love, friends and family.

In the novel, Lou Ann says that her, Taylor, Turtle and Dwayne Ray have kind of become a family. Taylor denies this though, possibly because of her inability to love someone that isn't her true family. After the library scene occurs, Lou Ann tells Taylor that she had told someone at work that she had a family at home, referring to Taylor, Turtle and Dwayne Ray. Finally, Taylor accepts the fact that the people she met in Arizona, along with Turtle, are the closest thing to family she's got.

The reader is able to draw a parallel between the wisteria and the bugs, and Taylor's new found family because Taylor and Lou Ann were okay on their own before they became roommates, but they were not thriving. After they became roommates though, they began to benefit from each other, and thrive. Lout Ann brought fun to the family, along with a little bit of drama. While Taylor was kind of serious but was not too dramatic. Mattie was wise and served as a mother to Taylor. Together with Turtle and Dwayne Ray, they formed kind of an odd family... But together they thrive.

"So What?" Category

Setting

At the beginning of the novel, Taylor, or Marietta, is living with her mother in a small town. For Marietta, this town represents mundane daily rituals and the want to leave the town to create a new life for herself outside of what is expected of her, which is to maybe graduate high school and then get pregnant and start a family. It seems that because of the way Marietta was raised, she has this burning need to leave the town and not get start a family right away. Then when Marietta graduates high school and moves to Arizona, her life is changed completely. The first thing she does is change her name to Taylor; This represents artificial change but change none the less. Next, she inherits a daughter. Although this is what Taylor was trying to avoid in the first place, it is different than what her life was like in the small town with her mom. Once, in Arizona, Taylor and Turtle, her daughter, meet Mattie, Lou Ann and Dwayne Ray. In meeting these people, Taylor is gifted with a new family different than hers back home. The transition in setting symbolizes freedom and a new life for Taylor.  

Blog Response -- Fences

"So What?"

Important Characters

-Troy: Strong personality, gets very "philosophical" when he drinks, confused about what he truly wants in life (fun-filled, youth-like life or life as a father and a husband?), easily defined as the leader between him and Bono, hardworking, rough childhood reflects the way he treats Cory

-Rose: Tough, doesn't take anything from Troy, influential, knows what she wants in life, is happy with the path she's taken, caring,  loves her family

-Bono: At first, he is a follower of Troy and is envious of the way he lives his life and treats his family until he screws it up, becomes self-confident near the end, warns Troy about screwing things up with Rose in an attempt to prevent it from happening, stops hanging out with Troy once Troy fathers a child with another woman

-Cory: Son of Troy and Rose, leaves one day after Troy refuses to let him have the future he always hoped for, comes back on the day of Troy's funeral and tells Rose that he isn't going to Troy's funeral because of the lack of connection between them

-Death: In the story of Fences death becomes a character that Troy tries to fight off... It seems that Troy finishes the fence only in an attempt to fight death

Essential Plot Elements

-In the beginning, Troy is an envied character with a lot going for him (good wife, nice son, good job, good friend)

-The plot begins to change when the author begins hinting, through Bono, that Troy has other interests besides Rose and his family

-At the climax, we find out that Troy has fathered a child with another woman named Alberta, but the child's mother dies and Troy hopes that Rose will help him raise his new daughter ("... this child got a mother. But you a womanless man.")

-Troy and Rose's relationship weakens and eventually they end up virtually separated but are still raising the child together, Troy kicks Cory out of the house

-At the end of the story, Troy dies and leaves his family behind. All the characters from the story come together to remember Troy and we learn what he meant to the characters and what role he played in their lives

Setting

-The play Fences takes places during the 1950's (1957, later 1965) at the Maxson household (mostly in the front yard) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The mood is happy in the beginning but as the plot develops, we see the effects of the characters' lifestyles begin to wear on them.

Central Conflicts

- Troy's conflict with what he has and wants he wants eventually ruins his relationship with his family. To begin, Troy denies Cory when he asks Troy's permission to play football. Then, Troy reveals to his family that he has been cheating on Rose and has fathered another child with the woman. Finally, Troy readmits Gabriel to the hospital while continuing to use the money Gabriel earned after the war.

Major Themes

- Surviving aging and dealing with "what could've been" while still living in the present is a central theme of this work. Troy acts on impulse when he has an affair with Alberta. Because he doesn't think of the consequences that may follow the affair, he eventually ruins his relationship with his family because he was unhappy with the path he had chosen. Also, won't allow Cory to play football because he is afraid that Cory will just end up being disappointed like Troy when he played baseball. Lastly, Troy grew up with a rough childhood, specifically because of his father. Because he was treated like this as a child, Troy consciously tries to be a better father to Cory than his father was to him, but subconsciously doesn't give Cory the freedom and experiences a father should let a son have.

Emotion

- I'm moved by this story because it shows the struggles and hardships a person goes through and the effects they have on them. Troy eventually dies from his inability to accept that this is the life he has chosen for himself. Rose accepts the life she's chosen for herself, and the people she's picked to spend it with, and even the ones she hadn't expected. Rose willingly gives up "what could've been" to live the life she virtually ended up loving.

"How?"

Diction

- The author, August Wilson, uses diction to portray the time period and the characters. The characters speak English with an African American dialect, which August Wilson uses to show that, because it is the 1950's, the Maxson family probably isn't as successful as white families at that time. Also, by having the characters speak with an African American dialect, the author enables the reader to familiarize themselves with the culture and slang of an African American in the United States during the 1950's.

Organization/Structure

- Because this work is written in play-form, the reader gets a sense of how each characters acts by what they show and portray about themselves instead of what a narrator knows about one character. By using this, August Wilson allows the reader to know how each character acts and why they act this way.

Elements of Drama

- August Wilson uses both foreshadowing and "in medias res" in the play Fences. The death of Troy is foreshadowed in the beginning of the play when he states that death ain't nothing, and also when Gabriel comes to the Maxson's house and begins singing his song about getting ready for the judgement. By doing this, we can predict that, although he believes he won't, Troy eventually succumbs to death. "In medias res" means "in the middle of things", and August Wilson uses this by starting the play with Troy and Bono talking on Friday after work. This encourages the reader to continue reading and learn more about each character and their story.