The Bell Jar Blog 2

The Genre of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath can be categorized as realistic fiction. The novel is about Esther Greenwood who struggles to differentiate her personal identity and society identity, along with meaning of her life, reality, and battling insanity. These are recurring issues in the lives of real people which calls the genre to exist. The events that occur could happen in real life and the characters appear realistic, but they are fictional. This genre opens up the possibility that what happens in the text could or has happened in real life. Another Genre that this novel could be categorized as is coming-of-age fiction. Esther Greenwood uses internal monologue to tell the story in reflection of her journey through young adulthood and the events that have shaped her into who she eventually becomes.

In application of the text to the genre there are forms that distinguish it. A major form that appears throughout this novel would be minor or incidental forms. The words used in figural language are what we see, as the language is not concrete but abstract, this opens up a window to the thematic dimension of the novel. One primary figural form used in the text is metaphor and simile. In Chapter 4 Esther continually uses metaphor and simile, when she goes to the movies instead of the park she says her “secret hope…died in the glass eggbeater” and gets into “a cave of a cab”(pg.41). When she begins to not feel well at the movies she decides to leave and so does her friend Betsy and she describes her “drained face floated in front of me”(pg.43). She continues in description of how she feels, “the sickness rolled…in great waves”, “limp as a wet leaf”, and “torture-chamber tiles…on all four sides closed in and squeezed me to pieces”(pg.44). There are plenty more that follow, “numb as a snowdrift”, “words bungled out thick as molasses”, “window that swam”, “left hand lay pale as a cod” and so on(pg.45). The narrator also uses many simple sentences in this chapter, “Betsy looked a fright”, “Betsy was already there”, “I listened with interest”, “I shook my head”(pg.43-47). This minor form also makes us stop and examine the text for what it is.

Another form would be Qualitative progressive which is something felt by the reader that creates a mood which carries us into another mood. In the Bell Jar this is when we encounter a mood of uncertainty. This mood is evoked when Esther Greenwood is in reflection about her life and or questioning her actions or future actions. This occur repetitively but each time under a new context. From the very beginning we are aware of this underlying uncertainty, she says “I was supposed to be having the time of my life” but she wasn’t(pg.2). In reference to her boss Jay Cee and elders she says “suddenly I didn’t think they had anything to teach me”(pg. 6).

We can predict that there will be more uncertainty as her questions prior to each are not directly answered. Esther’s uncertainty progressively becomes more clear and detailed in self reflection as her experience builds within her time in New York City. Esther says “I wondered why I couldn’t go the whole way doing what I should any more” and then seems to answer her own question as she answers  Jay Cee “I don’t really know” to what she plans to do after graduation(pg.30,32). She felt taken aback by her own answer because she realized it was true. She can’t seem to do what she should because she doesn’t know what she should do, this particular uncertainty is answered. This is only a partial answer as we are not given an answer as to why she doesn’t know what she wants. Later on in chapter seven Esther says “I thought how strange it had never occurred to me before that I was only purely happy until I was nine years old” (pg.75) This gives us the answer to why she doesn’t know what she wants but again leads to the progression of uncertainty for the answer as to why she’s not happy isn’t given.  Continuing in the chapter Esther describes her life in comparison to a fig tree. Each fig on the tree’s branches represented a possible and desirable future, “One fig was a husband and a happy home…”, “…another fig was a famous poet…a brilliant professor”,”…another fig was Europe and Africa…another fig was a pack of lovers…”(pg.77). She then tells the reader that she can’t make up her mind and choose a fig which leaves her “starving to death”(pg.77). This creates a partial answer as it is an explanation for why she is not happy, she doesn’t have a purpose to give her sustenance. What is left is  uncertainty about her future path which she it will be to late before she decides.“As I sat there…the figs began to wrinkle…they plopped to the ground at my feet”(pg.77)