How Esther Greenwood sees Society.

 How Esther Greenwood sees Society

    While reading the book "The Bell Jar." We have followed it through the perspective of Esther Greenwood, A 19-20 year old women going through depression when coming back from her trip too New York. I think that one of the main causes of her deteriorating mental scape is because of how society was in the mid 19th century. While we have therapy and other ways to help we our mental health. Those things weren't as prominent while Esther was around. And during the that time period, it was men over women. There are some men in the 21st century who believe they are over women. But, like I said it was more normalized in the 19th Century. Esther Greenwood sees this flaw in Society, while everyone thinks it normal. In this blog post I am going to go through some examples on how Esther sees society.

    My first example is going to be Buddy Willard. While I am an avid Buddy Willard supporter, He still has a lot of flaws. Esther in the story calls him a hypocrite because of the affair he had with a waitress. When reading this story I first thought that was kind off the wrong word. First Buddy told the truth when Esther asked. Second, they had the affair before Buddy dated Esther. I realized that she wasn't calling Buddy a hypocrite, She was called society a hypocrite. Since society saw Buddy as the pure soul who is going to become a doctor. How come the pure soul can have an affair, but when a women does it they get ridiculed. Because of this difference between men and women, Esther calls Buddy a hypocrite. Another example I want to bring is when Buddy was proposing to Esther. Most people would expect the one who is proposing to say "will you marry me?" but instead Buddy say "Will be my Mrs. Buddy Willard." Now this made Esther probably more mad and it is understandable. Buddy is basically saying, will you get rid of all of your identity as Esther and just be the wife of Buddy. No wonder that threw Esther off, I would be too if someone told me to get rid of my identity.

    For my next example, I am going to talk about Doctor Gordon. While I talking about him I am also going to include Doctor Nolan as well. Since she was the better doctor in Esthers case. When Esther first goes into Doctor Gordon's room there is one major that turns her off. It was a photo of him and his family. While that might not turn off most people, it turned off Esther. The reason being she saw the wife in that picture and saw that as her future. It reminds her of Buddy and her becoming Mrs. Buddy Willard. Another thing that Doctor Gordon doesn't do and what Doctor Nolan does do is try to understand Esther. I think Doctor Gordon was also view Esther like how society would view her. This was at a time were mental health wasn't that big of a deal. I think that Doctor Nolan did a better job at trying to have a relationship with Esther. For example when Esther says she hates her mom. Instead of Doctor Nolan getting mad a Esther or judging her. She builds on that and grows a deeper relationship with her.

    To conclude, I think that "The Bell Jar" shows how much society was different in the mid 19th century and how it was hard for people to help others with the same kind of mental problems that Esther had. As well as Society caused some of those mental problems. Like Before New York, Esther was pretty positive and she had a suitcase full of dresses that she was going to wear. Then after New York, she came back with no dresses and looking like she got into a fight (which she did). Overall, this was an amazing book I would give more examples but I have already yapped to much. Oh, one more thing (be a Buddy supporter).