Hammond, 1 xMaeve Hammond Mrs.

Rutan AP Literature and Composition 16 September 2013 Cooking up Fosters Ideas in The Bell Jar

In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, author Thomas C. Foster highlights common threadslike plot-structures, themes, and certain symbolsrecreated in literature throughout time. Authors do not necessarily copy from other text; however, they do borrow certain wellknown ideas from other works in order to establish a better connection between their book and their audience. Think of an authors common thread inclusions as adding seasonings to a soup: different measurements of spices are used to enhance the flavor, not overpower it. Sometimes the author subtly adds threadsother times, the author uses certain themes to dictate his or her story. The topics discussed by Foster, which are included in nearly all forms of literature, are the significance of weather, violence, politics, and Christ-like figures. Another author who seemingly used the soup method when writing The Bell Jara semi-autobiographic novel of lifes ups and downswas Sylvia Plath, who exemplified Fosters key ideas. Weather is never just weather (Foster, 75). Foster spelled it out for his readers on what weather symbolizes in literature: ultimately, in books, stifling summer days and perilous snowstorms are more than just Mother Natures arbitration. For instance, In The Bell Jar, we see Plaths main character, Esther Greenwood, encounters heavy rain whenever she visits her fathers grave. Esther explains that she never cried when her father died; therefore, the weather could be an indication of the despondency she feels towards her fathers death, but that she still cannot entirely express it. Also, Foster explains that rain is often tied to desolation and misery because drowning is one of our deepest fearsand the drowning of everything and everyone

Hammond, 2 just magnifies that fear (Foster, 76). Subsequently, it may rain every time Esther sees her fathers grave because she is reminded of her own demise. When Plath begins to delve into the beginning of Esthers severe depression, she describes the beautiful summer weather that surrounds Esther and how our protagonist would rather be cooped-up in her house with the blinds drawn than be outside. The summer symbolizeswhat Esther thinksis the happiness everyone has compared to her own darkness, which is indicated by her dank, shuttered room. Violence is ubiquitous in American media, which entails its prevalence in literature. Aside from the action aspect of violence in literature, violence holds certain significance: [it] is one of the most personal and even intimate acts between human beings, but it can also be cultural and societal in its implications (Foster, 88). Violencemainly towards women against male aggressorssurrounds The Bell Jar. Marco, a sadistic stranger whom Esther labels as a woman hater (Plath, 65) after meeting him at a party, bruises Esthers arms, pushes her into mud, and attempts to rape her. When Marco first shows aggression towards Esther by grabbing her arms and not letting her go, she does little to resist. However, once Marcos violence escalates, Esther stands up for herself. Plath used the violence in this incident to demonstrate Esthers character beginning to change. The Bell Jar, which is set in the 1950s, is considered a proponent for feminism in postmodern literature. Plath demonstrates to her audience how she feels about social injustice that prevailed during the 1950s by making Esther concerned with gender equality and by strategically placing Esther in situations where male dominance overshadows her. As Foster says, knowing a little something about the social and political milieu out of which a writer creates can only help us understand her workbecause that is the world she engages when she sits down to write (Foster, 116). Esther is conflicted with deciding between a career as a writer

Hammond, 3 or starting a family: she feels that both cannot be simultaneously attained in a patriarchal society. Subsequently, as she dates without committing to one man, older women often chastise her and her indiscretions; however, she notices that men date multiple women at a time without repercussions. Also, after Esther is admitted into a psychiatric hospital after her suicide attempt, Doctor Nolan, a female, treats her; a mother-daughter relationship is formed between the two. The bond is forged between them in part because Nolan is a woman who defies social-structure through her occupation and beliefs. As Plath provides an insight to Esthers feminist ideals, she is also allowing Esther to discover herself and the difficulties that accompany growing-up. Foster proposes the notion that many protagonists in literature are actually modeled, in part, after Christ. How could a suicidal, manic-depressant, feminist woman in any way, shape, or form be a Christ-figure? Easily. Foster discusses that no literary Christ-figure can ever be as pure, as perfect, as divine as Jesus Christ (Foster, 123). The relationship between Esther and Joan can parallel the one between Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot: Joan was Esthers close confident, or disciple, who eventually betrayed Esther, as did Judas to Jesus. Esther felt betrayed when Joan committed suicide, subsequently leaving her alone in the psychiatric hospital; coincidentally, both Judas and Joan committed suicide due to their own personal grief. Like Jesus, Esther also deals with agony and temptations, and she is unmarried. Lastly, we see Esthers redemption: once she finishes her psychoanalytic treatment, her depression subsides. It is almost as if Foster patterned his discussions in How to Read Literature Like a Professor specifically after The Bell Jar. This is probably not the case. By using the soup method of adding sprinkles, dollops, or chunks of common threads into literature concoctions, authors have allowed themes like the significance of weather, violence, politics, and Christ-like figures to transcend throughout time.