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The Bell Jar - Coggle Diagram
The Bell Jar
Characters
Buddy
Buddy was a character that was referenced many times in the book. He was at one time a boyfriend and someone that she blamed a lot of her feelings on.
Esther
Esther is the main character of the book and also the narrator. She is a very complex character and I believe she might be an unreliable narrator. The whole time we are in her psyche and live in her thoughts. She is an interesting character that is always changing. In the first half of the book she is living in New York and she wants to go home. However, when she arrives home her mental health gets extremely worse. The whole book is told from her point of view which is always changing and never stays in one place.
Mom
Her mother was not talked about a lot. However, near the end of the book she grows a hatred for her mother and she starts to resent her.
figurative language
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The author uses tons of figurative language especially symbolism. The whole book is filled with it. The Bell Jar, The Fig tree, and The water in the book represent something and have much deeper meanings than what is first entailed.
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Settings
New york
In New York she is going through a scholarship that she believes that she takes for granted and she does not enjoy.
Home town
She believes that if she was in her hometown things would be better but they got worse when she was home.
Authors Purpose
The authors purpose was to create an outlet of how she was feeling in her early 20s. This book was a biography of sorts and was a way of showing her emotions and experiences.
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Theme
There are many possible themes to this complex novel. I believe that the main theme follows the intricate parts of mental illness in women.
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Historic Context
The author of this book was also going through a lot of what our main character was. There was almost no medical advancements that went along with mental illness and no doctor seemed to understand. She took her frustrations out with this book and decided to show what it was like being mentally ill and in this period of time.
Dialouge
The dialogue in this book is used minimally in the beginning but as the book gets to a certain point the author uses much more dialogue to show that not as much is going on inside of Esther's mind.