Irwin takes the V CARD!!!!!!!!

When Esther first meets Irwin, she immediately sees the chance to have "sexual relations" with him. throughout the entire novel, Esther had always talked about how she had divided the people into two groups; virgins and. non-virgins. Sex had been something that Esther had always wanted to experience and she thought that by being a virgin, she was being held back. Esther was also ready for sex because she had had a contraceptive (diaphragm) put in recently. She did not want to have a baby because it was something that society had told the common women to do. She thought that babies would tie her down. She did not want to be like the mother who had been in the bed next to her at the hospital. 

Irwin was experienced, which was odd because Esther did not like that in a man, but she was desperate at this point for any action.  She also took comfort in knowing that she never really had to talk again, and would not feel badly about it. In all honestly she wanted to use him for sex once, and get along with her life. She didn't want any strings attached. 

Despite Esther's physical wound from sleeping with Irwin, she was morally and mentally victorious. It's a great boost to her self-esteem. Her scars and pains were proof that she had lost her innocence and she felt great. 

Trapped in a JAR!!!!!!!

The title of the book is for the first time used in the context. She is saying that she is trapped in a Bell Jar. By this she means that, no matter where she goes, she always be trapped. No matter how nice of a place, city, or institution, she always will be covered and trapped by her illness. She is making this claim because Philomena Guinea has decided to put her into a private institution. Sure it's nicer there, but Esther, in a way thinks that there is no way to cure her, no matter how nice of an environment she is in. 

This is quite depressing because well, it seems like there is no hope for Esther. She has lost hope in herself, and I guess this is why she has tried to kill her self multiple times. But, also, after her shock treatment at the new institution, she wakes up from an unconscience state, and walks outside only to find that the Bell Jar has been lifted up over her slightly, giving her fresh air and hope to breathe. This makes me happy because I was quite saddened by Esther's constant state of sadness and depression.

ASYLUM!!!!!

Philomena thinks that it's best that Esther goes to a new asylum because it's private and is more accepting of people like Esther. Philomena goes to Boston and visits with Esther and her mother. They agree that it's a good move to go to this new, private asylum and she is transferred there. Philomena does all of this because she is a writer, and understand the pain that Esther is going through. She wants her to get better, and wants only the best in the business to work on her recovery. This new country club has golf, and seemed very relaxed and ritzy, trying to make it seem like not an asylum. It was very nice and the people there treated Esther well. The room was not a cage, like at her other institute. Her woman doctor, Dr. Nowland, was a new and refreshing thing for her. This in a way calmed her. This new Dr. seems to respect and understand more and has an actual want inside of her to help Esther. This Dr. cares. Esther also has a lot of freedoms in this hospital, as opposed to the other one. Esther also does not have to have shock treatment anymore and she takes comfort in that. I think that if she had stayed at the other institution, she would have gotten a lot worse because they didn't really care about her there. They just sort of threw her into the crowd, putting her away from society so she couldn't be seen. They didn't care about if they would be well or not, as opposed to the nice, private institution. This asylum is there to try and make there patients become better.

Suicide

Esther tries to commit suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills, but instead of dying, is rushed to the nearest hospital for medical care. Esther seems to crazy because throughout points in the book, and from events preceding the book, have created a massive buildup of self-esteem problems, depression, and confusion. Esther, basically is just one whacked out person. She is overwhelmed with society and her life, and is struggling to fit in, but just can't. She tries so hard, but in the end, she realizes that's not who she wants to be, and this makes her sad. She wants to want to fit in and be within society, but that's not who she is, and she cannot want it. From the drunk night with Doreen to the rape attempt by Marco to her inability to be accepted to that writing class, Esther's problems really added up. She was no longer sane in the end, and she could no longer live with all of these problems. On top of all of these problems, she was already messed up from the start. She grew up with no father and a mother who struggled to find a steady income. Esther, also in general is just not a very happy person, she never has been, and when you put all of these other problems with this, it is not a very good mix, but rather is causes craziness, and this is exactly what happens to her. She is crazy because her life has made her this way.

Dr. Gordon

Esther does not like Dr. Gordon for many reasons. Esther though, at first is excited to meet Dr. Gordon because she hopes he can help her find out what's wrong with her and she is hoping that he will help her. But after spending time with him, she decides that he is not a very good person and does not help at all, but in fact makes her feel worse.
The first time we see that Esther does not like Dr. Gordon is when she sees his family. He has a good looking family complete with a cute wife and kids. She does not like this because it represents everything that she was not apart of. She did not want to be married, nor did she want to have a family. She wanted nothing to do with it. Dr. Gordon, during the first therapy session, also asks Esther what she thinks is wrong with her. This confuses Esther because these sessions, in her mind, are supposed to be the doctor finding out what's wrong, not herself. This made her confused and angry. She thought that it was a waste of time. After a couple of therapy sessions, Dr. Gordon decides that she "needs" shock therapy, which conveniently would take place at his hospital.
I think that Dr. Gordon does no good for Esther. The shock therapy greatly hurts her and Dr. Gordon's styles and methods confuse and throw Esther off. She simply wants to learn what's wrong with her, and she wants to know how to get better. Dr. Gordon complicated things and made her think more about herself, when in reality she wanted a quick fix. Now she's just as depressed and even a little bit more confused.

While enjoying her last night, her friends Doreen and Lenny set her up with a woman hater, Marco. When he first meets her he grabs her arm harshly and gives her bruises. He then gave her a diamond stick pin from his suit. He then forces her to dance, telling her to act like she is drowning when she tells him she doesn't want to dance and doesn't know how. He tells her to act like she is drowning so that he can be in complete control. Later that night he tries to rape her, and at first she lets it happen, but then he calls her a slut and she starts to fight back. Eventually she gets out of his grip and she punches him in the face, making him bleed. Marco then preceded to put his blood onto the cheeks of Esther. 

When Esther gets back, her mother tells her that she didn't get accepted into an english honors program. This, on top of her getting raped, was just adding to her depression. When in Boston, Esther also has many problems sleeping at night. Her almost being raped seems like it really screwed Esther up, more than she already had been. Esther also got a letter from Buddy saying that she should come and visit him because he is falling in love with a nurse, and she must win him back. This sort of gets to Esther. In response to this letter, Esther writes claiming that she is engaged and never wants to talk to him again.

Esther quiere dormir con Constatine

Esther is really mad at Buddy, for reasons I don't really understand so she wants to "spite" him and make him feel badly. She want's to "engage" in sexual acts with Constantine to fulfill her goal of making Buddy feel badly. Constantine sort of picks up on these sexy vibes from Esther and figures that he should invite her back to his place to listen to some quality music and consume fine alcoholic beverages. So they go back, and they drink and drink, so much that Esther cannot stay awake any longer and decides to sleep over at Constantine's. Constantine does not make any sexual passes at Esther, which is a strange thing. Esther was very vulnerable and was actually willing for something steamy to happen, but nothing did...they just had a good time. This sort of confused Esther.  In the middle of the night though Constantine comes into room, what we assume for sex, and lies down.  They end up sleeping with each other, but still nothing sexual came from it. 

The way Constantine acted totally threw Esther off. She was expecting  him to seduce her and try to get into her pants at any moment. Esther had this broad and generalized view of how men acted, and Constantine contradicted it by not following threw with what she thought would be a night full of sexual actions. I really like his reaction because Esther seems to not really like men. I don't like her generalized views, but I do think she makes a point when she was talking about how men can live an unpure life, while women cannot. I like Constantine because he isn't a horny dude, he's a guy looking to have fun and just basically, have fun.

bell jar 3

Esther secretly liked Buddy, but never really talked to him because she was to shy and too afraid too. But then one day Buddy stopped by Esther's home, like he had promised at Christmas, he asked her to the prom at the college that he went to, Yale. Esther really, really like Buddy, but wishes that he would be honest with her. Buddy had been sleeping around with this waitress gal, and completely covering it up, acting like he was the most gentlemanly human being on the planet. He even acted like he was more innocent than Esther, which is not true at all. Esther, just like always, does not really care about this, and just wishes that Buddy would act like himself, and not put on a personality for her. Esther, although, did like how Buddy treated her. He treated her like she was the most experienced one in the relationship, even though she knew it wasn't true. He acted like she was in control, and she liked this because it made her feel a lot better about herself. She liked the idea of being in control. It made her really pissed off when she found out that she was not as experienced as Buddy. She wanted to be the experienced one, but she wasn't so, she broke up with him.

Bell jar 222222222222222

Esther is a very bright young students who is very good at a lot of subjects. She is passionate about her school work and gets very good grades. She was majoring in English, but was also very interested and good at Botany. She takes physics, an impossible class which every other girl had failed and she gets an A. Even though she got an A, she hated the equations and numbers that were involved with physics and chemistry, so she devises a plan to get out of taking the hard course of chemistry. She goes to the dean of students and tells her she needs more credits in English to finish her major. She tells her that she needs to take another Shakespeare class, in place of chemistry. But then she tells her that she would still take chemistry but did not need to get any grades for it. Esther convinces the dean that she genuinely wants to learn the material and not just get good grades. Her plan works because the dean respects her as a student for her all As grades. She okays it, and instead of pleasure learning chemistry, Esther in reality sits in the class, paying no attention whatsoever.
Esther did not like chemistry because she is much more of a creative thinker and person. Science in general is more of a practical subject. There is a wrong and right answer, with no room for debate and ones own opinions. Esther has her own opinions and thoughts, which she would like to share. By being in English, she is able to read others and opinions, which enables her to make her own opinions on topics and subjects of her time. This is why she has so many opinions about the role of government in society, and why she is such a cynic as to the people act in society.

Bellllll JARRR uno

In the beginning of the book, Sylvia Platt uses the quote “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenberg’s, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York” to introduce her novel. This line set the stage and mood for the emotions that would be portrayed by the main character, Esther, throughout the novel, The Bell Jar. The quote shows how cynical she is and how much she does not want to confrom to society. She wants to ber her own person. She does not feel unique. Her situation is much like the situation of the girls in the fil, Mona Lisa Smile. The majority of the women that attend Wellesley are there just to kill off time before they get married, have a family, and tend to her home. This is what Esther feels like she is doing. She feels like she is just killing time by going to parties, wearing styling outfits, meeting the big shots and celebrities, getting noticed. She hated this. She wanted to be in this magazine for the writing, but because she wasn't in this fashion magazine as a writer, she did not like being there and had a dull and grey outlook on life. She had something missing inside of her, and her being in New York did not help to fill the hole, if not to worsen it.

Decision

I think the decision of the president of the college to tell Katharine off was a very typical decision of the 1950's. Katharine is very upset because Betty had just written a very nasty article in the school paper about her and claimed that she was teaching  against tradition and values of the school and of society. Katharine is extremely angered by this and storms off into the President's office. She asks if the president is honestly proud of these students for the way that they act, and the president responds by saying "yes" she is proud of them. She basically says, look, 100 years ago women were not aloud to college. At least we get the opportunity, so stop complaining, there has been enough change. Katharine thinks that woman should fight and go against modern society. She thinks that women should get jobs, get married when they want or not at all, and most importantly, have their own life. She is upset that even the president of the most prestigious women's school in the U.S. was okay with women not using the great education that they received and going out into the world married and as a homemaker. The presidents decision to "shew" Katharine from her office and to basically tell her to suck it up is a typical decision that a women would have made during this time period.

Time Period

Mona Lisa Smile perfectly, in my opinion, portrays the time period of the 1950's that I had always imagined. I always imagined it as an I Love Lucy or a Happy Days kind of life. Growing up I pictured everyone being happy and easy going, not having a worry. Everyone got a long and there was nothing wrong with the world. But now by reading and studying examples of the 1950's, I realize that in reality all of these shows and the media was just one big cover up. They were covering up all of the bad things that were wrong with the world. Segregation, Nuclear War, assassinations, civil wars, etc. all plagued the world during this time, and it frightened people. Nobody really wanted to deal with it. 

When the men came back from World War II, they kicked the women out of the factories and expected them to go back to their old roles in society; a homemaker. And the women excelled at this greatly. The men started to teach the women that having a family and taking care of a home was their only purpose in life, and that it was very important that they do so. Women started to take it very seriously. I get a lot of this from the movie that we watched in class. 

In the movie, Mona Lisa Smile, the students (specifically Joan and Betty) both exemplify aspiring women "home makers." They explain to their teacher (Julia Roberts) that after they graduate, they are going to get married, and that's it. Julia Roberts' character is very frustrated throughout the movie with how they students of the college act. They were merely acting as sheep, and doing what society had told them to do.

I think that this movie is a very good example of how the society was. It seemed all very fake, just like many marriages were, and it seemed quite boring and unlively. Some of the characters in this movie are very boring and unlively. Take Betty, for example. She is in a "happy marriage." But in reality, she does not really love her husband, she likes the idea of him. This movie really does make you think about the society in the 1950's.