The Bell Jar Reflection #12

Chapters 15-16 (pgs. 151-166)

A woman named Mrs. Philomena Guinea heard about Esther’s case all the way in the Bahamas and she became very interested in it.  She even came all the way to Boston and using her own money, she transported Esther from the awful city hospital to a nice, private one.  A black Cadillac came to pick Esther up and she rode between her mother and brother in the back of the Cadillac to the new hospital.  While they were driving over a bridge over the Charles River, Esther got a crazy idea to jump out of the car when it stopped and run and jump over the bridge, although she could not bring herself to do it. The entire time I have been reading this book, I have been wondering why it is named The Bell Jar and I finally figured it out at the beginning of Chapter fifteen.  Esther says that she knows she should be thankful for Mrs. Guinea’s kindness but she is not.  She says that even if she had given her a ticket to Europe “I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air” (pg.152)  This shows that Esther’s illness has no cure, and no matter what anyone does for her, she will never be happy with her life. 

 When Esther gets to the newer, nicer hospital, she is surprised to find she has a female doctor named Dr. Nolan.  She is also surprised to find that they serve them nice food and give them real silverware.  I picture this hospital sort of like a nursing home.  A woman named Miss Norris moves into the room beside Esther.  She decides to go talk to her and make a friend, but becomes disappointed when she realizes that Miss Norris cannot talk and that she is worse off than herself.  A couple of days later, the nurses move Esther and Miss Norris to different rooms where there is more sunlight.  Also, the nurse tells Esther that she has a surprise for her!  Her surprise is an old friend named Joan who came to the hospital to be with Esther.  Joan tells Esther that they are in very similar situations.  Joan went to the doctor and promised herself that if the doctor could not do her any good, she would kill herself.  Of course the doctor did not do any good and she was going to kill herself until she came across the many articles in the paper about Esther’s story and she ran away to find her.  She gave Esther the articles and let her keep them; she even suggested she make a scrap book with them.  Esther continues living boring days in the hospital, many people try to come visit her though.  Esther is ecstatic though when the nurse announces that she will have no more visitors for a while, since she yelled at her mother when she tried to bring flowers for her birthday.