The Bell Jar Reflection #3

Chapter 3 (pgs. 20-30)

At the beginning of this chapter, Esther attends a Ladies’ Day Banquet with her co- workers.  She talks about how nice the banquet is and all of the delicious food that is arrayed on the tables for them to eat.  Esther mentions her love for food in this chapter.  She states that “My favorite dishes are full of butter and cheese and sour cream” (pg. 20) which I really appreciate because I love all of those three things too.  Although she has fun at the banquet, she realizes that she misses Doreen. 

The author then uses a flashback where Esther tells us about the beginning of her day, which was not the best.  She mentions that Doreen had tried to get her to go to the fur show with her but she refused and just lied in bed.  Also, her boss, Jay Cee called her into her office earlier that day.  Jay Cee told her that she needed to “roll up her shirt sleeves” and work a little harder.  She also asked Esther about her plans for the future and Esther said she was not sure.  Jay Cee told Esther that it would be a good idea to get into a foreign language class.  Esther was stressed because she knew she did not have room for any more classes, but she came up with the brilliant idea to get out of chemistry, which she hates, in order to take a foreign language.  I can relate to Esther on that because I am taking chemistry right now and it is definitely not my favorite class.  Finally in this chapter, we learn the very important information that both of Esther’s parents died when she was quite young.  I believe this could have a lot to do with some of her depression problems.

http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/parent-death-during-childhood/