The Bell Jar Reflection #8

Chapter 9 (pgs. 81-91)

The Rosenberg’s are talked about a little more at the beginning of this chapter.  Esther and one of her co- workers named Hilda discuss the event, being as they are supposed to be electrocuted that night.  Hilda states that the whole situation is awful while Esther says that she is glad they are going to die. We learned about them recently in U.S. History so I thankfully, I understand that part.

After Esther’s discussion with Hilda, she rushed to Jay Cee’s office.  She found out that they were supposed to have their pictures taken that day though and she tried to get out of it.  She was not successful in getting out of it though.  They had to pose in their picture as what they wanted to be when they grew up.  For lack of a better answer, Esther states that she wants to be a poet so they give her a rose to pose with.  They pick up the camera to photograph her and she just starts uncontrollably sobbing.  The photographer and Jay Cee leave after a while and Esther never has her picture taken. Honestly, this part confused me a little because I have no idea why Esther started crying; it just goes to show that she has even more mental problems than I originally thought. 

When Esther gets back to her room, Doreen convinces her to go out with her and some guys.  Esther decides to go and she gets into a bad situation.  Near the beginning of the night, the guy named Marco had given Esther a diamond pin.  He took her outside and very roughly starts tearing off her clothes.  Esther decides to lay there and to go ahead and let sex happen, until he start calling her a slut.  She gets very offended and starts hitting him to get off of her.  She tries to run away and he starts screaming at her to give him back his diamond.  She keeps running until he threatens to break her neck.  She goes back and gives it to him and tries to find Doreen; however, she is nowhere to be found.  She goes back to the hotel and for some reason goes on top of the roof and throws her clothes off into the night one by one.  I guess this was her method of coping with her depression.  Also, this was her last night in New York City and tomorrow it would be back to her same old helpless life.

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/depression_tips.htm