Ruth... COA?

There is no doubt that the main character is Ruth, she is the narrator, the one taking you through her life, speaking with little emotion, and giving us history in deep detail. So many things in me says that no she has not matured. Ruth is always part of a pair, whether tied to the side of Lucille or Sylvie, someone is always there guiding her through decisions, life… Because of her relationships leaving he attached to the hip of other characters, I personally don’t think she is adequately matured to say that she has come of age. Additionally, her constant aversion to showing emotion and depth leads me to believe that she cannot be out in the real world or face the trials and challenges of tragedy in a healthy way.

However, perhaps she has come of age, life comes and goes as fast as water freezes and thaws. The perception of maturing is too fast to realize. Just as fast as the lake freezes, past tragedy is unreachable. Just as fast as the house burns down her family’s history is gone. Just as fast as Sylvie and Ruth cross the bridge, conventionality has ceased to define them. As soon as they do cross that bridge, they have stepped into their ideal life, they have left behind the past, and truly become new people. Despite the ways in which Sylvie is dependent on those around her and lacks personality and emotion, she challenges that with finding herself in transience. In finding her ideal life, she has fulfilled a lot of steps leading to maturity.

What I am saying is that this story is hard to categorize. Ruth’s world has been flipped upside down both my her own doing and the tragedies that follow her, but by leaving them behind she has shown a newfound maturity that would make this a COA novel despite the lapses in traditionally recognized maturity. 

What is the "bell jar"?

“Wherever I sat—on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok—I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.” This small excerpt from The Bell Jar is undoubtedly a pivotal and important statement made by Esther. It puts Esther’s thoughts into a light that the reader can understand. She describes her situation as endless, it will exist with her no mater where she goes. She is trapped inside of her own madness with no external stimulation – nothing can be of amelioration… This notion of the “bell jar” is a metaphorical way of representing the madness that separates her from those she loves, those who love her, or even just people in general. This is an interesting paradox in contrast with the beginning of the book when she was merely the observer looking in on other people. Back to the point, the bell jar symbolizes something deeper than a sturdy division. It suggests that her feeling of madness descends on her without her own control, as if an implied scientist is doing it. Because of this enclosure, she comes to suicidal urges that stem from a deep rooted isolation.

“To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream.” This quote serves to draw some conclusion between some of the experiences that Esther has encountered. While her mother insists that her condition should be treated as if it was merely a bad dream that she can wake up from, she feels as if she cannot awake from the dream. Esther likens a person that suffers from a mental illness to to the jarred fetuses she saw with Buddy. This is an important illustration that portrays her morbid connection of being trapped and the terror of madness.

For me the beginning of the book seemed promising, full of growth. However, the book took a weird turn, Esther made immense progression towards coming of age right at the very beginning but after her fall almost reverted back into the life she once lived. There is no doubt that the experiences that she had whether through people, moving to NY, or her internal thoughts gave her a newfound maturity from the initial Esther that we saw, however, her situation is hard to pinpoint. He thoughts about the Bell jar indicated that she was hyper-aware of who she was and what was going on with her mental health, which personally I think is a big step towards being of age.