Similarities Between The Bell Jar And Catcher In The Rye

Writer H.P. Lovecraft once said, “Adulthood is hell” (BrainyQuotes.com), but many authors focus their work on the hellish transition into adulthood. This is a difficult process is explored in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger. Both stories illustrate the journey of a privileged teen growing up in 1950s America. Despite their privilege, Ester and Holden have a difficult time growing up and entering adulthood. Both must endure the loss of a loved one, educational failures, and the inability to fit into the mold society expected of them. The transition from adolescence to adulthood can be a very difficult time for some, especially when faced with external pressure and internal difficulties. Through the examination

Ester lost her father at a young age, which is a factor in her depression. Ester says, “ I felt happier than I had been since I was nine and running along the hot white beaches with my father the summer before he died” (Plath 70). This memory indicates that her father truly made Ester happy, and she was never as happy as she was with him. Ester did not properly mourn her father, and decade later, she attempted to commit suicide. Evidently, she wishes she had a father figure to help her grow. She states that, “I had a great yearning, lately, to pay my father back for all the years of neglect, and start tending his grave. I had always been my father's favorite, and it seemed fitting I should take on a mourning my mother had never bothered with” (Plath 123). Furthermore, Ester is not close to her mother, leaving her without a parental figure. The years of neglecting the trauma of her father's death also plays a role in her self destruction as she only suppressed her feelings, rather than dealing with them. Similarly, Holden experiences the loss of his younger brother Allie. As a result of their loss, Holden places Allie on pedestal. Allie becomes the ideal by which Holden judges everyone. This leads Holden to isolate himself from everyone around him calling them ‘phony’. Allie's death also results in Holden desire for children to retain their innocence. He tells his younger sister Phoebe

In Ester, being female, has different pressures than Holden in post World War II America. At the this time, women like Ester, were told they needed to get married and have a family, because pursuing a career was for men. Throughout her story, Ester is pulled between her dream of writing poetry and the dreams of having a husband and family. Esters previous boyfriend, Buddy Willard, tells her that once she is married and has a family, she would lose her desire to write poems. Ester says, “ I also remember Buddy Willard saying in sinister, knowing way the after I had children I would feel differently, I wouldn't want to write poems anymore. So I began to think maybe it was true that when you get married and had children it was like being brainwashed” (Plath 81). This confuses, Ester because she wants both a family at times and a career, to be a mother and a poet were not compatible. Due to the constant pressures in society, she is unable to distinguish between what she really wants to become and what is expected of her. Likewise, Holden spends most of his story feeling isolated from society. Men were raised to be aggressive, competitive and unemotional. Holden is not like this, which leads him to isolate himself from others in society. At Pencey Prep he has difficulties building relationships with people as he believes they were all ‘phonies’. He remembers, "It's full of