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A moment for Julias coming of age

  Honestly, I don’t mind Jason Taylor. But I think even Jason Taylor himself likes Julia more. She’s smart, argumentative, confrontational, wise, independent, empathetic, fun, and confident. She’s the quintessential older sister in my opinion, although I may be biased as an older sister myself. I felt myself focusing on her role in Jason Taylor’s coming of age and I really related to the in-class discussion on how their relationship changes over the course of the novel. In this blog post, I want to take a moment to write a more in-depth reflection on their relationship development and show that not only is their increasing closeness a sign of coming of age for Jason, but it is also a sort of coming of age for Julia.  Julia is always "awesome,” but when she supports Jason at the beginning of the novel, it's usually undercut by other actions that emphasize their “unequal” dynamic. For example, when she stands up for Jason in the beginning of the novel by saying that she also wen...
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Is she finally free?

  As I read Fun Home, I found myself thinking, what does Alison Bechdel feel about her father and her family in general? On the surface, the abundance of comments such a s “I grew to resent the way my father treated his furniture like children and his children like furniture” (14) or "He used his skillful artifice not to make things, but to make things appear to be what they were not" (16) makes it clear that she doesn’t like him personally—but he still means a lot to her, and his story is an important part of hers, or well, she wouldn’t center the book around her family and him so much.  Yet, she also feels like something was missing from her life because of him, which makes it seem like the biggest feeling she felt towards him was distance. She mentioned “his shame inhabited our house as pervasively and invisibly as the aromatic musk of aging mahogany” (20) to convey how much he tried to hide from her and the rest of the family. She also said, "He really was there all ...
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In the end we start thinking about the beginning

     One thing I found myself thinking about as I read The Bell Jar was, when did this all start? In the beginning, I was feeling the same confusion and disappointment. Ester was feeling her lack of enthusiasm and joy during her internship. It was obvious from the beginning that something had already gone really, really wrong. Ester didn’t know about chemical imbalances or any of the other “modern-day" scientific analyses of what causes shifts in mental health. Now, most readers can identify her depression as a pathological physical state of her body—something akin to POTS or Crohn's disease. Yet, there is a profound shift in her illness from the beginning to the end of the book that I don’t think can just be attributed to the momentum that poor physiology (especially mental illnesses, because those often make it extra hard to engage in behaviors that would help you get better) has.  It is certainly possible that there's no other reason for her descent into suicid...
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Does Holden have a character arc? What does that character arc say about loneliness and depression?

Some people like Holden, some people hate him, but everyone agrees that he's depressed. “I felt so lonesome, all of a sudden. I almost wished I was dead.” (26) “Boy, did I feel rotten. I felt so damn lonesome.” (26) “I got feeling so lonesome and rotten, I even felt like waking Ackley up.” (27) “It made me too sad and lonesome.” (28) “What made it worse, it was so quiet and lonesome out, even though it was Saturday night.” (44) - beginning of chapter 12 “It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed.” (44) “Anyway, it made me feel depressed and lousy again, and I damn near got my coat back and went back to the hotel, but it was too early, and I didn't feel much like being all alone.” (46) "’Have just one more drink,’ I told him. ‘Please. I'm lonesome as hell. No kidding.’” (80) “I was crying and all. I don't know why, but I was. I guess it was because I was feeling so damn depressed and lonesome.” (82)​ For some, this helps them understand the negative things he’s sa...
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