As you finish reading The Bell Jar, let’s share our thoughts on any of the following questions by adding a reply to this post in the comments:
What difference does it make to have a first-person retrospective narrator for this narrative?
Which relationship is most important for Esther to negotiate in the course of the story? How successful is she, and why does it matter?
Or, ask another question in the comments for you and your classmates to respond to.
In class on Thursday, we talked about information we would want to have to make more meaning of The Bell Jar. Certainly knowing a little bit about the Rosenbergs would put the opening scene into historical context, and would help readers make meaning of the opening in the novel overall.
For your post this week, choose some aspect of the novel that you could learn more about through research, and write an annotation to the text about your topic. An annotation is a note that adds outside information to a text. In our anthology, there were several short annotations that gave some information about people referred to in Quicksand, for example. Collectively, we will provide annotations to the entire text. If someone has already chosen what you want to work on, you should only continue working on that topic if you have something else to add. Otherwise, please choose a new topic.
Include the passage in which your topic appears–enough of it to make sense to someone who hasn’t read the novel, and a citation for that passage. Be sure to include the sources of your information as well. Choose the category Sylvia Plath, and any tags that you think are relevant. Aim for a 300-word post.
If you’re not sure what you would want to research, perhaps some of your classmates have suggestions. Please feel free to reply to this post with topic suggestions.
For commenting later this week, I’ll post a topic for us to have a conversation in the comments, rather than commenting on the annotations.
For this week, we’re starting to read Sylvia Plath’s novel, The Bell Jar. I’ve assigned Chapters 1-10. Please try to get through as much of that reading as you can. We’ll begin our discussion of the novel by examining the first few paragraphs very closely, so you should read with pencil in hand and mark up your text with as much information you can get from reading. Include definitions to words you needed to look up, observations you make, connections to other readings, or other aspects of the text you think are important. We’ll then continue our conversation beyond the first chapter as time permits.
I mentioned in my announcement post that you’ll write comments instead of posts this week. Write a comment–roughly 150-200 words–in which you consider one of the following issues related to The Bell Jar:
* Think about the style of narration. What kind of narrator does the novel have, and how does that shape what you know about the protagonist?
* What do you know about the setting? Remember, setting is time and place. How does the setting shape your understanding of the protagonist?
* We spoke about round and flat characters at the start of the semester. Identify a round or a flat character and consider what role he or she plays in the story.
* In what ways is the protagonist of The Bell Jar like Helga Crane in Quicksand? What does that comparison do for your understanding of the protagonist?
* In what ways is the protagonist of The Bell Jar like another character we encountered this semester. What does that comparison do for your understanding of the protagonist?
Then comment on one other comment, roughly 100-150 words.
For our final discussion on Quicksand, let’s think about Helga’s life after she leaves New York. Write a comment–roughly 150-200 words–in which you consider one of the following issues:
*what motivates Helga to leave New York?
*why does she leave the way she does?
*what’s different about her life in her new locale?
*do you think Helga will again repeat her pattern of enjoying a place, tiring of it, and then leaving it? Why or why not?
*what message do you think the novel conveys overall through its ending?
Then comment on one other comment, roughly 100-150 words.
For homework this week, I’m asking you to NOT WRITE A POST!
Instead, I’m asking that you write comments in reply to my post about Quicksand, and comments in reply to my post about The Bell Jar. These comments will serve as a conversation to help us wrap up our discussion of Quicksand, and to get us started with The Bell Jar.
In class on Thursday, we’ll split the time between the two novels. We’ll also talk briefly about two upcoming events:
*the Literature Roundtable, which is an event designed to bring together students and faculty to discuss a shared reading, Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel. It’s on Wednesday, April 9, at 11:30am in N119. Anyone who attends and blogs about it on our site will receive extra credit.
and
*the Literary Arts Festival, which is on Thursday, April 10, at 5:30pm, in the Midway Auditorium, 240 Jay Street (the entrance next to where you go for our class), featuring poet Cornelius Eady and his band, Rough Magic. As with the Literature Roundtable, anyone who attends and blogs about it on our site will receive extra credit.
in Denmark:
What made her go?
Why doesn’t she want to go back?
At the Circus:
For the midterm exam, you will be given a sheet of quotations from our readings this semester, and will have to
For example, if you found on the exam the following quotation:
“The joke is on you….My father was a gambler who deserted my mother, a white immigrant. It is even uncertain that they were married. As I said at first, I don’t belong here. I shall be leaving at once. This afternoon. Good-morning.”
What would help you identify it? What’s going on in the passage? How does it represent larger issues dealt with in the text?
In class, we will generate a successful answer as a guide to what you will need to do on the midterm.
For your homework, you will identify two passages from our readings that you think would be good for the midterm exam. One should come from the beginning of the class through Week 4, and the other should come from Intimate Apparel or Quicksand. In addition to the quotation, answer 1-4 for your passage. Be sure to put each quotation and answers in its own comment.
In the commenting portion of the homework, respond to two classmates’ quotations and answers, adding anything or making suggestions for how you would have answered differently.
I will use these comments as my guide as I finalize the midterm exam.
The reading assignment for this week is to finish reading Quicksand. How is that going? it would be great if everyone were finished with the novel when we meet on Thursday.
You are also working on Project #1, which is due–both parts–on Thursday by the start of class. If you have any questions or concerns about Project #1, please let me know by posting a comment in response to this post or to the post in which I wrote a sample manifesto. And be sure to read that sample! Remember that your manifesto should be written from the voice of either the narrator of the story or one of the characters–except perhaps a bolder version, one who is ready to make a passionate statement about the conditions in which women like those in our texts live.
As you’re reading Larsen’s Quicksand, think about what you want to discuss in class, especially which location of the remaining locations you want to focus on. Write a blog post about that location as the setting for Helga’s development as a character.
OR, think about which man in Helga’s life you’d like to discuss. Write a blog post about the relationship Helga has with that man, why it stands out to you, and how it meets or doesn’t meet your expectations.
OR, think about what Helga terms “the race question,” and how she attempts to rid it from or embrace it in her life. How were her different experiences in each setting fuel for the fire she feels about race?
OR, pose a different question about Quicksand and answer it.
And in case you thought that things would calm down after Project #1, our midterm exam is scheduled for March 27th! Coming soon on our course site: information about the format and scope of the exam, and sample questions.
Chapter 4:
375:
376:
377:
Chapter 5:
377:
378:
379:
Chapter 6:
379:
380:
381:
382:
383:
Chapter 7:
383:
384:
385:
386:
387:
See also Chapter 1 glossary recommendations
Chapter 2:
368:
369:
370:
371:
Chapter 3:
371:
372:
373:
374:
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