I took me a while to come up with what I want to write in this blog which is weird because I usually know what to write, not this one and I realize that it is because of the topic. It is hard to write about race because some things, that had happened back when The Bell Jar was written, are still happening today. Some things may have changed but some remains the same. The second wave ladies thought wanted equal rights for white females while ignoring the rights of the black females. In a way, I would say they are in their own jar where they only focus on themselves and forget about the other races.

In The Bell Jar, race does not play a major role, except for a few mentions from Esther. She made a reference about the Peruvian being “ugly as the Aztecs” to describe how she was really feeling about herself. It seems that whenever she wants to describe herself that does not reflect something beautiful she would use another race like an Indian or the Chinese man. In chapter fourteen, Esther referred to one of the workers at the asylum as a “negro” like that was his name and he did not have a name. This brings us back to slavery when blacks were not even considered as a person and 3 of them would make one person. However the book completely ignores the issue of race.

I would say that Esther is aware of her privileged racial status because of her attacked on the African American worker. She feels she lost that status and to regain it she has to attack someone who she feels is beneath her. She kicked the worker with his back turn.  All through the book, Esther does not fit in what her role female and her “privileged status”.  She does not conformed to society expectations while afraid of what the world thinks of her, but she knows her place in society.