There are not many references to race in the novel, The Bell Jar. They certainly are not directly but rather indirectly. In the book, the characters and their races are not specified but based on descriptions, they are interpreted. Race and discrimination in the 1960s was one of those topics that created separation in society. At the time, it was at its peak so it would make sense that in novel where there were white characters that the issue of race would be indirectly mentioned. Race may not have been a central theme in the book but the separation of gender and class was. Women in general faced heavy scrutiny for wanting to step outside the stereotypical gender role of cooking, cleaning, and taking care of a family and most notable, remaining pure until marriage. By gender, both black and white women were forced to remain in these roles. Most women wanted to escape it through sexual means.

Esther was no different in the book. She was confined in the stereotypical gender role of women and wanting to break out of it made her face mental and physical instability. For Esther sexual experience truly divided the world as she said in chapter seven.”When I was nineteen, pureness was the great issue. Instead of the world being divided up into Catholics and Protestants or Republicans and Democrats or white men and black men or even men and women, I saw the world divided into people who had slept with somebody and people who hadn’t, and this seemed the only really significant difference between one person and another” (Plath82). Esther doesn’t view a separation on race but rather between women who have slept with someone and women who haven’t.Esther sets out to defy conventional expectations by losing her virginity with someone she does not expect to marry. But Esther has a certain freedom to have sex, Unknowingly its not the same for colored women. Rape and sexual aggression was something that took away that freedom. Audre Lorde acknowledges this in her writing, “Age, Race, Class and Sex”, as well. “Black women still refuse to recognize that we are also oppressed as women and that sexual hostility against black women is practiced”(Lorde119).

I feel that Race played an small but unique role in “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath. It allowed a perspective on how people of color and people of a white background had certain jobs, or were treated in this specific way during this specific time period. Especially during the Second Wave Feminist Movement  when more privileged white women tried to play off equality of all women, including of color. Although women of color had more problems other than equality as women, as well as being treated humans.

In “The Bell Jar” for example the main character Esther spends some time in the Psych Ward of her town hospital, where she encountered an African man. She did not treat him very kindly and was not even properly assigned a name in text. He was addressed as ‘negro’, Esther even physically abused him. For example “I drew my foot back and gave him a sharp, hard kick on the calf of the leg…. ‘That’s what you get’ ,I said, and stared him in the eye”(chp14 pg175). This showed how she saw him, he was a helper at the ward. Although to her, she was not pleased by him and his existence. Esther later on went to be transferred to a more “privileged asylum, due to her fame in the papers.

Another connection can be made with Audre Lorde “Age, Race, Class and Sex” to the “The Bell Jar”. Audre discusses further the difference between the two movements of the Feminist Movement and The African American  Moment that although both are to better society and fight for more equality. Most of women’s movement was white privileged ladies that did not suffer as much as a African American women had. Audre states “As white women ignore their built in privilege of whiteness and define women in terms of their own experience alone, then women of color become ‘other’, the outsider whose experience and tradition is too ‘alien’ to comprehend.”(pg.117line20). This showed how much of a gap in treatment and tactics that were being used during these movements of inequality. In conclusion, race was not an ignored difference it was actually advertised and it’s awareness apparent.

Race plays an important part in this book. It’s hidden within the texts but I feel like Esther uses racist comments to describe herself whenever she looks ugly. When Esther was going back to the hotel in New York after being at Larry’s apartment she was drunk and felt ugly and she confused herself with a Chinese women. She says, “Then my ears went funny and I noticed a big, smudgy-eyed Chinese women women staring idiotically into my face. It was only me of course. I was appalled to see how wrinkled and used up I looked” (Plath, 18). Another example of when she explained that she looked ugly was when she felt sick as an indian. “The face in the mirror looked like a sick indian” (Plath, 112). The last example that I have of when Esther uses racism to explain ugliness is when Doreen told her about the Peruvian, she said “They’re ugly as aztecs”. The Bell jar doesn’t ignore racism at all, it just camouflages it in between the text. I believe that Esther does this unconsciously, she’s being a racist without meaning to be one.

“Certainly there are very real differences between us of race, age and sex. But it is not those differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those differences, and to examine the distortions which result from our misnaming them and their effects upon human behavior and expectation” (Lorde, 115) I feel like this paragraph explains Esther because in my perspective, Esther is unaware of her racist acts. At least not the examples that I have provided. The reason why I didn’t use the “negro” example was because that was taken place in the 1950’s and racism wasn’t much of a disrespect for white people.

The treatment of race in the book The Bell Jar is addressed in certain ways but there aren’t many scenes that deal with racial issues. There is a part that she does specify how there’s an African American man that is helping in the Asylum, specifically calling him “The Negro” (Plath 179). This shows that every time there was a person of color around that’s what they would go by. This part of the text also reveals how people went about with race and the mistreatment that “Negros” had gotten from people back then. Esther does end up kicking this helper in the leg and told him “That’s what you get”; when he didn’t do anything wrong (Plath 182). This action from Esther does show that she is very well aware of her status as a white woman because even in the worst predicament for a woman to be in she still chose to mistreat the African American helper. This shows that women the 1980s were still racist even if they weren’t happy as being housewives which was the common issue that woman shard back then. In the book there isn’t many racial interactions but when there was a scene with one interaction is was something that was surprisingly weird from a readers perspective. Just to read the mistreatment to someone because of color is just wrong but back then it was normal for these people. In connection to the issues raised by the Combahee River Collection article it brings up a point that black females and black males shared in common. “We struggle together with Black men against racism, while we also struggle with Black men about sexism. This shows that this mistreatment wasn’t just targeted to a specific gender but to the community the African Americans.

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.

The role that race play in this text to me is that it really did not play a big part in this story. I only recall race playing a part and even then it was a small one. We had Esther in the private hospital where she encounter an African American staff member who she refers to as “the Negro.” During this scene we do not see any political correctness from Esther part. She describes the helper as “Negro” instead of “African American” or “Black” which is understandable due the time the story is told is from the 1950’s. This text does not ignore race it’s just that it’s not that big of concern in this story. Though the story we follow Esther and we see characters the way she see them and her life though her eyes. In the text she does exhibit her any awareness of her privileged racial status. She does this by her way of living we see that compare to the way most people would live she and the other girls in the home were spoiled. She is not that wealth compared to those in the home but to the outside world it would look like that with all the free stuff she received over time. During her time in the asylum she had encounter non-white people and there and we saw how she reacted to it. In her time at the asylum we see her privileged racial status. When it is time to eat Esther decides to rise from the table, passing round to the side where the nurse couldn’t see her below the waist, and behind the Negro who was at the time doing his job which is clearing the dirty plates and draw her foot back and gave him a sharp, hard kick on the calf of the leg. His response was naturally which was leaping away with a yelp and rolling his eyes at her. He told Esther “You shouldn’t of done that, you shouldn’t, you really shouldn’t.”( Pg. 96) but her response was that of someone who knew the difference in power “That’s what you get,”( Pg. 96) . That shows us that in her mind set she had to go through all that trouble of hiding from the nurse just to kick someone because she knew nothing would happen from it she is of a higher class than high therefore she is above him and acts like it. In the article “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” Lorde writes “Refusing to recognize difference make it impossible to see the different problems and pitfalls facing us as women”. If everyone does not look at other people’s perspective then we will forever be in an endless cycle that will keep going. Esther is many things but she is also someone like others during this time look down on people. Esther is not only white but also woman and for her to use her status to hurt someone doing their job is wrong. Though the story she had mostly keep her dislike to herself but this time she decide to get physical and that is just wrong.

Race is not the main focus of the novel but race isn’t ignored completely. Esther doesn’t disclose her racial status but how she describes everyone else does show that it is based on white/ Caucasian people. Male or female, everyone is described to have white features, as Esther states about Doreen’s “… cotton candy fluff hair round her head and blue eyes like transparent agate marbles…” (Plath, 4). A person of color cannot have what Doreen has. Other than that she describes Hilda as “… six feet tall, with huge, slanted green eyes and thick red lips and a vacant expression.” (Plath, 28). “…Mr. Willard’s face– the silver hair in its boyish crewcut, the clear blue eyes, the pink cheeks,…” (Plath, 87). These are only a few but everyone Easter talks about has these white features and skin color.

Esther explained everyone’s looks in a nice manner until a “Negro” (Plath, 180) came instead of a white male nurse. The way she describes him, it seems like he’s a kid because he’s goofing around with whatever he’s told to do. I believe she looks down at him because he is black and in 1950 it was still rare for an African American to actually work with white society. She kicks him on his leg and hurts him. It could be because she’s in an asylum and is being treated or it could be because he’s annoying her and calling her “Miss Mucky-Muck,” (Plath, 181) she doesn’t make it clear why she doesn’t like him.

In “Age, Race, Class, and Sex” there are all these topics that women faced back then. Lords is a forty nine year old black lesbian feminist who’s is talking about how the people do not fit into society roles are suppose to teach the ones that do fit. She talks about the differences of race, “Certainly there are real differences between us of race, age, and sex. But it is not those difference between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those differences…” (Lorde, 115). Maybe that’s what it was, Esther was so used to of seeing white and rich society around her that when she saw someone different, she didn’t take him as a human or as a part of their society. But rather as a slave, because he was working there with the nurse.

My interpretation of how I think Esther feels regarding African American’s is conflicted. My feelings regarding this matter go as follows: Esther is heavily sedated, and under the influence of psych medication, in which is distorting her rational mindset and has her acting irrationally. Secondly, there is know mention of people of color in this book, with the exception of this interaction with this black man in the asylum.

Now with that being said, I can translate her behavior as her not knowing how to interact with African American’s due to fact their presence is non-existing her daily routines of life, or I can see if from another perspective, and come to the conclusion this behavior is inherited and been instilled in her upbringing. She may have been taught that the black race does not deserve her respect, and that is why mistreated the man. Regardless, to the fact all he was trying to do was help her, all she saw was that he was a Negro.

The period these events take place where a dark time for black people even though it was the late 50’s. African American’s endured server and demoralizing practices of systematic racism.  The passage is so short in reference to her dealing with someone outside of her race, that it is somewhat premature to make an assumption on what she was actually thinking. Esther is dealing with so many of her demons that I believe at that time in her life anyone could have been subjected to unstable behavior from her. I would really have to read about her engaging with another African American to come to a valid assessment of how she feels about race.