Adolescence in the Bell Jar and Catcher in the Rye Essay -- Bell Jar, C

Adolescence in the Bell Jar and Catcher in the RyeAdolescence is the period between puberty and adulthood. Every teen experience this moment in life differently some sail throughhappily to carry on with a peaceful life where as others are lessfortunate and find that this moment is much more harder and stressfulthen they thought. Esther Greenwood and Holden Caulfield are one ofthe less fortunate and have grownup experiences through their adolescent.Salinger and Plath present this in their novels Catcher in the Rye andThe Bell Jar. Both novelists use up first person narrative giving us asreaders a more personal description about their story, involving usmore into their lives and letting us travel with them on their pathwaythrough adolescent. The tone, dictation and the use of grammar areconsistently those of an adolescent person and express distinctivecommentary on how they feel and what they observe everyday. Salinger and Plath present the different elements of adolescence thatteena gers experience such as depression, grief, pressure, sexualityetc through their characters Holden and Esther.Throughout adolescence teenagers experience a variety of pressuresfrom their family, friends and even the society. Holden and Estherboth come from adequate families who brought them up well althoughthis can also stringent living up to their expectations. Esther lives up todifferent expectations than Holden. Esthers background was lesspromising than others, her mother could not provide her with a goodeducation it was batch the Esther to work really hard at studying togain scholarships she places huge pressure on herself to achieve thesegoals that she doesnt know anything else I had been inadequate a... ...and doesnt bother tohelp him. This mirrors with Esthers feeling, that people are notresponding to her properly even her own mother who doesnt believethat the depression is a straight illness but just a passing perversity orrebellion. Even her own Doctor fails to help he r by showing that hewasnt really listening to what Esther had to say about her illness byrepeating a question to Esther. Throughout the novel Esther is verydirect about her depression I havent slept for 14 days yet no onechooses to listen to hear but when she tells them I feel better, I tiret want to go to the doctors her mum suddenly listens replying Iknew my baby wasnt like that Plath shows that people dont want tohear anything demoralize or morbid unless it directly involves thembut if it doesnt they dont want to know they only listen to whatthey want to hear.