"nobody understands me"
A lot of Esther’s narration and her interactions with other people reminded me of Holden, and I realized that the commonality was their impression that they are truly alone and unique in all of their thoughts and opinions. Each of these characters are very distrustful of others (Holden especially so of adults) and therefore both project a lot of assumptions onto others, even when they have very little evidence of them. I think this attitude contributes a lot to both characters’ deteriorating mental states, and builds as the novel goes on. The first instance I noticed of this was Esther saying, “I am an observer” to herself (Plath 55). This is a pretty neutral start, nothing too out of the ordinary to just be on the quiet and more observant side. But Esther being an observer extends a lot further than that, as she sees herself as completely separate from other people on some fundamental level – hence, of course, the bell jar. On Page...