Esther

I'm really excited to read The Bell Jar. From the few chapters I've read, I already like the novel. I'm intrigued and I really want to read ahead. Part of my excitement comes from the fact that we're finally reading a novel with a female main character. I think a book with a female narrator will be easier for me to relate to than one with a male narrator, like Portrait or Catcher.

Coming of age novels are something that people my age should be able to understand and relate to pretty easily, since we're going through the process of coming of age while we read the novel. I think it's easier to relate to the problems and thoughts of a narrator of the same gender, because they might have more experiences in common with your own. I identified with Stephen Dedalus and Holden Caulfield to some degree, but I'm hoping to have a deeper connection to Esther Greenwood.

I really did enjoy reading Catcher in the Rye, but I am very excited to see what The Bell Jar has to offer. Esther Greenwood's dissatisfaction with her life is very relatable for me. I'm happy with my life, but I often get the feeling that I could be doing something more. I feel like there are better, more meaningful things that I could be doing, but I just don't know what they are.

For all of our similarities, there are many places where I don't identify with Esther, and even find myself questioning her sanity. She presents a very different image to the world than what we, who are privy to her thoughts, see. I'm interested to see if these two selves, the one that she shows people and the one who she really is, will ever collide.