Thoughts Of Jessy

         While reading Alison Bechdel's graphic novel Fun Home, Bruce Bechdel emerges as a deeply flawed yet interesting antihero. As we heard during class, an antihero is a protagonist who lacks traditional heroic qualities like morality, courage, or selflessness, yet still commands the reader's interest. Bruce is a man full of contradictions–a devoted intellectual and a detached, secretive individual. He hides his homosexuality while maintaining a rigid, often oppressive household, shaping Alison's view of him both as a tragic and puzzling figure. Despite many of his faults, Alison still doesn't entirely disparage him, instead revealing him as a deeply complex character who struggles, though he is harmful to those around him.      Although Bruce often aligns with those of a traditional antagonist, Alison doesn’t resent him in her story about him. Alison’s narration presents him in a more nuanced light. Even when he engages in affairs with young...

    In Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, the metaphor of the bell jar really illustrates Esther's struggle to break free from both societal expectations and her internal struggles. The bell jar represents an invisible barrier a suffocating enclosure that separates Esther from the world, magnifying her sense of isolation and entrapment. She feels restrained by the rigid roles imposed upon her as young woman in the 1950s-the pressure to become a perfect woman. We noticed this when she is having a conversation with Jay Cee as she questions Esther about her career plans and pushes her to learn languages and hone her skills, it highlights the relentless pressure Esther feels to "be someone" in a way that others will approve of (Plath Chapter 4). This moment intensifies Esther's sense of being observed and judged, as if she is trapped under the glass of the bell jar, with Jay Cee and society peering in, assessing whether she measures up. .As Esther enters the mental ho...