After reading Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar, pages 1-50 (Ch. 1-4), answer one of the following questions, analyzing at least one quotation from the novel to support your response to each question. Analyze the quotation or quotations you select to support your argument.
Your response will be at least 250 words and take the shape of the “sandwich paragraph”
Answer ONE of the following questions:
Some readers see the idea of a bell jar as a clarifying lens in Sylvia Plath’s novel, depicting the world accurately. Others see it as a distorting one, depicting the world unrealistically. Is it clarifying, distorting, or both? Analyze at least one quotation from the novel to support your point.
An early reader of The Bell Jar felt that Plath only referred to the Rosenberg Trial to tell readers when the story took place. Why do you think Plath began the novel in this way and what does doing so accomplish?
While some might object to including women’s accessories in a novel, such as purses and patent leather shoes, calling them frivolous, I think that Plath’s inclusion of them accomplishes ______________. Analyze one quotation to support your point, addressing the quotation’s relationship to the story as a whole.
Plath’s New York is filled with technology and transportation, from the electric chair to taxi cabs. What is one moment in which her depiction combines humanity and machinery and how does it do so? Analyze a quotation to support your point.
What role does humor have in the novel thus far? Analyze at least one quotation and address what it teaches us that we did not expect.
Remember to cite all sources you consult and add a list of works cited that includes the edition of the novel that you quote from. You must use your own words, cite, and quote appropriately. If you are using an e-book, you can cite chapters rather than page numbers in parentheses.
Please let me know if you have any questions!
