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Exploring the Surrealist Elements of The Bell Jar

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  Surrealism in The Bell Jar by Linden Peters           When I was reading Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, it's safe to say I sometimes felt confused. I wasn't sure if it was something in text or mid-February brain fog, but some passages felt hypnotic and unreal. After further analysis, I realized that implementing surrealist elements was likely an intentional decision made to put the reader closer to Esther's mental state. Merriam webster defines surrealism as "the principles, ideals, or practice of producing fantastic or incongruous imagery or effects in art, literature, film, or theater by means of unnatural or irrational juxtapositions and combinations". In the case of The Bell Jar,  these techniques are often used to show alienation with the world and make the reader understand how mental disorder affects reasoning.            Chapter 9 is the perfect example of this trippy style, where one scene fades into another ...
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A Dive Into Holden's Subconscious

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In Defense of Holden Caufield Linden Peters           In  The Catcher in the Rye, the narrator is polarizing among readers. It is easy to see that Holden Caufield has many complaints about the world. Many of these complaints seem surface-level, petty, and overly harsh, which may lead us to question the narrator's judgement. However, these are just the judgements he is comfortable sharing. The real problem lies far deeper, etched into his subconscious through traumatic events.            We can use the case study of page 13 where he says: "One of the big reasons I left Elkton Hills was because I was surrounded by phonies. That's all . They were coming through the goddamn window. For instance, they had this headmaster Mr. Haas, that was the phoniest bastard I never met in my life. Ten times worse than old Thurmer. On Sundays, for instance, old Haas went around shaking hands with everybody's parents when they drove up to...
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