Comparison: Narrators in The Catcher in the Rye, The Bell Jar

The Catcher in the Rye had a narrator unlike the ones we find in most literature. What is most surprising about Holden Caulfield is that he tells us what is going on around him, along with some commentary. Despite his heavily opinionated comments to us, we somehow trust Holden as a narrator. As we discussed in class, he is an almost seducing narrator because of his world weariness and the way that he assures us that he knows the truth, but also assumes we know what he means. These factors add up to make us wholeheartedly trust Holden without a second thought.

When I first started reading the Bell Jar, I was startled again. The narrator starts by contemplating electrocution. That was not what I was expecting. Esther Greenwood is a very different narrator from Holden, but is also divergent from the norm. She is also prone to digression, but she is much more blunt and says what is on her mind more freely. Esther is more willing to jump around in time, following her thoughts instead of her actions in chronological order. However, we are still very trusting of Esther as a narrator because of her bluntness. We don't question her honesty because her tone and language suggest that we can expect accuracy from her.

One interesting similarity between Holden and Esther is that both narrators are speaking from the future. They are ahead of the time they are telling us about, recalling memories to tell the story. It makes the trust of the narrator precarious, but does not topple it altogether, because the story they are telling is an important part of each narrator's life, so they should remember it well. Additionally, each narrator is on a downward spiral in the section of their life that we are exposed to. They are both heading toward or at a rock bottom point from which they will have to recover. I am curious to see how Esther's fall manifests itself and if we will see the recovery.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Peer View

Never throughout the book does Stephen seem to fit in with his peers. He is always a little apart, usually brooding to himself about something that makes him feel superior to them. But he did not always feel superior to his peers. At the beginning of the book, he felt apart form his peers, but not superior. Things they did confused him, they made fun of him, and he often felt as if they were socially superior to him. However, by the end of Chapter 1, he starts to feel like he might fit in with his classmates when they lift him up for getting justice for his unfair punishment. But evemn then, we see his apart from the group as they play cricket and he stands on a hill brooding, which sets a precedent for the following chapters.

In Chapter 2, Stephen doesn't really interact with his peers much at all. He has a few interactions with Heron and his friends, but he seems distant even in those. As we discussed in class, the hot word of Chapter 2 is "brooding." Stephen seems to spend the entire chapter brooding about something or another.

In Chapter 3, we start to see Stephen's feeling of superiority. In this section, he sees himself as intellectually higher than his peers. He acknowledges his place as the top in the class and relishes that feeling. when he contemplates his soul, he thinks of his sinfulness as skipping the level priests and challenging God himself. "A certain pride, a certain awe, withheld him from offering to God even one prayer at night, though he knew it was in God’s power to take away his life while he slept and hurl his soul hellward ere he could beg for mercy." Stephen uses similar words as in Paradise Lost when Satan is "hurld headlong flaming" out of Heaven.

In Chapter 4, Stephen's superiority takes the form of religiosity. He seems to separate himself from his peers in order to figure out how to comprehend and accept God's love, a task which he is ultimately unsuccessful at.

In Chapter 5, there is a character change in Stephen. He begins to spend time with peers in friends and have good discussions with them. In the end, however, he still sacrifices friendship for his artistic vision.

Stephen's lack of consistent and quality relationships with his peers is reflective of his individualist nature and of the fact that he cannot wrap his mind around the concept of love.