Where in the world is Esther Greenwood?

Where in the world is Esther Greenwood? When i pose this question I mean not physically but mentally. Here thoughts are all over the place throughout the book. Its interesting how she reacts to the way people perceive her when they know that she tried to kill herself. She finds it peculiar and is almost angry taht people think shes crazy that she tried to commit suicide. This would only come from an author who later kills herself (which makes sense that she doesnt think that thought of suicide is pedestrian). This also brings me much interest in how the author makes it sound so passionate and profound of Esther to share her feelings in poem, while the authoer, herself, is too depicting her feelings in her writing. I was very intrested to see if Esthers feelings were normal of people who try to kill themselves and wonder if the author had these same feelings allowing her to write about them so vividly.

Esther and The City

Esther seems to feel like she is not in control of her life. She seems very successful as she has went from having nothing to living in new york city working in the fashion business and partying with celebrities. Still, she feels the city moves her rather than her moving in the city. 

Right away it is clear that she has some sort of deep emotional problem. She makes many references death, or other dark things. She uses light alot, not to describe herself, but others who she envies Doreen. When she is watching Doreen in the apartment with Lenny, whom has a bright WHITE smile, she sees Doreen as having light hair and a white dress almost making her appear silver. She follows this with how it is so uncomfortable and basically explains that she is jealous of Doreen and Lenny. She also describes her mirror as much too silvery. This is odd because previously she described things to be silver that she wanted. how is it too silvery? Is this actually symbolizing and foreshadowing an inner conflict of self hatred?

Frank:Wes::Ross:Monica

I also find the rivalry between Frank and Wes reminds me of Ross and Monica

Ross was the Favorite and Monica gets very jealous and tries to make Ross look bad. Like in one episode, Monica invites her parents over to her apartment. She wants her and Chandler to look good so she tells her parents about Ross doing drugs in collage, which they original thought was Chandler did, not Ross. Just as it seems that Wes was partially convicting his brother out of his jealousy toward his brother from the past. In Another episode Ross tells his parents he divorced his wife who is a lesbian and now pregnant with his baby rather than saying anything to ross she turns to Monica and says "You knew about this!?" This is like How rather than the grandfather being mad at Frank for molesting and possibly murdering, he is mad at Wes for arresting Frank.

I find it very intriguing that Watson constantly juxtaposes David's yearn for maturity with his lack of maturity throughout the novel. David constantly says he wants to know what is goign on when his parents are arguing in the kitchen over Uncle Frank. He knows he should be mature and stay upstairs but he instead goes downstairs. He doesn't go down to console his parents, nor to find out what is going on, but instead to get a piece of chocolate cake. Another instance of this is when after David finishes telling the reader how he hoped his dad would tell him what was going he gets in to bed and cries. One would find tears in a situation like this to be a usual reaction, but he was not crying for his uncle, the loss of his housekeeper, or the pain and stress his dad was enduring, but for the fact that now he would probably never get to see Nutty, the horse, ever again. 

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The fact that Wesley even accused his brother of rape and murder made me wonder what I would do in a similar situation. I don't think i could ever convict a family member no matter the circumstances. I wondered if their had been any instances of this in the past. I found that in 1908, in Brooklyn, a man arrests both his brothers for robbery. 

Montana 1948 post 1

Being from Berg County NJ, i assumed a story taking place in Montana in 1948 would be bland filled with simpletons who lead boring lives. When david described his father as "a man who tried to turn tow ways at once- toward my grandfather who wanted his son to continue the hayden rule of Mercer County and toward my mother, who wanted her husband to be merely himself not a Hayden" (21) I realized that their was way more to these characters and this plot. 

Wes Hayden's father was the sheriff of Bentrock for quite some time. He was a power-hungry man. When Wes became sheriff he did not show these same qualities as his father. Wes never showed off his badge, always keeping it in his pocket. He also did not carry around a fancy gun. This is where the book first portrays a theme that is obvious throughout the novel (well at least up to where I've read). This theme is of course Family Pride. Also, the fact that he is a lawyer and this is what he does defeats ones expectations of a typical Western lawyer. 

The author does a great job colorfully depicting the characters as well as the land. Growing up in North Dakota, Watson really good knowledge of the North Dakota - Montana area. That makes it interesting that he chose Bentrock to stand right on the boundry of North Dakota and Montana