I was reading through the poem Daddy and these lines really stuck out to me:
But they pulled me out of the sack
And they stuck me together with glue
There is a lot more to say about this poem, but I would like to just focus on these lines. They seem to be a direct description of the events in The Bell Jar and therefore I will use this as a representation of her sentiment in the novel. The imagery of putting someone back together with glue has a lot of power aspects to it.
The first of these is the utter passivity of these lines. THEY pulled me out and THEY stuck me together with glue, ect. However, it goes beyond being passive and a bit bitter. There is no sense of them helping her or her being grateful. She seems to be resistant of the whole process. Additionally, glue is never perfect. I get the image of a person awkwardly put back together in a messy way, and she does not expect to work perfectly ever again. This is increased by the artificial nature of the glue. Glue is something you add to a broken object, not a natural part of something. It seems to be an unsightly and unfortunate addition to Esther, especially since the breaking was intentional.
However, maybe I am being too negative. Glue shows how things can be mended strongly and easily and allows her life to go on. This is something to be greatful of. How do you interpret this? Yup, easy comment prompt for a thursday night.
Stuck together with glue--especially involuntarily ("they" stuck "me")--certainly suggests a sketchy patch job rather than complete healing or restoration. How different this account of the recovery process is from the shockingly aggressive, empowered version in "Lady Lazarus," where the subject is "stuck back together" against her will but then turns the tables on the doctors, "eat[ing] men like air."
ReplyDeleteI agree that the imagery of being stuck together with glue infers a feeling of change. If something has to be glued back together, it was broken before, and will almost never being the same again. Although the glue can help piece together what was broken, it can never fully mend the fragments. Like you said, Neil, this can be related to Esther. Esther goes through life, breaking apart. Once she leaves the asylum, she has been mended, but is not the same as before. She has been pieced together, but still has her flaws as the bell jar still looms, suspended over her head.
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