Any topic (writer’s choice)

After reading Sylvia Plaths 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.

Click “create thread” to post your response on our Blackboard Discussion Board. Your response will be at least 250 words and take the shape of the “sandwich paragraph” from Understanding Rhetoric. Postings will be graded using the discussion posting rubric. You are also required to respond to at least one of your classmates postings within 48 hours of the deadline.

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.

1.Some readers see the idea of a bell jar as a clarifying lens in Sylvia Plaths 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.
2.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?
3.While some might object to including womens accessories in a novel, such as purses and patent leather shoes, calling them frivolous, I think that Plaths inclusion of them accomplishes ______________. Analyze one quotation to support your point, addressing the quotations relationship to the story as a whole.
4.Plaths 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.
5.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.