Esther and Holden’s Thoughts on Protection of Innocence, Mental Illness and Death Holden is the boy that just flunked out of his 4th or 5th school and hates everything. On the other hand, Ester is a college girl has everything that a girl her age would have ever wanted; the opportunity to spend a month in NYC editing a national magazine. One might ask what in the world possibly be the same about them? The main characters in the novels The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger be similar than thought possible. Both Ester from the Bell Jar and Holden from The Catcher in the Rye face many trials that helps them to develop their own views on protection of innocence, mental illness and death which results in them
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When Esther goes to her father’s grave for the first time ever, she says. “Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one 's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace” (Plath, ???). For most people death is a scary thing that is dreaded in the future, but for Esther, she can hardly wait. Esther never mentions leaving the world behind, but rather mentions the peacefulness of the graveyard. For Holden on the other hand, wants to commit suicide but doesn’t when he thinks about his family. Holden wanted to jump out a window but finally doesn’t because his mother is still mourning the loss of his brother Allie, he doesn’t want Phoebe to be sad or miss him, and doesn’t want people to look at his death body on the ground. Both Esther and Holden think death would be a perfect solution to their problems as nothing bad could happen to them in death. The difference is that Holden remembers his family and for their sake doesn’t commit suicide whereas Esther thinks only of her miserable situation and tries over and over to kill
When Esther goes to her father’s grave for the first time ever, she says. “Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one 's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace” (Plath, ???). For most people death is a scary thing that is dreaded in the future, but for Esther, she can hardly wait. Esther never mentions leaving the world behind, but rather mentions the peacefulness of the graveyard. For Holden on the other hand, wants to commit suicide but doesn’t when he thinks about his family. Holden wanted to jump out a window but finally doesn’t because his mother is still mourning the loss of his brother Allie, he doesn’t want Phoebe to be sad or miss him, and doesn’t want people to look at his death body on the ground. Both Esther and Holden think death would be a perfect solution to their problems as nothing bad could happen to them in death. The difference is that Holden remembers his family and for their sake doesn’t commit suicide whereas Esther thinks only of her miserable situation and tries over and over to kill