Johnny Got His Gun 2

One of Joe’s recollections is working at the bakery. The bakery was located in Los Angeles, and Joe remembers working late nights there. Joe remembers working at the bakery because he used to walk eleven miles to work each night. Joe cannot do that anymore because he had his legs amputated. Jose is a man that Joe works with at the bakery. Jose came to California so that he could find a job at a studio. Originally, Jose worked in New York City as a chauffeur for a wealthy family. He left his last job because the daughter of the man he worked for fell in love with him. The workers at the bakery initially don’t believe him until a letter arrives from the daughter who fell in love with him. One of the reasons that Joe likes Jose is because Jose had the audacity to leave the wealthy family to find a new job. Most people might decide to marry the daughter to inherit the money.

Johnny Got His Gun 1

In the novel, the main character, Joe, just returned from war. He is in pretty bad shape, bandaged from head to toe, and he thinks he is deaf, unable to hear the sound of his own heartbeat. Joe keeps remembering certain events that occurred in the past. One of those is when he saw his father dead at his house, and the men carried him away. Both of Joe’s arms are amputated, and he has just woken up from being unconscious for some time. Joe compares this to drowning because he is struggling and can’t really do anything to relieve himself. The doctors are trying to cure him, but Joe is unable to help in anyway. Joe can’t move or see, being bandaged up, he has no arms, and he can’t hear. The only thing that Joe can really do is feel. Joe feels in a sense of distress, shock, and helplessness just as someone would feel if they were drowning.

The Bell Jar 10

Throughout the novel, Esther had always dreamt of sleeping with a man. Esther had always wanted to sleep with a man but did not want to worry about what could possible come with it such as pregnancy. Finally, the opportunity to have sex arose when she met Irwin. Irwin was a math professor at Harvard. After sleeping with Irwin, Esther was not satisfied. She complained of it hurting reprehensibly. Afterwards, Esther began to bleed a tremendous amount. She showed Joan how much she was bleeding, and Joan immediately sent her to the hospital. The doctors said that it was very unusual to have that much bleeding after her first sexual experience. In conclusion, Esther’s first sexual experience was nowhere near what she had dreamt of.

The Bell Jar 9

In chapter 15, for the first time in the novel, Esther refers to the bell jar by claiming that her life is like a bell jar. By saying this, she means that wherever she goes, she is constantly trapped by the bell jar. A bell jar is used to cover delicate objects, and in this scenario, it is meant to symbolize covering Esther. Even if you move a bell jar, the object inside of it is going to remain enclosed. It is the same way with Esther. The doctors keep moving her from hospital to hospital, but she is still is unable to let out her emotions. Later in the novel, in chapter 19, she refers to a bell jar again, but this time, it is on a more positive note. She says that she feels much better after the shock therapy and is able to lift the bell jar a bit. She is now able to let out her emotions some more and communicate with others more clearly.

The Bell Jar 8

Philomena Guinea suggests that Esther go to a new, different asylum. Guinea had gone to one when she was growing up and thought that Esther should give it a try. Esther and her mother agree, and Guinea flies to Boston to take Esther to the new hospital. Esther’s new doctor is Dr. Nolan, who also happens to be a woman. Esther gets daily injections of insulin and later gets a lobotomy. She becomes happier and moves into a sunnier room. Esther loves her new hospital and does not want to leave. If she had been forced to stay where she was, I think that she would have literally gone insane or gotten so depressed that she would have killed herself.

The Bell Jar 7

Throughout the novel, we have witnessed Esther’s mental sanity go from okay to worse. In chapter 13 and 14, Esther begins to seriously think suicide. The first attempt at suicide in these chapters was when she was at the beach with Jody, Mark, and Cal, and she tried to drown herself. Later, she took her sleeping pills from her mother’s lock box and took fifty of them, which is obviously a very unsafe amount. The next morning, she woke up in the hospital.
It really did not matter whether Esther was seeing Dr. Gordon, receiving shock therapy, or even seeing a different doctor. Esther has suicide on her mind and is very depressed. Esther has reached that all time low where she believes that killing herself is the only solution. Even if she did go to another institution, she would still want to kill herself because she believes that suicide is the only remedy to all of her problems.

The Bell Jar 6

We first meet Dr. Gordon in these two chapters. At first, I think that Esther is a bit anxious, but excited, about seeing Dr. Gordon. She hopes that he can bring her back to her normal self; however, when she first walks into his office, she sees a picture of him with his family. Esther now claimed that she did not like Dr. Gordon because he had an attractive family. Esther goes on to tell him how she has had trouble eating, sleeping, and reading. When she reads, the words jumble up after a short time, so it is difficult for her. After just two sessions with Esther, Dr. Gordon decided that Esther needed shock therapy, and her mother was to bring her to the hospital in Walton.
I think Dr. Gordon is helping Esther, because she clearly has some mental imbalances. The fact that she is considering slitting her wrists or drowning herself marks that Esther needs some kind of help; however, I do not know if Esther necessarily needed shock therapy. I do not know much about it, but I think Esther just needs someone to talk to and maybe some depression medication. I am not sure if shock therapy is right for her because after her sessions, she always feels dreadful and as if it the “end of the world.”