What if Holden and Esther met each other?
While there is no shortage of differences between The Catcher in the Rye and The Bell Jar, I couldn't help but notice that Holden and Esther shared several similarities. Both characters struggled with their inner thoughts and grew increasingly uncertain about their future while navigating through New York on their own. Given that the two stories were set in somewhat close time periods, I wondered if Esther and Holden would've been friends if they had crossed paths.
When talking about Holden's relationships with others, it's critical to mention how judgmental he is. Holden deeply resents superficiality, or "phoniness." He admires children because they have yet to lose their innocence and remain untouched by the adult world. Would Holden consider Esther phony? Surely, he would be somewhat bothered by Esther's obedience within school and her academic success. Because Holden is immediately turned off by the idea of school in general, I doubt he'd see any similarities between Esther and himself at first glance.
Unlike Holden, Esther doesn't blame others/society, but rather herself for her unhappiness. Her concern for her inability to enjoy her work leads her to worry about her future. Although Esther frequently fantasizes about starting a family and living a domestic life with the men she meets, I don't think Esther would consider Holden as a potential husband (age gap aside) based on his immature attitude.
Even if they did meet, I don't think Esther and Holden would realize how similar they are. From the outside, Esther appears to be a studious aspiring poet, and Holden an angsty teenage boy. Neither of them would recognize that the other shares similar concerns about their directions in life and hates societal expectations.
Ultimately, Esther and Holden are trapped so deep in their own worlds that I don't think they'd be able to become any closer than acquaintances. In both cases, the protagonists become progressively more self-destructive, pushing away their family and friends, and being wary of efforts made by others to help. In Holden's case, I think his cynical worldview and ignorant mindset acts as a barrier that prevents him from becoming true friends with anyone. Esther, on the other hand, seems too incapacitated by her paranoia and declining mental health to engage in healthy social interactions.
This is such an interesting concept and I definitely agree in that Esther and Holden hold some striking similarities. I actually think the two would really dislike each other. For one, as you mentioned, Holden really hates phoniness and adhering to societal expectations and that was essentially the "bulk" of Esther's character, especially in the beginning of the novel. However, I still think we see some similarity here when Esther begins to realize or think about what she really wants to do or why she is going for all these scholarships. Additionally, I think they would just really dislike each other because of their general personalities or attitudes. Esther obviously has a strong dislike for the sexual double standard and I feel that Holden actually really holds this belief and displays some strong misogyny or disrespect for women.
ReplyDeleteI really like this concept and the line "Even if they did meet, I don't think Esther and Holden would realize how similar they are." strikes me as the perfect summary of how their meeting would go. I also found myself comparing the two characters while I was reading and the way they think is often similar. One sort of minor thing I noticed is that both of them lie with relative ease and there is often a disconnect between what they are thinking and what they end up saying (Esther to a generally smaller degree). I think you really struck the nail on the head with this!
ReplyDeleteI never thought of this scenario before, it's really interesting to think about. Overall, I would agree with what you said about the two characters and I think they wouldn't understand each other at all. I would go even further to say that they would probably walk away from one another after maybe 5 minutes of talking to each other. They are just too absorbed in their own worlds and wouldn't have any reason to interact with each other after their initial encounter.
ReplyDeleteI think this is really interesting to think about. I agree that Holden would probably dislike Esther for how hard she works in school, but if they met each other at a different moment, perhaps they would. For example, if Holden had been on the train when Esther had drawn "war paint" on her face using blood, I feel like he would've been intrigued. But because Esther's so detached from her surroundings, I doubt she would even notice Holden. Also, Bildungro-May-nia would be such a good blog name!
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting and fun to read about! I hadn’t thought about this concept before, and I completely agree. All of the similarities that you pointed out are really clear, and I found the part where you mentioned how they wouldn’t realize how similar they actually are so interesting. I too feel that Holden would be very judgmental of Esther and that they wouldn’t be able to bond very much over some of their similarities because of the other fundamental differences in their characters and behaviors. Even though they are similar in many ways, smaller aspects of their characters, like the interesting point on Esther vs. Holden in school or growing up in more wealth with a permanent "safety net" vs. poverty, would probably keep them apart and would make it difficult for Holden to empathize with Esther and see her points. I think that Esther would also have a bit of trouble seeing some of Holden’s points as well (maybe because of the differences in traditional gender roles/what is expected of both of them at the time?).
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your points and it was really great to think about this concept!
I agree! They wouldn't notice how similar they are but I think they'd probably benefit from each other's influence. On one hand, Holden might think Esther is phony at first because she seems driven to do things the acceptable way but eventually he might come to realize that Esther also has a lot of thoughts about phoniness, they're just more subtle. I also think they'd bond over their love for writing.
ReplyDeleteIn the normal, 3D school version of this course, there's a final project that I really love to assign: the two options are to rewrite a scene from one of the novels from another character's perspective, or to orchestrate a fictional meeting between two of the characters. Not surprisingly, over the years, a number of students have pursued exactly this idea--to imagine a meeting between Holden and Esther. There's a lot of material to work with: she's in New York the summer when he would be close to her age, and it's easy to imagine them meeting (in, say, a bar) and both giving each other false names--Elly Higginbottom and Jim Steele. And for all the reasons you list here, there are plenty of areas where they would relate, or at least have something to say to each other. Now I really wish we had time to do this project this year! Your group would do some good things with it, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and I actually found myself making comparisons to the two characters as I was reading The Bell Jar. Although I thought about their similarities, I've never thought about if they met in real life so this post got me thinking. I can definitely see Holden not liking Esther because (especially if he met her at the beginning) she tries to follow what other people her age are doing.
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting idea! I definitely recognized several similarities between Holden and Esther but never wondered how they might interact with one another. I think one of their main similarities is the mental health issues they struggle with, but these problems are so internalized that other characters who interact with them aren't aware of this side of them at all. In this regard, Holden and Esther would probably just look at each other as "normal" people who can't relate to their problems, and they wouldn't really bond unless they overcame their initial impressions of each other.
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