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Allusions
Key Examples in The Bell Jar
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Physics:
Throughout the novel, Esther reflects upon past events in her life, particularly during her time at college, in flashbacks. In one flashback, she recalls her first experience learning about physics in college:
The day I went into physics class it was death. A short dark man with a high, lisping voice, named Mr. Manzi, stood in front of the class in a tight blue suit holding a little wooden ball. He put the ball on a steep grooved slide and let it run down to the bottom. Then he started talking about let a equal acceleration and let t equal time and suddenly he was scribbling letters and numbers and equals signs all over the blackboard and my mind went dead. I took the physics book back to my dormitory.
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Medical Specimens:
In a flashback, Esther reflects upon a past incident in which she encountered various medical specimens including deceased infants with birth defects:
Unlock with LitCharts A+[One] Friday I cut all my classes and came down for a long weekend and he gave me the works [...] Buddy took me out into a hall where they had some big glass bottles full of babies that had died before they were born. The baby in the first bottle had a large white head bent over a tiny curled-up body the size of a frog. The baby in the next bottle was bigger and the baby next to that one was bigger still and the baby in the last bottle was the size of a normal baby [...]
Related Themes:
