Rachel is just a figure throughout her life; throughout the book. She never expresses any personality or unique traits that define her as an individual. In a way, she serves as a background character in her life. What I mean by that is the focus of the book is mainly dialogue and observations of the people she encounters.
A very important aspect that I feel is worth mentioning is Rachel's issue with falseness. From the very beginning of the book, she hates feeling obligated to feel and say "the right things" to everyone she encounters, yet she does it because she refuses to be any other way. For example, when she allowed the children time to draw for a short period before school let out and she examined James' picture. She was very proud and really did believe that he did a splendid job. But she felt that her praise towards him was completely diminished due to the fact that she expressed the same praise to another student that did not have as good of a picture as James. She can never say how she truly feels to her mother, Calla, or Willard and in that she hides herself from her self.
The Bell Jar so far is an interesting read. I can relate to Esther in a way with the direction her life is going. She knows what she wants to do yet she’s unsure as to how her life is going to initially work out. Other than that she is very confident in herself and does not allow her life to be dictated by her fears or restrictions. I find Doreen to be a peculiar character especially for Esther. But it seems that though they are complete opposites they complement one another. The one confusion that I have is whether Doreen is passing for white or not. Esther uses many adjectives relating to Black, such as “Negress”. There is also a small passage, when she and Doreen are at Lenny Shepherd’s apartment, that gives way to the same notion; “I noticed, in the routine way you notice the color of somebody’s eyes, that Doreen’s breast had popped out of her dress and were swinging out lightly like full brown melons...”(Plath 17).
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As I think I said in class, that is not supposed to mean that Doreen was black, merely that she was very tanned--further evidence of her Southernness (and her superficiality). As we will see, there are some rather overt racial references in the otherwise white world of The Bell Jar; the question is whether to attribute them to Esther the character or Plath the author?
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