Notice: All future posts are for the Coming of Age Novel

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What Even Was Up With That Firefly? Duality in “Gangsters”

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Note: I have the hardback version, so my page numbers are likely different from yours. Also, disclaimer, I wrote this before I finished the book.  Near the end of the chapter “Gangsters,” Benji is watching fireflies when he is shot with a BB gun. The wound from the BB gun takes precedence in the mind of the reader, but the fireflies are clearly an allegory for… something. Ben notes that the firefly “got its name from its fake time, people time, when in fact most of its business went on when people couldn’t see it,” a description which is pretty evocative of Benji’s internality and lack of action in the next chapter. (p 153) Ben continues on the matter of fireflies, saying that “both parts were true, the bright and the dark,” seemingly giving closure to his previous discussion of “Other Families.” (p 153) Similarly, earlier in the chapter, Ben describes the betrayal of having another life, and how each family cannot be sure whether they, or their counterparts, are the Other Family, ...
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Here lies Sarah [---], whom death took from me too soon

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Sarah is extremely separated from the family at first, though, and this very much remains the case: they don’t even know her last name, and they seemingly don’t know her first name either before Coalhouse mentions it—the boy, who always notices more, “realized he meant the woman in the attic” (p155). Her rejection of Coalhouse coming to see her is the most that she says to the family, over months and months. Even after she grows closer to them, she doesn’t feel like she can tell any of them about her plan to petition the Vice President on behalf of Coalhouse. Even outside of the family, she is noted to have no connections to the Black community downtown, and to be a “transient element” who came here from out of town. This shows Sarah’s continual isolation, and the lack of knowledge on part of the writer is similar to how Coalhouse is treated with uncertainty.  Coalhouse’s courtship of her is sweet—he is originally what prompts her to speak, he visits her and brings gifts to both he...
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The Importance of Esther and Buddy’s final meeting in The Bell Jar

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  One of my favorite scenes in The Bell Jar , by Sylvia Plath, is when Buddy and Esther meet again, once Esther is in remission from her crushing, reality-distorting depressive breakdown. Prior to Esther’s ultimate test of readiness to return to society, it probes the extent of her recovery and character development. Esther has sorted out her feelings for Buddy, feeling happy to only feel a sort of “amiable boredom” (p238) towards him. She does not need him in any way, but she doesn’t hate him either. She has moved on—this is an active improvement in their relationship before their breakdown, when he brought up many conflicting emotions in her, by virtue of her feeling betrayed by him but unable to properly break up with him. This demonstrates that her healing from her illness has actually extended to bettering her life in broader ways, with Dr Nolan helping her feel more comfortable with her own sexuality by getting her access to birth control.    The prior gender ro...
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