Is Joan Esther's mirror?
After reading Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, I struggled to find Joan's place in the book. What role does she play in Esther's life? Since her first appearance in chapter 5, Esther has described her with searing adjectives such as "tombstone teeth" and "pebble-colored eyes." She obviously has quite the disdain for her. However, also since chapter 5, Joan appears to have an oddly similar life as Esther. They both date Buddy and they end up in the same mental hospital; however, Joan seems to have a very different experience--according to Esther. For example, Joan likes Buddy's mom while Esther practically hated her. Joan has many friends at the mental hospital while Esther does not. Something else I noticed, though, was this quote in chapter 18: "Sometimes I wondered if I had made Joan up. Other times I wondered if she would continue to pop in at every crisis of my life to remind me of what I had been, and what I had been through, and carry on he...