Individual Mobility and the Sense of a??Deadlocka??: A Cultural Materialist Analysis of Sylvia Platha??s The Bell Jar

摘要

Individual mobility is an outcome of the rapid changes in life; it is revealed in particular literary works within the end of the 19th century. Mobility is clearer in modern time as the individual has become physically freer in his movement. But the individuala??s freedom is often conditioned by restrictions. Usually, change stimulates individuals to obtain new structure of feeling; the individual mocks or rages against institutions, or he would comply, suffering rapid personal deterioration as he faces effective stability or institutions. There is a continuous sense of a??deadlock.a?? Sylvia Platha??s novel reflects the depression of an intellectual young woman who fails to find her right path muddled by an inconsistent, confusing world around. The opposing ideas and standards imposed on women depress and alienate the protagonist from the world leading her to an eventual attempt at suicide. The variable values the character has to adjust, the protagonista??s reaction toward these values, and her sense of a??dead locka?? are the subject of the present article.