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Essay Comparing The Bell Jar And The Giver

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Both American novelists Sylvia Plath and Lois Lowry wrote a literature novel. These books, Plath’s The Bell Jar and Lowry’s The Giver, both received a literary award, although they were published three decades apart. There were more similarities and differences between the books, however. The Bell Jar and The Giver, had many similarities and differences, including subjects on themes, characters, settings, plots, and literary techniques. To start off, The Bell Jar and The Giver had contrasting themes. The theme in The Bell Jar was to not expect too much from someone or something. In the novel, Esther Greenwood, the main character, lived for several weeks on vacation, while she expected to get accepted into a writing class that she signed up …show more content…

For instance, the main characters in The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood, and The Giver, Jonas, both demonstrated courage. In The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood went through an incorrect and painful electroshock therapy during her first treatment. When her new therapist informed her that she had to take it a second time, she went through it even though she was terrified. In The Giver, Jonas had the courage to escape from his community, even though the consequence was death. Also, both Esther and Jonas had the willpower to survive. Once, when Esther tried to strangle herself with a rope, she noticed that “my body had all sorts of little tricks, such as making my hands go limp at the crucial second,” (Plath 177-178) and later she noticed that her body seemed to have a willpower to live. In addition, Jonas needed the willpower to survive when both he and a toddler traveled in the snow. When snow blocked his bicycle, he could no longer travel on it, “but he had come this far. He must try to go on” (Lowry 176). They both also had unhappy memories and thoughts. Esther battled with depression; she tried to kill herself at least three times. In The Giver, Jonas held the burden of memories of pain, hunger, and

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