My AP Literature Test Simulation

"The eyes and faces all turned themselves toward me, and guided me, and guiding myself by them, as by a magical thread, I stepped into the room."

Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

"Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house, over against the king’s house: and the king sat upon his royal throne in the royal house, over against the gate of the house.

And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favour in his sight: and the king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the sceptre."

Esther 5: 1-2

I wrote my open-ended essay about The Bell Jar. An interesting parallel exists between Plath's Esther and the Biblical Esther in that both stories hinge upon a single moment of judgment. But in Plath's novel, she ends the story without finishing the judgment, allowing the reader to judge for herself whether Esther has truly cracked the bell jar.

A spectacular book. Definitely worth reading.