The Bell Jar: Chapter 4

Journal Entry
#7
November 7, 2007
Chapter 4
Page 44 Paragraph 1
Quote:
"My own mother wasn't much help. My mother had taught shorthand and typing to support us ever since my father died, and secretly she hated it and hated him for dying and leaving no money because he didn't trust life insurance salesmen. She was always on to me to learn shorthand after college, so I'd have a practical skill as well as a college degree. 'Even the apostles were tentmakers,' she'd say. "They had to live, just the way we do.'"

Esther's mother is a typical widow. Her occupation is teaching, and she teaches a simple skill, shorthand. She hate the job that she has, but she takes it without complaint, because that is what women are supposed to do. She is also trying to get Esther to learn shorthand so she can have a "practical" skill. She wants Esther to learn shorthand becuse she knows that Esther is not going to get married, and her degree is not what a spinster should have, she would need to be a teacher.