The Bell Jar Cancer versus Depression
Integrated into the story of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a "case history" of a depression patient, from it's subtle beginnings to it's terrifying consequences to it's shaky resolution. On the subject of this depression, there is an article written by William Styron which, in the course of describing his own dealings with the disease, he compares it to cancer. It is my own firm opinion that this assertion is perfectly valid, and it can be shown through careful analysis of the causes and effects of both depression and cancer that this is so. In addition, using The Bell Jar as an example of a case of depression, we will see how this comparison makes clear sense.First, we must address the nature of cancer and its effect on the individual bearing it's weight. Cancer is the result of a mutation of the genetic material of a cell, resulting in the lack of some inhibiting factor which would otherwise restrict the uncontrolled reproduction of this cell. As a consequence, this cell reproduces without bound, generating a cluster of cells which are reproducing uncontrollably, and which use the resources of the body to an extent beyond their proportional allotment. Eventually, the requirements of the tumor exceed the body's ability t
One particularly interesting passage in the novel which relates directly to this discussion occurs when Esther goes with Buddy to the hospital and is watching a slide show. It is interesting to note that in the face of such apparently good fortune one could develop such a sad disease. In many cases of cancer, the patient is in great pain. Most importantly, however, in the last example, we see how an individual who submits to either disease may as well have never lived at all, because of the essential aspects of life he comes to neglect. Depression is a disease which usually has a source unrelated to the chemicals in the brain, and it is a combination of these two sides of the depressed coin that results in the disease. Radiation therapy works by the same premise as chemotherapy, but instead of chemicals it is radiation that is used to try and destroy the cancer. In all cases of cancer except for a select few, the victim has nothing to do with the cause of the cancer. These natural mutations (another paradox) are caused by sunlight, chemicals in food, and normal biological processes occurring in the cell. Bibliography not applicable. Chemotherapy entails exposing the cancer to a barrage of chemicals which are toxic, in the hope of poisoning it to death. Neither of these disorders can be contracted from another individual, and so treatment of them is simplified by one degree. Chemotherapy results in a plethora of serious negative side effects for the patient, even for all of it's ability to fight the disease. The normal doldrums for the rest of us will last a day or a week, while depression affects its sufferers for months or years. Now, in a patient's dealings with his own cancer or depression, this is a consideration that must be made again and again.
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