Esther Compare And Contrast Polysyndeton And Asyndeton

At first glance, Esther is simply a lost girl who hates boys and hates making decisions. She is just like any other young female adult in that way and is able to draw empathy out of people due to that. As the book progresses, however, Esther becomes less of a sympathetic character and transforms into a direct critique on the treatment of the mentally ill and also a beacon of hope for those who are experiencing some type of mental illness. Through use of diction and repetition in this passage, the animosity Esther holds towards her mother is revealed which on a larger scale reflects her hatred for society’s stigmas towards the mentally ill. By using both polysyndeton and asyndeton nearly consecutively coupled with similes, Esther represents
Beginning with describing the “rock that bulged between sky and sea like a gray skull”, Esther makes a reference to the times she felt as though she were being watched. Part of her illness was intense paranoia and just as the moon follows a person at night, she felt that the judgement of other people was constantly laid on her. By comparing her previous paranoia to a skull however, she is saying that that feeling is now dead. She was able to move on from her psychosis, yet still retains the ability to recognize that she once experienced it. The passage ends with Esther saying “they were part of me. They were my landscape.” Here she is referring to the list of events she just gave and how instead of being ashamed of them, she embraces them. The stark contrast between the polysyndeton just used and the asyndeton used almost immediately after it help drive home the point that she is confident in not only how she views herself, but the aftermath of her treatments. Her sentences are short like a command is. She does not feel that she “like a kind snow, should numb and cover them.” What she experienced is nothing to be ashamed of and if anything, made her who she is. To hide in the winter under a blanket of snow is to neglect experiencing the other three seasons. If she were to hide her condition and deny ever having depression, she would be hiding from a part of herself and will consequently never grow into her full self, she would forever be stuck in the cold. What this attitude towards her condition lets other people know is that not only is it possible to recover from mental illness, but it is nothing to be ashamed