A representação da branquitude em The Bell Jar (2005 [1963]): uma análise acerca dos privilégios brancos de Esther Greenwood

Abstract

Whiteness represents a racial category created for the benefit of a certain group of people. It is the main catalyst for racial inequalities and has been analyzed through the critical lens of Critical Whiteness Studies. This research field makes it possible to understand how the social construction of race has affected our society and allows us to observe how it is represented in the present cultural practice analyzed: The Bell Jar, an American novel set in the 1950s and written by the author Sylvia Plath. The story provides a glimpse into how the racial issues of that period are translated into Esther Greenwood’s life, the novel’s protagonist. In view of this, this research aims to answer the following guiding question: What are the ways in which Esther Greenwood enjoys and suffers from her white privileges in the literary work The Bell Jar (2005 [1963]), from the standpoint of critical whiteness studies? To answer this question, the following general objective was formulated: To investigate the ways in which Esther Greenwood enjoys and suffers from her white privilege in the literary work The Bell Jar (2005 [1963]), from the standpoint of critical whiteness studies. To achieve this general objective, the following specific objectives were established: To discuss the theoretical grounds of critical whiteness studies, with an emphasis on the notion of white privilege, and to relate the ways in which the protagonist thinks, feels, and acts based on white privilege in her intra- and interpersonal relationships. For the purpose of achieving these objectives, a bibliographical investigation was carried out, with a qualitative approach of an exploratory nature, followed by an interpretivist perspective, based on authors such as Kabengele Munanga (2019), Haney López (1994), Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic (2001), and Steve Garner (2007). In summary, the results of this research reveal that, despite benefiting from her white privilege, entering spaces dominated by whiteness, and leveraging her social status, Esther, as a poor young woman and immigrant daughter in the United States, It is not fully part of the system. This creates a series of existential crises for the character. Unfortunately, Esther does not confront the system; in fact, she reproduces it, becoming a perpetuator of the whitecentric ideals of her time, committing microaggressions and macroaggressions against racialized groups.