Bell Jar, 3-4

Esther's plan to miss chemistry was quite tricky. Because of she got an A in physics, when all of the other girls failed, she figured that she would get an easy A in this class also, so what is the point in taking it. She decided to send in a petition to the school asking if it was alright if she took a Shakespeare class instead of Chemistry, because she was an English major, not a science. Also, college's had gotten rid of the second year of science requirements, so Esther really had no reason to take that class. She told the board that she was going to get an easy A, so she wanted to talk a more challenging class, that was in her major. This made all of the teachers happy with her. The chemistry teacher was also happy because he realized that she didn't want to take his course just to get an A. She was so willing not to get graded in that class, that she willingly agreed to go to her Shakespeare class on top of attending the Chemistry class just to go and watch, which gave her extra brownie points. I don't think Esther wanted to take this class because she is afraid of doing better than other people. She was extremely embarrassed when all of the other girls failed and she got an A, and also on the trip she is at, hundreds of girls would die to be there, but she doesn't like the fact that others envy her.