Depression is not only caused by a person's self-induced emotional state. It can also be imposed on someone by external forces that influence depression. These events can lead a person into depression, and with nothing or no one to support them when they fall, they may continue to fall deeper. The novel The Bell Jar, written by Sylvia Plath, describes the ways in which depression was pushed on the main character, Esther. The people who had once been there for her were not there for her during her downfall. His career choice was destroyed and he had nothing to work for. Esther fell into depression due to many negative events and people that she had no control over and had no help to stop or prevent from happening. Buddy Willard was a person in Esther's life who had a negative influence on her and caused her to sink into her depression. He had taken Esther out to teach her how to ski, something she had never done before. He began to teach her the basics of skiing and how to go down small hills. She had just learned to ski downhill and he wanted her to go up a big hill and ski down. He told her to only go halfway up, but she went all the way up because she couldn't get off the rope that was speeding her up the hill. Since he only knew how to ski down in a straight line, he skied down the only way he knew how. I fell past the zigzags, the students, the experts, through years of duplicity, smiles and compromises, into my past... My teeth crunched a gravelly morsel. Ice water dripped down my throat... "You were doing fine," a familiar voice informed me, "until that man got in your way."... "I'm going up",... An' strange expression, satisfied approached... halfway through the paper... to ignore his feelings of life. The negative external forces in Esther's life caused her to fall into depression without the help of any other positive external forces. Buddy Willard was a person in Esther's life who had failed her and inflicted mental and physical harm on her. Her college plans were ruined when they failed her and she wasn't accepted into the one she wanted to work at. Her mother made no attempt to comfort or support her when she was going through the crisis. Another man in her life, Marco, the woman-hater, had set her up for her great downfall as she was leaving New York. Esther encountered many obstacles in her life that were placed and eventually forced her into a harsh depression, while the help that had vanished and did not support her during her depression, causing a near-fatal outcome. Works Cited The Bell Jar