The last book I read was Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Going off in the same direction, and reading similar books I just finished The Bell Jar.
The story is about the crack up of Esther Greenwood. It’s kind of crazy because her crackup and how the people in the story treat it stems from this 19 year old girl not knowing what she wants to do with her life, hardly a reason for electroshock therapy. I mean that wasn’t the only reason but it seemed to me her overarching issue was trying to figure out her future while some of the possibilities were drying up and dying in front of her.
Her crackup was the thing I was most interested in before reading the book. At some point Esther thinks to herself “I wondered at what point in space the silly sham blue of the sky turned black” and I started to think about how fast the sun comes up or goes down compared to how long the sun is up or how long nights last and I likened it to her descent. I felt like she spiraled so quickly I can bisect the story and say the book before the near rape was day (despite being poisoned) and the book after was night. I think the near rape, and news she didn’t get into the writing program was her twilight, the sun going down. I struggled to understand how she so quickly got into such terrible shape and the best I could do was attribute it to the near rape because I know that had to have been traumatizing. I was rooting for Esther Greenwood, until she kicked the black server guy for serving 2 different types of beans.
Besides that the writing in the book immediately caught me. The metaphors, from the gray crayons in the city, to the fig tree, to the bell jar, were easy to understand and compelling.
Reading wise, I’m going to continue in this direction. The next book I’m reading is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
What did you all think about The Bell Jar?
by Tskahmeenwutever
9 Comments
I’ve never felt more akin to a character than Esther leaning on the mattress as it slid away from the wall due to her leaning.
Yeah she’s not a great person, but she’s a lovely little slice of human hope and failure.
Read Suttree too not just BM
LOVE LOVE LOVE the Bell Jar!!
I read it recently for the first time and beforehand I had zero idea how incredible and vivid and hilarious Sylvia Plath’s writing is. I had always thought this book would be super depressing to read, but that wasn’t my experience at all. I’ve written longer posts elsewhere about my love for the book, but overall I found it super relatable, whether I was relating to Esther specifically, or observing her as a reader and seeing what she was going through even if it wasn’t something I experienced personally. Esther reminds me a lot of high achieving young girls today and how much emphasis they place on their accomplishments, and how worthless they feel when they haven’t met those accomplishments. I wish we taught more resilience in schools and put less emphasis on equating worth with accomplishments.
I am in the middle of it now…was really excited to read it but it hasn’t totally grabbed me. The writing is great – very witty and funny in places which I wasn’t expecting…hopefully I connect with it more during the second half.
I absolutely loved the Bell Jar, it’s a book that will always stick with me and has shaped how I think about my own identity.
If you’re looking for another rec, check out: Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo
At first, like the first chapter, I struggled with Esther and didn’t like that she came across as mean and shallow. Then i noticed she was mostly this way towards men. Then I saw how most men treated her. It made sense, that she was simply reacting to a pattern. Especially in that time period.
So anyway I went from, ugh I don’t know if I can relate here, to, wow this character is so relatable.
i think not getting into the writing program (at harvard?) and the constant pressure of having to compete in the top 0.01% was the hair that broke the camel’s back.
what surprised me about the book was how snappy and witty it is. plath was no sob sister!
i’m reading her journals right now (tis long) and i’m not even 15% through and i have counted 2 incidents of SA which she just brushed under the sofa as if it is an accepted part of social interaction. very disturbing. there are a lot of entries written age ~19 on her ideal mate (the opposite of ted hughes funnily enough), and knowing what happened to her on that score a mere 10 or so years later, it’s all very heartbreaking to read. on the one hand, so much talent and hope and dreams and OPTIMISM. she look forward to the future, she had big plans for herself. and then in the background the constant nagging doubt, the pain and unhappiness, which in a moment of vulnerability overtakes and destroys her. i hate ted hughes.
When I think about Esther Greenwood and Holden Caulfield both listlessly wandering around New York in the early 50s disillusioned by life, I want to imagine what it would be like if they ran into each other at some seedy cafe.
I struggled with it because of the atmosphere of it, but it worked for me in the context of Plath’s life. I don’t think I’d re-read it, although I loved the scenes on the beach and the theme work there.
It was a difficult read for me because at times I was thinking, “Yeah, this is exactly what my teenage depression felt like.”