Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - The Bell Jar

Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

222 reviews

merin_aran's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

trish1oo1's review against another edition

3.25

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Languid prose that is sprinkled with dry humor and feminism. I think this solidifies that i just don’t like literary fiction.
esther’s journey is fascinating. initially she just feels empty when her life is seemly perfect and doesn’t not want to fit into the stereotypical 1950s feminine role. as the novel progresses she begins to show signs of depression and paranoia. unfortunate, she doesn’t get the correct treatment for it because she’s in the 1950’s (which makes me celebrate how far medicine has come.) she got lobotomies, like that’s insane. also there is this notion that the bell jar-a metaphor for her mental state- that is suffocating her lifts and “clears” directly after electroshock therapy. that has got to be a placebo right?
besides that Esther is selfish and demonstrates this multiple times through the novel. this could be partly due to her mental illness, her depression causing her to not care about anyone but herself. but i believe this behavior is a defining characteristic of her. she is self centered, early in the novel and later into it. i don’t particularly like Esther but i understand her. this was a bleak journey.
also should be mentioned Sylvia Plath wrote this as a Roman a clef and shortly after publishing this novel she committed suicide. I feel wrong judging this book because of that. this is basically an autobiography. but if im looking at this solely as a piece of literature it’s definitely not my favorite.
**also, Esther says so prejudiced things against a few marginalized communities. there’s undertones it’s not very overt and i do understand the time period this was written/set in but it’s a little uncomfortable to read

Content Warnings

juliacyrzan's review against another edition

2.0

dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

bearystarry's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I guess this was too dated for me... The casual racism especially being jarring. Also honestly, being a mentally ill person myself, I didn't really connect with the main character at all.

Content Warnings

mvonmalmborg's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

mariaghazaryan's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

rachelscu's review against another edition

3.75

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

snartyhasgottheskills's review against another edition

3.0

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

. so- this book is incredibly relatable, sad and the emotional nature of the book makes you empathise with the main character, which sucks because sylvia plath uses racist remarks throughout and sometimes disregards the priveledges given to her/the main character due to disadvantages she faces within sexism, homophobia and ableism. The beginning of the novel is basically a recount of plath’s life and written in a lighter tone even when exploring dark themes, the rest of the novel however is written within an incredibly dark headspace and kind of glorifies suicide and other harmful ideas which may be harmful to some readers and isn’t really explained anywhere on blurbs or covers which isn’t needed but i think is necessary

Content Warnings

n_t_sh_'s review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Content Warnings

tonya_369's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

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