A review by ilovebarbie12dancingprincesses
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

For the first half of this book I felt like I connected with the story and character of Esther but the blatant racism of Plath really just ruined the immersion for me. While this is not so bad in the second half, there is still a few occasions I feel would have greatly benefited from her simply not being racist.

Aside from this, TheBell Jar is a beautifully written story on mental illness and the terror of the unknown in both Plath’s era and contemporary society. From the first page Plath creates a horrible sense of anticipation, then dread and then what felt like almost a
sense of acceptance with Plath’s final few words of her singular novel. Ones of fear at the prospect of her reintroduction to society, at how easy it is to heal and ‘become whole’ again only to shatter against the hard surface of depression, as seen in the novel itself, with Joan’s suicide, but also Plath herself’s tragic end.
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