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A review by mochalirious
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
4.0
because wherever I sat—on the deck of a ship or at a street café in Paris or Bangkok—I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air.
I was in the airport waiting for my plane to visit my family, absolutely raging inside. Not because I didn't want to see my family but because I was bored and eyeing people eager and happy to travel made me think about my future. More specifically where I could be living after I graduated university. Maybe I'll be in Brazil trying new food, on a train in east Europe, visiting my friend in japan or maybe grad school in Singapore,or maybe I won't go anywhere. Instead of feeling whimsical or excited about all the possibilities, I was growing more and more frustrated because I knew. No matter where I was I was never going to be happy. I thought I was the only depressed person in that airport surrounded by happy strangers.
I was forever trapped in this body. In this mind that hated being. A new location, a new hobby, new group of friends has never and will never make me feel any different. Because I was forever trapped under this glass bell jar. And I believed this to be true. 2 years later I would suffer a major mental breakdown where my depression took hold of my life. While therapy, antidepressants and a strong support system saved me, but I think reading and listening to similar stories help usunderstand and take hold of our own experiences and stories.
While I didn't relate to Esther on every aspect I was surprised to read my own experiences and feelings written so delicately on paper. Reading the bell jar, not only was i reading about Esther, I was reading about myself. flashes of parallel memories like the one I had in the airport. I felt less alone knowing I wasn't alone in feeling like this. I understand why this book is liked. Even if mental illness isn't part of your life, you can feel plath's despair and grief seep out of the pages. Or the pressure plath feels from having to pick a career path fearing that what she picks will not be the 'correct path, the disappointment you feel from knowing you didn't get into a program you applied to, the panic from graduating college and entering the real world, being pressured by your superior at work about your performance, meeting your parents expectation of how you should behave, the double standards society puts on women and men. I think there are aspects anyone can relate to.
But... I do have criticisms, the racism. Do I need to say more? Yes I do. The racism deeply embedded in this novel is just ugh. Ugh. It's the decisions plath made to use non white ethnicities to describe unappealin scenes. She describes herself as a yellow Chinese man to describe herself looking unattractive or how the only black character in the book is described in such mocking way etc. Maybe it is a tad unfair to compare today's standards to a book written in the 60s. But when we talk about the bell jar so many of us (I definitely have) talked about how plath's view on mental illness and feminism was ahead of her time and these discussions are still discussed today. If we can compare those to today's standards we can point out the racism. Its not the most outrageous outward example of racism in classics but it is sprinkled everywhere in the book. Maybe it is not very noticeable to some but for people who lived their whole lives being outcasted for the color of our skin it is super noticeable.
I was forever trapped in this body. In this mind that hated being. A new location, a new hobby, new group of friends has never and will never make me feel any different. Because I was forever trapped under this glass bell jar. And I believed this to be true. 2 years later I would suffer a major mental breakdown where my depression took hold of my life. While therapy, antidepressants and a strong support system saved me, but I think reading and listening to similar stories help usunderstand and take hold of our own experiences and stories.
While I didn't relate to Esther on every aspect I was surprised to read my own experiences and feelings written so delicately on paper. Reading the bell jar, not only was i reading about Esther, I was reading about myself. flashes of parallel memories like the one I had in the airport. I felt less alone knowing I wasn't alone in feeling like this. I understand why this book is liked. Even if mental illness isn't part of your life, you can feel plath's despair and grief seep out of the pages. Or the pressure plath feels from having to pick a career path fearing that what she picks will not be the 'correct path, the disappointment you feel from knowing you didn't get into a program you applied to, the panic from graduating college and entering the real world, being pressured by your superior at work about your performance, meeting your parents expectation of how you should behave, the double standards society puts on women and men. I think there are aspects anyone can relate to.
But... I do have criticisms, the racism. Do I need to say more? Yes I do. The racism deeply embedded in this novel is just ugh. Ugh. It's the decisions plath made to use non white ethnicities to describe unappealin scenes. She describes herself as a yellow Chinese man to describe herself looking unattractive or how the only black character in the book is described in such mocking way etc. Maybe it is a tad unfair to compare today's standards to a book written in the 60s. But when we talk about the bell jar so many of us (I definitely have) talked about how plath's view on mental illness and feminism was ahead of her time and these discussions are still discussed today. If we can compare those to today's standards we can point out the racism. Its not the most outrageous outward example of racism in classics but it is sprinkled everywhere in the book. Maybe it is not very noticeable to some but for people who lived their whole lives being outcasted for the color of our skin it is super noticeable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Death of parent