A review by 16nnovs
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

medium-paced

1.0

 

i’m no stranger to the bell jar. i first read it in my sophomore year of high school, then saw the recent hype and reread it a couple more times, and i'm just trying to figure out what the hell the hype is about. did we read the same book? because this was insane.

before i rip into it, i can see why this is considered a classic. it’s beautifully written, and some could say sylvia was ahead of her time. there are a lot of memorable quotes, and yes, the fig tree passage is nice (i guess). but i find it despicable how so many people dub this as feminist literature—how they claim all modern women can relate to and benefit from it.

what women are you talking about?? because i am black, and i’m sure many other WOC wouldn’t appreciate this book being pushed as some savior of modern womanhood. fuck sylvia, fuck esther, and FUCK that fig tree. this was not written for women of color—she wrote this for the women who looked like her. look at these quotes and tell me she was thinking of us when she wrote this:

“a big, smudgy-eyed Chinese woman staring idiotically into my face.”

“the face in the mirror looks like a sick Indian.”

“dusky as a bleached-blonde negress.”

“they're squat…they're ugly as Aztecs.”

i'm not even going to provide context for these, just sit there and take it in.

the amount of racism and other -isms littered throughout this book is insane, and so many people try to excuse it by saying, oh, it was written in the 1960s. the 1960s?? you mean during the civil rights movement?? did your brain slip from your thick skull down to your ass? i didn’t know being mentally ill was an excuse for being a disgusting racist—i guess i’ve been living my life all wrong. stop trying to impress the dead. if she was conscious and intelligent enough to write this shitshow—along with loads of other work—then she was intelligent enough to know right from wrong. she simply didn’t care.

in all seriousness, this was a huge disappointment, and i can’t help but feel a pang of hurt. how can this be so widely enjoyed? i’m genuinely confused, and if this question applies to you, i’d love to hear your answer. how could i possibly relate to the themes of womanhood, identity, and mental health when she would most likely refer to me as a “negress” if i appeared in front of her? such an incredible letdown.