chantelleatkinswriter 's review for:

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

5.0

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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So glad I finally got around to reading this. All the way through I couldn't help comparing it to The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger. There are definitely some similarities and as The Catcher In The Rye is one of my favourite books of all time, it's no surprise I really loved this book. We have a first person viewpoint story of a young woman's mental breakdown. Much like Holden in Catcher in The Rye, Esther is at first trying quite hard to fit in, to enjoy life, to appreciate what she has... but she can't sustain the fakeness and she can't keep this up for long. Slowly, her life starts to fall apart and she makes several suicide attempts and ends up in various institutions. I honestly felt her main issue was the patriarchal society surrounding her, where she like all women then, were very much expected to get married young and churn out children while their husband worked and came home to a clean house and dinner on the table. He constant repulsion of and rejection of Buddy, for example, seems to a rejection of this very expectation. She doesn't want to get married or have children and this makes her weird, strange, mentally ill. A sad book, very thought provoking, and shows how far we have come but also highlights what women could be forced to return to if certain politicians have their way. Highly recommended.