The title of this blog, in addition to being a pretty snazzy song by one Miss Macy Gray, is in regards to the novel I've chosen to read for our final paper, The Bell Jar.
The Bell Jar is American writer and poet Sylvia Plath's only novel and was originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963. The novel is semi-autobiographical with the main character, Ester Greenwood's, descent into mental illness paralleling Plath's own experiences with what may have been either bipolar disorder or clinical depression. Plath committed suicide a month after its first publication.
I'm a little over half way finished with the book, and I absolutely adore it. However, I'm a little torn about that because a big reason I have for this adoration is because I can relate to the story. In any other situation, it would be a good thing. I would want to applaud the author for her ability to put me in the protagonist's shoes, and I would realize new things about myself. Well, I guess I can say that at least the latter is true. I'm realizing now that I'm thinking along the same lines and appreciating the thoughts of fictional character modeled after a real person who had a mental illness that led her to suicide. . .
Still, I feel it unfair for me to discredit Plath's writing just because she was going under, especially considering how beautiful it is. So I guess the former of that statement is true too. It shouldn't matter what her mental state was. If anything, it only helped her create a better book, and for that she deserves praise. She has a fantastic way of describing people, places, colors, thoughts, and stories, and Ester's thought process, though sometimes like mine, is just so shockingly different at other times that I can't help but be blown away by it.
Esther describes in detail several seriocomic incidents that occur during her internship in New York around the time of the Rosenbergs' execution and reminisces about her friend Buddy, whom she has dated and who considers himself her de facto fiancé. She returns to her Massachusetts home in low spirits. All of her identity having been centered around doing well academically, she has no idea what to make of her life once she leaves school and is rejected from a writing course taught by a famous author, and none of the stereotypical life choices for females of the time period presented to her appeal to her.
Currently (I mean, as far as I've read), Esther has become increasingly depressed and finds herself unable to sleep. She goes to see a psychiatrist she quickly learns to resent for his good looks and conceitedness, and he diagnoses her with a mental illness and administers electroconvulsive therapy, which actually seems to traumatize her and push closer to the suicide I've just read about her attempting unsuccessfully. (Obviously, it's in this part I've just explained that I begin to see the differences between Ester and myself.)
Overall, I'm really looking forward to finishing the novel and am quite pleased with myself for selecting it. Yet, as always, I am not looking forward to picking it apart in yet another book analysis. Doing that never ceases to wreck the book a little for me unless I find a way to repress it like I did with The Book Thief last year (nothing was going to ruin that for me). By the looks of it, I'm going to need to do the same with this incredible book.
PS - My "research" about the book and author may be credited to Wikipedia. . .of course.
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