The Bell Jar

I have had The Bell Jar since my senior year of high school. I got it in a book swap my English teacher, Mrs. Baldwin, did for Christmas. I have her original copy of The Bell Jar dating back to the days when she still signed with her maiden name. She was my favorite teacher so it means a lot to me to have something so personal of hers. I figured it was about time to actually sit down and read it. After all, Missy has always had great taste in literature.

The Bell Jar is the tortured autobiographical tale of Sylvia Plath's bout with insanity. While the main character, Esther, is on a quest to retain her sanity I would also argue she is on a quest to find herself. In many ways The Bell Jar is a coming of age tale...with a twist of course. Most coming of age tales don't have suicide as a prominent theme.

I related to a lot of Esther's stresses: college, boys, losing your passion for literature, women vs. a world that isn't built for them. However, I don't think I'll be taking it as horribly as she did.

Thankfully, Plath makes some sense out of insanity. The reader can follow Esther's thought process. You can't say the same thing about authors such as Faulkner who make insanity into a blurb of jumbled words with no punctuation or structure. With Esther you can understand and empathize with her condition.

And I wondered, was she really mad? Or was it her world that created insane women?