The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar

Although the book falls under work of fiction, I believe it is supposed to be semi-autobiographical. Esther is a young woman with what seems to be a bright future. She is able to travel from her home around Boston to New York for an internship that she won. While there she rooms in a hotel with ten other girls. She becomes more anxious and depressed and finds herself without any real goals. As her time in New York ends and she returns to her home in Boston she finds that she has not won a scholarship for her next years of school and is at loose ends.
She spirals into a queer depression. Finally after some half hearted suicide attempts, she buries herself under the crawl space of her house and swallows a bottle of pills. Once found, she is taken to a mental hospital. We are given intermittent glimpses of her past and future throughout the book. By the end Esther has lived through the suicide of a close friend and seems to have turned a corner in her own depression. She enters a room to take her concluding interview, the one that determines if she will be released from the hospital. Although book leaves it at that, there is a point previous where she mentions her baby. This leads me to believe that she is eventually released.

This book was on a list of books that I was determined to read. Knowing that this book is haled by many made me consider the distinct possibility that I would not like it. I was mostly right. I found the imagery and writing lovely. And I am sure if you have ever been very depressed you will be able to identify with the strange thoughts and feelings of hopelessness. What I didn't like was the thought that many young people may identify because of the popularity of the book. I felt like Esther had many more choices than she let on. And girls presently have multitudes of choices if they are willing to put forth the effort. I assume that Esther/Plath had a serious illness which I do not want to downplay. I don't think that they necessarily suffered from something that they could just think themselves happy out of. The book was just royally depressing and Esther didn't take enough responsibility for her situation.

Rating 2.5 I feel like a bit of a fence sitter here. I loved the imagery conjured by the writing. Some of the words were so lovely. I don't like that this book and many other 'memoirs' are so popular. There are somethings I would rather not know.
Also sometimes I was confused......not enough information was given to clear the muddy water.
Rating PG 13 Sex, suicide, drug use, shock therapy.