Total Page : 72
Publisher : SparkNotes
Publication Date : 2002 07 15
>> A view into madness in the 1950 s
In college I took a literature course in American literature and my teacher chose the theme of madness for the course The syllabus called for a few of Ralph Ellison s works Toni Morrison s and Sylvia Plath s Sadly since the course was only ten weeks Sylvia Plath s The Bell Jar was not discussed in the class I didn t bother to read the book until out of college
After reading reviews online I decided that I needed to take the time to read it Plath starts the story off really slow with Esther Greenwood explaining her internship over the summer For the first fifty pages I had no idea why it was deemed a classic However though slow I still had a desire to read what happened to Ms Greenwood The more that I read of the book the harder is was to put down If she would have shown the same symptoms today I do not believe that she would have been locked up in an asylum The book really makes society take a deep stare into itself to observe what is happening to the people of the nation
Being an English literature major in college I had the opportunity to read countless classics and consider myself to be well read I can honestly say that The Bell Jar is the only book that is considered a classic that has ever made me cry uncontrollably one minute when reading about the electro shock treatments and then a few moments later be laughing hyterically when Esther gives the nurse a piece of her mind when he serves her two different kinds of beans in one meal
This book is a must read for the female population and I recommend everyone reading it I don t really know why but I had a tendency to compare Esther to Holden Caulfield because of her self destruction and her could care less about what is right attitude It s such a shame that Plath took her life so early when she clearly had an incredible gift of writing
>> For girls
The same way that The Perks of Being a Wallflower is centered around a boy The Bell Jar is centered around a girl in the 1960s
From a guys point of view this book is boring
It s about these lame dinners and the girl getting sick and her pre occupied thoughts about some dude
This book is outdated and just plain boring I would not recommend it
>> The Bell Jar
For those of us who think we ve left the past behind and are terribly sophisticated Pick this book up Sylvia Plath is clearly more famous for poetry than prose but this novel written first person is able to subtly place the reader squarely in the protagonist s shoes The passage the air of the bell jar wadded around me and I couldn t stir illustrates the tactile feeling Plath s writing convey s and the sympathy it engenders in the reader This novel also reminds us that the more things change the more they stay the same in terms of social and mental health issues
