The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

This book is one that I have wanted to read for a long time and because of this pandemic, I finally found the time to read it. It was a difficult read because all of the emotions are so powerful but I enjoyed it and felt a little more thankful for my life and all of the positive and happy things within it.

One thing that draws a lot of attention to this book, I think, is the author herself and her unfortunate death. This book is essentially an autobiography of Plath’s life and a lot of people are interested in finding out what was going on in her mind before her suicide. While the book does 100% illustrate to readers the sadness and hopelessness the famous author felt within this book, it did not fascinate me but instead made me incredibly downhearted. The most important thing I took from this book is the fact that mental health needs to be taken seriously and treated with the same importance that physical health does. If this had been the case when Plath was alive in the 50s-60s, she might have received the treatment and help that she so desperately needed and cried out for in this novel.

Now that I’ve gotten off of my mental health awareness soapbox, (for the time being ;)) let’s talk about this book!

Readers meet the protagonist, Esther Greenwood, during the summer after her junior year of college. She is currently living in New York working as a guest-editor for a magazine. She is living it up and having a great time, but can’t help feeling unmotivated to do her work for the magazine and discouraged about her future. When asked by her current boss what she wants to do after she graduates, she does not have an answer and this begins to trouble her. She has always been a model student and goes to a very good, expensive university where she receives a scholarship in order to attend. She feels an immense amount of pressure because of her doubts and directionless state and begins spiraling into a dark depression that she has a lot of trouble getting out of. Her mother sends her to numerous centers throughout the book in order to try and get her the help that she needs but nothing seems to truly help. After some time, Esther begins having suicidal thoughts and eventually tries to kill herself. Luckily, her mother and brother find her and she is taken to a hospital and physically recovers. But, this near-death experience does not make these thoughts of ending her life go away, but instead they become worse and more frequent. Readers embark on this journey with Esther and see just how quickly everything can go from sunshine and rainbows to darkness and hopelessness.

Something else that I learned from this book that I wanted to share is the genre in which it falls under: Roman a clef. I had never heard of this genre before, so I did some digging and came to this definition: A novel about real life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction. I was incredibly intrigued by this because I love learning new things and wanted to shed light on this for others who did not know about this genre until now! It definitely makes sense that there is a name for this genre of books and I feel as though I have read some like this before. But, I am super happy to have been able to add this to my vocabulary.

Reading this novel was incredibly difficult for me because of the emotions and tone within it, I often found myself becoming sad and feeling down unconsciously while reading it. The tone throughout the story is incredibly dark, hopeless and heavy. Right from the get go, readers can see that Esther has a negative view of the world and would prefer to be alone in her own bubble. Even though she has a lot of people around her, she still feels incredibly lonely and depressed and, in turn, the reader begins to feel similar emotions. I think this proves the importance of the book as well as expresses how great the writing is within it. To me, a book is nothing if it doesn’t make you feel something and I often find myself believing that sadness is the most powerful emotion. It took a lot of guts for Plath to bear her soul with the world by writing this and I applaud and have so much respect for her because of this. This quote really stuck out to me while I was reading because it encompasses this idea that Esther feels so completely alone in the world.

“The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence.”

I often found myself wishing I could hug Esther and wanting to help her. This is what makes a book a good one. Having your readers feel something in their souls when they read your book, connecting with your characters and feeling kinship with them is an incredibly beautiful thing. And I definitely felt this way with Esther Greenwood in this book.

Another thing from the book that really shocked me is realizing how far we have come as a society in terms of how we view mental illness and how we treat it. A few of the centers Esther goes to in the story used shock therapy on her in the hopes of helping her condition. I honestly hadn’t heard of shock therapy being used for depression before and felt a little upset and taken aback. After researching a bit, I saw that this is still used today (not as frequently as it used to and is used more so in Europe than in the U.S.) and has been proven to help in numerous cases. It was super interesting to read about how things were done during Plath’s time and be able to see how much treatment had changed since the 50s and 60s. I think we need to continue this pattern of growth in how we view mental health and actively work on establishing the importance of it like we do with physical health. Mental health is such an important subject to me personally. Though I do not suffer from the specific emotions and conditions that Esther/Sylvia Plath did, I do have a difficult time dealing with anxiety in my life. A year or so ago, I began having really terrifying panic attacks that stemmed from anxiety and it was really difficult to handle. I felt alone, scared and had a hard time seeing a future where I was not ruled by those emotions everyday, which was a really difficult thing to go through. Thankfully, I began seeing a counselor who helped me understand my feelings and emotions in a way that I could not work out on my own. Going and talking with someone helped me tremendously and I will never not be grateful for making the difficult decision to go and talk to someone. I cannot recommend therapy enough to anyone and everyone who deals with any sort of situation or condition that you do not feel like you can face alone. I really hope our society begins to realize how crucial it is to be of sound mind AS WELL as body and that we need to change the way we view mental health issues as a community.

Final, Personal Opinion of the Book

This was a really difficult book to read and I think that is part of why it is so important. People need to be able to empathize and see what individuals with mental health issues go through. And I think this book does an excellent job of this! I could feel myself feeling dreary and upset while reading it because the words and emotions give off that much power. It was also really sad to see that all of the feelings and situations that come up within this book knowing they were how Plath truly felt and what she experienced. I wish she had been able to receive the health she needed for her condition.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

I gave this book 4/5 stars because it really moved me. As someone who deals with anxiety daily and suffered from awful panic attacks for a time, it is super important to me that we as a society acknowledge mental health and treat it with the importance it deserves. This book does that and I am so grateful. It did not receive full marks because while it was wonderful, it didn’t sweep me off of my feet so to speak. It isn’t exactly my type of book (I tend to go for things a little more upbeat, happy or even a bit scary, instead of disheartening and miserably sad) so it was a bit difficult for me to get through even though it was important and well written. I am glad that I finally read it and learned from it and I look forward to reading more from Plath, even though this is her only novel and she is more known for her poetry.