The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Bell Jar
Book Review: i get it now
Summary: 5 Stars
i remember reading plath's poems in highschool...never quite understanding them. feeling bored by them. but this book...if you've ever felt yourself clawing at the edges of your sanity, this book will hit you in the gut.Book Review: sylvia will take apart your soul
Summary: 5 Stars
in a world of over-medicated persons, "the bell jar" delivers what modern medicine cannot... a look into the life of a person without the use of modern medication. "the bell jar" delivers an insight into the world of the depressed woman, then and now. having been in a depressed state for most of my life, sylvia plath gives me a world in which someone "understands".
she did not end her life on a good note, but for those in need of understanding and not just "a good read", "the bell jar" offers a shoulder to lean on... a possible much needed cry.
if you are reading this just as a classic novel, her metaphor and use of grammar to convey her life and loss is at it's peak. sylvia's poetry is wonderful, if that is what you are looking for. but her novels, short stories, letters, and prose can send you to a place where even the average person feels a kinship with this tortured soul.
Book Review: unerringly evocative, painfully human...
Summary: 5 Stars
the first few pages of Bell Jar were deceptively banal. though it still made for a relatively interesting read, I initially really didn't feel engaged with the story of Esther. but then the pace picks up as Plath unfolds the subtle but swift undoing that encroaches on the protagonist's consciousness. in no time at all, i found haunting affinity with some of what Esther went through--those times when everything seems to be on a standstill and yet knowing that the world is passing swiftly by without you; times when you feel like almost everything around you is falling apart or is against you, and then feel at turns frustrated, frightened, and furious that the people you hope empathized with you instead misunderstand you.
the winning touch on this novel is that the author did not attempt to make Esther's condition clinical or overly dramatic--what transpired rather is an inherently human experience that centered solely on the young woman's perspective that made it more felt to the reader, with touches of merciless lucidity and benevolent numbness.
the seemingly harmless events that led to Esther's "breakdown" may be the very same things that have occured to countless people. now whether the question is if these events triggered her cognitive distortion or if Esther's genes were just waiting on the awning for the right time to manifest themselves is probably eclipsed by the more salient issue of how different humans respond and interpret their world around them. and this is where the central themes of Plath's novel emerge: the societal pressures that pervade in the 1950's, the psychological belief that a female seeks security and material wealth from a male while the latter aims to propagate his genes, the expectations on women regarding virginity, employment, overall savoir-faire, and so on. for Esther to find herself at first sensible and even comfortably adept in her surroundings, but on the next breath fumbling, insecure, and inevitably perplexed with the words, images, and people around her makes it understandable to the reader as to why Esther was driven to her breaking point.
this is a very insightful novel in many levels. slyly pulls you in and makes you aware of forces that you take for granted and you let dictate your life. its not just about the searing disappointments and hurts that fester one's soul, it's also about letting go and allowing oneself to simply become human, with all its imperfections.