This is the quote of the book because it perfectly represents her feeling towards her life. No matter what kind of life she is living, it is never good enough. Most people admire her life because outwardly, she has a wonderful, desirable life. She is successful and lucky. She works at a great company, is very privileged, makes a lot of money, and has lots of friends. Though she realizes that she has all of this, she feels disconnected with it. She doesn't believe she is talented or worthy of it in any way. She cannot enjoy her job and life the way the other girls she works with do. She grows to hate New York because it is so busy and confusing and superficial. She has expectations to be happy and enjoy herself but she cannot. This launches her into an even deeper depression, where she feels empty and alone.
Connections: This book reminds me a lot of the memoir I read called "Prozac Nation". Both women have feelings of depression that they simply cannot understand, because they both have a pretty good life from the outside. They both live in New York, are successful with their writing careers, have many friends, family members who care about them, etc. It makes them both even more upset when they realize that even though they should be happy, and have no reasons not to be, they cannot. They both get so depressed that they attempt suicide but both survive and somewhat overcome their depression.
This book relates to my own life in a way because I feel like I don't appreciate everything I am given either. Though it seems I have everything, a great family, amazing friends, a wonderful school, and all the opportunities to do well in my life I am not always completely happy and successful. When I think about the torture, abuse, and death that other people have to endure it makes me so angry at myself that I am not always happy and grateful.
Sylvia Plath's novel relates a lot to American society as a whole. Though it seems like as American's, we are all very privileged, an estimated twelve million American's suffer from depression. This book perfectly represents a large portion of our society, who is outwardly lucky but is inwardly sad and depressed.
Visual Representation:
Though this picture seems like the obvious picture to use for the book, it actually has quite a significant symbolic meaning. A bell jar is a bell-shaped glass that is used to protect delicate objects, usually of scientific apparatuses, and containing gas. Esther feels like she is inside of a bell jar because she feels trapped in an airless enclosure where she can't connect with the world around her. The bell jar is always with her, and she is either consumed underneath it or watching as it hovers above her, threatening to drop over her.
Questions
Some questions I considered while reading the book were these:
What role does the time period she was living in (1950's) affect the way she feels during her life?
What role do relationships play in Esther's life (with men, with her parents, etc)?
Is the ending of the novel hopeful or hopeless?
Are her insecurities about herself true, or imagined?
Was it a certain events or events that triggered her depression, or was it an inevitable, gradual decent into depression?
Reflection
Though usually I don't particularly enjoy most "classic novels" because of the old writing style that is hard to relate to, The Bell Jar was a definite exception. The novel had a very contemporary writing style despite being written in the 1960's. It was also very relatable, because mental illness is something that stays the same no matter how much time goes by. The book is so believable because it is based of Plath's own feelings and her own life. Even if you have never dealt with depression, you can still completely relate to the emotions she is feeling. Sylvia Plath also has a wonderful writing style, perfectly balancing humor and satire with harrowing misery. The only criticism for this novel that I can come up with is that you have to understand that it is a dark, miserable, gloomy novel, and if you don't have an open mind Esther can be hard to understand because she is so consumed by depression. Also, there isn't really one main event, but rather a gradual progression of events. Personally, however, I loved every part of this book.
