The Bell Jar
The Bell Jar (Modern Classics)
THE BELL JAR
SYLVIA PLATH
Welcome back folks :) Hope you're doing all well with the heat,with the sunny days at the beach or some of you may be at work as well.As to me,the only concern of the day is what book is next to be read xp Dont envy me xp Take some time for yourself as well,grab a novel and read it.There is always time for some cheecky reading ;) In case you dont have time,take a look at my blog,scroll and scroll and scroooll,im sure it will affect you to read a book after then xp
-I've been looking forward to have some Sylvia Plath's miracle and here it is.., The Bell Jar!
First thing first-The Bell Jar: the novel's title,itself made of glass,is evolved from her notion of disconnection:the head of each mentally ill person is enclosed in a bell jar,chocking on his own foul air.
PLOT-The story takes place in the summer of 1953.Esther Greenwood is a bright 19-years old girl working as an editorial for a famous women magazine in New York.Despite her academic ambition sshe feels so small,discouraged and isolated from society.Feeling the pressure of the world against her she escapes and goes back living with her mother in Boston.
-During summer,Esther has those flashback about her problematic relationship with her on and off boyfriend Buddy Willard,a medical student.Along these flashbacks i learned how firstly Esther idolized Buddy,and then became disilusioned when she learned that he had had a sexual affair.Buddy then got ill with TBC and Esther visited him sometime.She was the one who rejected his proposal marriage.
-Back with her mother,she found out that she was not accepted into a summer creative writing job,after she quickly spirals down into a suicidal depression.She was cosulted with dr.Gordon,a psychiatrist,whom he put her under some electroshock therapy which to her was disastrious.
Esther then got a lot of sleeping pills and hide herself in the basement which she was soon found still alive.Esther,was sent then to some institution,where she meets a compasionate female doctor,Dr.Nolan.Esther met there a high school friend,Joan,who also dated Buddy Willard.
-Esther's life is again threatened,when after a sexual encounter with a math proffesor she meets in Cambridge during the off days away from the institution.After that,she hemorrhages.Joan,who is now living in Cambridge helps Esther to the emergency room,and then Esther gets back to institution.
-Joan,as well gets back to the instituiton,where she commits suicide near the institution's ground soon after.Esther's condition improves.The novel end in the winter of 1954 as Esther enters her exit interview,which will determine if she is ready to leave!
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? ...we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
— Franz Kafka; January 27, 1904
Until next time..,
Lots of love SHEJLA xxx
THE BELL JAR
SYLVIA PLATH
Welcome back folks :) Hope you're doing all well with the heat,with the sunny days at the beach or some of you may be at work as well.As to me,the only concern of the day is what book is next to be read xp Dont envy me xp Take some time for yourself as well,grab a novel and read it.There is always time for some cheecky reading ;) In case you dont have time,take a look at my blog,scroll and scroll and scroooll,im sure it will affect you to read a book after then xp
-I've been looking forward to have some Sylvia Plath's miracle and here it is.., The Bell Jar!
First thing first-The Bell Jar: the novel's title,itself made of glass,is evolved from her notion of disconnection:the head of each mentally ill person is enclosed in a bell jar,chocking on his own foul air.
-During summer,Esther has those flashback about her problematic relationship with her on and off boyfriend Buddy Willard,a medical student.Along these flashbacks i learned how firstly Esther idolized Buddy,and then became disilusioned when she learned that he had had a sexual affair.Buddy then got ill with TBC and Esther visited him sometime.She was the one who rejected his proposal marriage.
-Back with her mother,she found out that she was not accepted into a summer creative writing job,after she quickly spirals down into a suicidal depression.She was cosulted with dr.Gordon,a psychiatrist,whom he put her under some electroshock therapy which to her was disastrious.
Esther then got a lot of sleeping pills and hide herself in the basement which she was soon found still alive.Esther,was sent then to some institution,where she meets a compasionate female doctor,Dr.Nolan.Esther met there a high school friend,Joan,who also dated Buddy Willard.
-Esther's life is again threatened,when after a sexual encounter with a math proffesor she meets in Cambridge during the off days away from the institution.After that,she hemorrhages.Joan,who is now living in Cambridge helps Esther to the emergency room,and then Esther gets back to institution.
-Joan,as well gets back to the instituiton,where she commits suicide near the institution's ground soon after.Esther's condition improves.The novel end in the winter of 1954 as Esther enters her exit interview,which will determine if she is ready to leave!
THE FIG TREE
Apart from the Bell Jar symbol,Sylvia Plath used the fig tree as another abstract symbol.
"I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet"
-This tree becomes a symbol of the life choices that faces Esther.She imagines that each fig represents a different life.She can only choose one fig,but because she wants all of them,she sits paralyzed with indecision,and the figs rot and fall to the ground.
THE BEATING HEART.
Another present symbol is as well the beating heart when Esther tries to kill herself but she find that her body is determined to live.Esther remarks that if it were up to her,she could kill herself in no time.The beating heart is the bodily desire for life.
Also another time when she tries to drown herself in the sea,her heart beats "I AM,I AM,I AM".
This phrase is also repeated at her friend's funeral Joan.
-I,personally found this semi-autobiographical novel still very present nowadays.More and more this society is becoming unbearable,careless,ambitious and emotionless.Instead not all the people are the same,not all of us is able to get through.Some are strong and powerful,some are delicate,some are emotional,some are frightened but we have our common poles: Body and spirit.We all have a heart.
-What Sylvia has done in her novel is to throw together events from her own life,fictionalizing to add color-its a pot boiler,truly showing how isolated a person feels when he is suffering a breakdown...She has pictured her world and the people in it as seen through the distorting lens of a bell jar.
I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? ...we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
— Franz Kafka; January 27, 1904
Until next time..,
Lots of love SHEJLA xxx
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