The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I read this book back in the beginning of the semester, but I wanted to come back to it and respond to some of the questions that Professor Cole posed in her comment on my first post. The significance of the title is that Esther, the main character, feels as if she's trapped in a bell jar. She feels cut off from the outside world and starved for air. She feels trapped by her own mind and depression and she feels as if there's a world going on around her that she can't access. From what I've learned about depression through The Bell Jar, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Shoot the Damn Dog: A Memoir of Depression, the bell jar metaphor is a pretty good metaphor for how people with depression often feel. 

 In regards to how I feel about the text beyond the story it tells, I enjoyed Plath's writing. It was poetic and subtle in its beauty. She didn't use overly big or impressive words, but her word choice always felt spot on. It was impactful writing without being pretentious. The only character that felt fully built was Esther, but that's okay because the novel was centered on her. As I mentioned in my first post, it was sort of crazy how quickly Esther's depression started impacting her life. When the book first starts, you don't really pick up on her depression. Something about her feels a little off, but I just thought she was a little strange and stressed due to an important internship. You quickly start to realize that Esther is not okay. Esther felt rounded-out as a character and as the book progresses, you get more and more in terms of how Esther feels about her own depression. I'm not sure if this book would be such a classic if it weren't for its subject matter. However, it's a beautiful book and I'm glad I read it as part of my single story project. 

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