The Bell Jar Was Not Enjoyable
I cannot say I completely understand what happened in The Bell Jar. I understand the basic plot: there was a woman who was in New York on an all expenses paid fashion trip and began succumbing to depression. She goes to see a doctor who is not good at his job. She gets worse and makes an attempt at suicide and is moved to a mental health institution where she eventually gets better. I understand it on a broad scope but the narration was confusing and made this unenjoyable.
Similar to Catcher in the Rye, The Bell Jar was a somewhat mundane retelling of events of a young adult spiraling out of control. Catcher in the Rye may not really have had a story but at least it was linear, the same cannot be said for this book. The way this writing style was approached was a major factor in my dislike of this book. I could not tell when some events were happening. The constant stories from her past intermixed with the current timeline was a jumbled mess for me; I did not enjoy it. If so much previous information was pertinent to the story, she should have had a few chapters describing her life at college and dating Buddy instead of having a flash back every chapter.
Esther is not a likable character. Some of my problems with her are in part due to her mental illness because I liked her a lot more at the beginning of the book. I think she is rude and generally mean. She wants to cheat on Buddy and hates him simply because she found out he was not a virgin. She tells Joan she dislikes her right after Joan tells Esther she is fond of her. She tells Irwin she will never see him right after he says he will foot the bill for her medical problem. This is on top of her generally being unkind to people at the hospital but I think that is her mental illness. So in summary, I do not like the main character of this book and it makes it more difficult to remain engaged in the story.
On top of the nonlinear storytelling, a lot of the characters were also very forgettable and seemed inconsequential. This contributed to my confusion as well as made me care less about the story because they were not important. I think the epitome of this is Joan. I did not even realize Joan was Buddy’s girlfriend until the very end of the book. She was a very forgettable character and I just did not get why she was there. The ending made her significance greater but I was still left feeling like I did not know why she was included in this story.
Overall, I did not enjoy this book. I think it is a good representation of mental illness and problems in the 21st century but I cannot say that I liked it, think it is a good book, or even recommend it to anyone on the merits it does have.
I really liked reading your blogpost and I think you made some really good points, however, I really liked Esther and I liked the book a lot. I agree that Esther can be mean and rude and I think kind of unpleasant, but I thought that the book was a really good look into one way that depression can look. I saw this book as a really interesting and thought-provoking and its descriptions were incredibly vivid. I did not like The Catcher in the Rye because I found it really surface level and it was hard to relate to Holden, but I found that I could really relate to Esther because of this books descriptions. I really liked how Sylvia Plath went back and forth between time periods and I think that it made this book more interesting and easier to understand than the Catcher and the Rye.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your post. I felt like many of the characters were one-dimensional (lacked depth), although again that's probably due to her mental illness. I did find the writing style to be a bit dry compared to Catcher in the Rye, and I preferred the first half of the book over the second. I wish Esther herself was a little bit less one-dimensional, because even with mental illness, I felt that there was more to her that we didn't get to hear. What happened to her creativity? Her talent? Her ideas? Even in the midst of mental illness, is there nothing good that can come from Esther? No redeeming qualities?
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting how Holden clearly had mental health issues but didn't seem to be nearly as in tune with them as Esther. His weren't as severe, either though. I will say I didn't particularly enjoy reading either of these books, but I did like The Bell Jar more. I have to wonder if gender plays a role in liking these books, because I felt like Holden was so annoyingly angsty and while I didn't particularly enjoy Esther's character I did feel more of a connection to her. I think Holden really didn't understand his own feelings, whereas Esther did and that made it much easier for me as a reader.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on a few of your points. Number one, I did not find the book enjoyable. At all. I'd be surprised if anyone did. It's sad, depressing, and melancholy, and I had to read it in bits so that I wouldn't have my mood ruined by it. However, I do believe that it is a good book. I found it well written, and it engaged me in her story. I think it is also a big contrast for me from Catcher in the Rye. I loved the book. Even though Holden was annoying, I found it kind of cheery from time to time, and I loved reading it. Like Serenity mentioned, I definitely saw a link in gender with these books, especially in our class. There was a general pattern of empathy from boys towards Holden, and the other way around for Esther. Obviously it isn't like that for everyone, but judging by the fact that we can all agree that both Esther and Holden aren't likeable, I personally had more of a connection to Holden.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that the middle of the book became jumbled and was harder to follow, this perfectly represents Esther's mental state in the middle of the book. I must disagree when you call the narrative mundane. I think Plath's imagery and metaphors make this story anything but mundane. Plath is able to describe severe depression in a way that makes it real to the reader without directly TELLING the reader what it's like. I personally enjoyed this book, even though it was dark, the writing was phenomenal.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I liked it. It's a character piece, true, so if you don't like the character you'll have a hard time liking the book. However, a lot of the potentially off putting narrative choices made sense for the character. She is mentally ill, and experiences the world in a specific way, so if her narration was stable and basic it would be harder to understand her view point. I also thought the writing was great, Plath used her poetry skills, the imagery made otherwise boring scenes alien and engaging. To be fair there's not much of a plot, but it was short enough that it worked for me.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, it doesn't meet some traditional novel requirements, like a cohesive plot or an overarching goal, but nontraditional is refreshing, particularly in a "classic" novel.
I agree with Erin's comment here. I think it's perfectly fine to not like Esther, and I can acknowledge that she sometimes makes it a bit hard to root for her, like with her instances of rudeness you pointed out (although I'd like to mention that I think she's 100000% valid and honestly not that rude in the Irwin situation. Like man, what obligation does she have to see him again? It was literally a one-night-stand, plus the guy did kind of cause her "medical problem"). However, I think that it's important to show that Esther isn't just this perfect, kind saint, especially while struggling with her mental illness. It made her seem more real and genuine, like how sometimes when I feel really awful I kind of want to lash out at anyone and everyone nearby.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think enjoying the writing style and structure is very largely a personal thing. For me, I really enjoyed it, and I don't think I'd like if all her flashbacks were condensed into a few chapters at the very beginning. Especially since the novel is centered around showing Esther's spiral, which seems to only seriously start in New York. Starting the novel earlier would just be odd to me, but to each their own. Even if I don't completely agree with you, I enjoyed reading this post and seeing your perspective of the book
Honestly, I agree with you that I didn't really enjoy the book. I still think it has its merits and is worth a read, but I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it to anyone. My main issue is the confusing, nonlinear storytelling you were talking about. It made the story unnecessarily hard to follow and could have been improved with your suggestion of a few background chapters instead of flashbacks. Overall though, I still think it paints an interesting picture of mental illness though.
ReplyDeleteThis was such an interesting take. While I completely and totally agree with you that Esther herself was unlikable (especially the way she treats her mother), the narration is actually what saved it for me. I liked all the metaphors and descriptive words, and I actually found the flashbacks relatively easy to follow but I understand how that could have been weird to read, the timing did sometimes feel awkward. I can't imagine a circumstance in which I would recommend this book to someone but I'm really glad I read it. Appreciate seeing a unique opinion in the blog posts, good job!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree this novel can only be enjoyed if you care about the main character, since as you said there isn’t much plot. I think I was able to get something out of it because Esther was relatable to me and seeing those kinds of small moments like lashing out when angry, or assuming things about people due to personal expectations, magnified to such a scale as she experienced them, was pretty interesting.
ReplyDeleteI would say that her shock and disgust as finding out about Buddy’s affair came off as more of a feeling of betrayal to me because his reputation and values suggested he would be “pure” – her main problem being that she felt deceived. It doesn’t seem like she has anything against people who aren’t virgins considering how much she herself wants to lose her virginity and that she considered only other men who also weren’t virgins.
Your point on Erwin surprised me, since her actions seemed pretty reasonable to me - their encounter did not end well for her at all and paying her medical bill was just an obligation - it’s not like he was going out of his way to do her a favor. Honestly I can’t imagine why she would want to speak to him again.
What I found funny is that Holden would probably like Esther. Esther does not hold back her true thoughts, even when they are quite mean and destructive. Additionally, Esther shares many of the struggles that Holden faced, and they would probably agree on many topics. Esther might be the unphony person that Holden was looking for. As for your dislike of the book, I can understand your point of view, but I personally enjoyed the book.
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