Review of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Series: None
Author:  Sylvia Plath
Book in a series: Stand-alone
Pages: 273
Goodreads Excerpt:
Sylvia Plath's shocking, realistic, and intensely emotional novel about a woman falling into the grip of insanity

Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.

Review:
This is my second time reading The Bell Jar and I have to say, for some reason I liked it less this time.  It has been a while since I read it for the first time and I remembered some things differently which was kind of annoying.  That is entirely my fault, though.


What we get to witness from then on is Esther's downward spiral.  Her struggles with finding a place to fit in really resonated with me.  I think they would with most people because everyone goes through a period of trying to find their place in society and in life.  I didn't like how serious her condition seemed to be, what with being in an asylum and having shock treatments, when it really wasn't THAT bad.  That is probably just the different time periods in play, though, as I know things were much different back then.  Things they considered to be a huge deal aren't considered to be such now.

She didn't the last time I read it, but Esther got on my nerves a little bit this time.  I don't know what it was about her, but I felt like she saw everyone else as beneath her.  She didn't fit in with them so they didn't matter.  She didn't even seem to like the girls she made friends with very much.  I felt like she was a bit stuck up and that maybe part of her problem was that she needed to pull her head out of her butt.

I can see why this book is a popular classic because who doesn't relate in some way, honestly?  I just think it is one of those books that, almost being 27 myself, I have pretty much grown out of.  I have grown out of the mindset that you need to really see it as fantastic.  It is a bummer, though, because I enjoyed it a lot before I decided to re-read it.

Rating:  4 of 5.

Warning!  Spoilers:

What is with Esther having nearly zero friends during the entire book?  Even people she WAS friends with didn't seem to be very close to her.  The closest I saw was Buddy Willard, and she got to the point where she couldn't stand him.  I think it's just society's standards being different now, but I definitely think her being so put off by Buddy's sexual experience makes her a prude.  I hate the ideas people had back then.  I don't think it's a bad thing to save yourself for someone if that is what you choose to do, and it's not even bad to want someone who also has their virginity.  But it isn't okay to think that others should choose the same way you may and if they don't, to look down upon them for it.  That's just my two cents.  Take it how you will.

Has anyone else read The Bell Jar?  What did you think of it?