BOOKS: The Bell Jar

Remember when I mentioned The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath at the beginning of my New York adventures?  Well, when I wrote about it then, I was still at the beginning of the book when Esther Greenwood, the female protagonist, was doing a magazine internship in New York City.  I had so much hope for her to see where she would go after finishing the internship and continuing her college career.  However, things took a turn for the worst.

After coming back home from New York City, Esther stopped sleeping, eating and writing for weeks.  She was going through some kind of mental condition that she was sent to a mental asylum.  The rest of the book follows her as she moves from different mental hospitals and as her condition continues to get worst.  She has suicidal thoughts as well as moments of depression.  She undergoes several sessions of shock therapy, but does it really work?

I had no idea all that was going to happen when I picked up the book.  It was an interesting read yet quite depressing to see such a strong character lose it.

When I started reading, I was thinking of all the different ways Esther and I were similar, especially since she had a magazine internship in New York City and was a college student.  It made it easy to relate to her from the get-go, but everything changed...

I read the biography of Sylvia Plath in the back of book after completing the novel and discovered that The Bell Jar was a semi-autobiography.  Some of the events in the book were parallel to those in Plath's.  I was surprised to see that those events happened to her in real life.  It's so depressing because she had it all - a good family and a successful writing career.  I wonder what makes people change so drastically in just a short period of time.

Some reviews claimed that The Bell Jar was the female version of The Catcher in the Rye, which is one of my favorite books.  I can somewhat see why they would think that because both books cover that moment in a young adult's life where his/her life changes as he/she enters adulthood, kind of like the moment I'm living in right now.  However, I think the books have different endings about how the protagonist accepts that change in his/her life.

Overall, I was surprised by the book, and I thought there were moments when I wouldn't be able to continue reading.  However, I felt a need to see what happens to Esther - to see if she gets better, to see if she returns to school, to see if she remains friends with Buddy, and more.  I'm glad I was able to finish the book though because I was having a hard time getting back into reading.

P.S. This is my first subway book.  What's next...?