The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath.

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“I saw the years of my life spaced along a road in the form of telephone poles, threaded together by wires.  I counted one, two, three … nineteen poles, and then the wires dangled into space, and try as I would, I couldn’t see a single pole beyond the nineteenth.”(Plath 123)

This quote sums up the entire novel, The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath.  Esther, the main character, is afraid of the future and what independence might bring.  She is a girl of nineteen just starting out in the world.  Esther encounters trouble with herself because she has no idea where she wants to go or who she wants to be.  During her short stay in New York, her boss asks her what she wants to be.  Esther, once confident, replies now that she is unknowing.  The major conflict through out the entire novel is Esther trying to find herself.  This theme is not fictional however; the author’s inspiration for this story was her own life.  During her six-year marriage to the English poet Ted Hughes, she was forced to move to England and leave the familiarity of America.  This caused Sylvia to “plunge into a horrific psychic abyss” (www.allsands.com). Much like Esther, Sylvia was a Fullbright scholar at the college of Cambridge.  Sylvia met her husband there and shortly after they moved to London.  During the period of time where she met her husband and her death, Sylvia struggled with the same issues the main character did in the book.  Sylvia had two children, which she loved dearly but shortly after the birth of their second child, Ted had decided the marriage failed so he left his family.  Diminishing and continually unhappy, Sylvia Plath became fascinated with death as a result of this travesty as displayed in the book, once again, much like Esther.  The Bell Jar is almost completely autobiographical, only at the end Sylvia does not get better.  She left milk and bread for her children and quietly gassed herself in the kitchen (1963).  (www.allsands.com)

It was because of the theme of this book that it became a classic.  It was the first of it’s kind to bring the reader into the mind of a girl, becoming part of the intricate and realistic journey through herself.  A great impact is placed on the reader because of the memorable story as well as a plot that remains stagnant in the mind.  This classic novel arouses questions and provokes thought partly because this story is not completely fictional.  This novel is unique even though the main character, Esther, goes through normal feelings of inadequacy that many adolescents do. Prior to this novel, these issues had never been addressed in a novel before.  Also, when Sylvia Plath writes, she “strips away the polite veneer.  She lets her writing express elemental forces and primeval fears.” (writers.com/literature/Plath)

In the book, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther Greenwood undergoes complications in her life while encountering trials and tribulations in her quest for independence, that teach her; life is full of uncertainty, it takes courage to live, and things still do go wrong, but you can recover.

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The theme of the book shows life’s little twists and turns while Plath brings Esther on an emotional roller coaster.  Esther, the main character, always had issues from her past.  Her father died when she was just eight and left nothing for the family, which sent them into a downward emotional and physical spiral.  That kind of trauma would upset any family.  Esther’s frequent reminiscing shows her need for her father and her feelings about him dying.  Sylvia Plath’s father also died when she was just a girl.  This made the writing all the more believable because the author had ...

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