Book Review: The Bell Jar

     I watched another video on YouTube of book recommendations, and Scarlett Turner, recommended the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I knew this book was about a girl who is depressed, but I did not know the severity of it. Actually I read this book over spring break on the drive to Florida, and a relative of mine saw I was reading it and she even warned me about how severe Esther's depression was. A little background behind the book, Sylvia Plath wrote this as a biography, but she changed the names, places, and dates, but everything that happened in the book happened to her in a way. The book was released in the 1963, so it has a lot of 'old school' writing, but it is actually pretty cool to read about the differences between the modern day now to back then in the 40's-60's.

     When I first started reading the book, it did not seem like her life was depressing because she was on a scholarship trip in New York for a magazine company, and she was living the life doing hard work by day and party by night. Esther and the other seven girls would have paid meals that were very high end, and they would go to fashion shows, they were living the life. At times Esther would be alone in her hotel room feeling depressed and alone, but that was all that really happened.

     There were a lot of flashbacks in the book to her collage days of living in a dorm and going on speed dates, having the biggest crush on a Yale student. Sylvia showed us what is was like to love someone for such a long time and then find out who they really are when the other person starts to show feelings back, and that throws Esther off completely from that person showing her what a hypocrite this guy is.

     It starts to get to the holy crap what happened to Esther part, after her trip in New York is over. Things start going the wrong way with school and it just seems like there is nothing for Esther, and her mother starts to notice Esther is not herself. That is when the first shock treatment happened, the shock treatment was suppose to make Esther feel like herself again but obviously that didn't work because why the heck would shocking yourself make life seem like ponies and rainbows? After the first shock treatment, things get much, much worse. Let's just say Esther had a failed attempt at suicide and was taken to multiple asylums, all paid for by a lady Esther had met in New York, who was very famous for her work, and the lady was very touched by Esther that she felt she needed to help Esther back to a healthy mind.

Sylvia Plath

     The Bell Jar, is a very serious read, there were so many things that had happened to Esther that lead her to the deep depression she went into. When my relative saw that I had been reading this book, she had to told me to keep away from another relative because it might give them the wrong ideas, but really I think this book shows you what could happen if you entered this kind of depression, and what you could do to prevent it. I am not saying, if you're are thinking of harm yourself you should read this book about another girl who is harming herself. I am just saying that it could give you a different look on how things could go if you really steered yourself from it. I recommend this book to people who can handle graphic things, and hard situations, but I would keep this book away from the younger side of teens, because going through the teen phase is a hard time, so once you know who are as a person, this book is a good read.