the bell jar

[dre bin laden]

does anyone want to talk about sylvia plath's the bell jar? sometimes i wonder if she planned the ending with her suicide. i mean, the way i interpreted it, the ending was pretty optimistic. she wasn't suicidal, she seemed pretty ok, and she's feeling somewhat confident of the meeting she's about to have. but plath doesn't tell us if she leaves the asylum or not, except we do know that she eventually does because in the beginning, only once, there is a reference to esther's child. but then we have the information that we know, which is plath killed herself the year after the bell jar was published. so was this unplanned, or is plath trying to tell us something about esther's future, the returning of the bell jar, and the hopelessness of trying to get help?
also, the symbolism in that book is friggen erie. there is so much symbolic criticism of american gender roles in the 1950s, american societal conventions, and certain moralities.
something spooky: you know mrs. tomollilo in the psych ward who acts like the "mom" and serves everyone their food and gets discharged? go back to the chapter where buddy takes esther to the hospital to observe a baby's birth (when the woman is being drugged and esther is criticising the men who must have invented the drug)...the woman giving birth...what's her name again?
im getting chills thinking about it..

[Rorschach Twin]

Don't think that Sylvia Plath was trying to throw the world for a loop and add insight to her book. It's thought that Plath didn't actually attempt to succeed. In fact, she left a note that said "Call Dr. Horder", obviously reflecting that she didn't truly expect to die.

The book is excellent, but don't try to make it into something like Crime and Punishment. The symbolism is just not present. It's truly just a semi-autobiographic novel about Plath's decent into mental illness, of which she never truly escaped.

[Man In Room 5]

There is a Sylvia Plath thread if you're interested, but it sort of died (make your own joke on that).

[Bete Noire]

Interesting that so many people dislike her. I admit I haven't read a huge amount of her work, but what I've read I quite liked.

[Apathy's_Child]

Originally Posted by Bete Noire

Interesting that so many people dislike her. I admit I haven't read a huge amount of her work, but what I've read I quite liked.

You know, I don't actually dislike her work as much as I often sound like I do. It's more the worldview behind the words - that relentless self-indulgence grates. One particular line just about sums her up for me: "I think I may be a Jew." Yeah....... growing up angsty is EXACTLY like living through the Holocaust. Jackass.

Now, Ted Hughes....... there's a thread I could get into. The dude was an awesome poet, unlike his wife, who was merely okay.