Reading Response The Bell Jar By Sylvia Plath - 781 Words

Reading Response (The Bell Jar) Throughout reading The Bell Jar, I was never attracted to the main character, Esther Greenwood, like I was with Hedda Gabler. I think possibly for me, Sylvia’s Plath’s writing is a bit too descriptive for my taste which kept me from enjoying the read as much as I’ve enjoyed other books; however, I do think Sylvia Plath did an excellent job characterizing Esther and her illness. Even though The Bell Jar is a work of fiction, Plath so accurately described Esther’s symptoms and followed her treatment course that it might as well have been a memoir. What I liked about the The Bell Jar was how Plath was able to transform something so far off from a lot of people into something that anyone could have an†¦show more content†¦After listing all those life stresses out, it’s easy to understand how those normal experiences and depressive symptoms together could push that person into severe depression. It was interesting reading of Esther’s mother’s perspective on her illness and her misunderstanding of it, which is a theme I’ve seen across the works we’ve read so far in this class. In The Bell Jar, her mom seems to have the idea that Esther is depressed on her own accord and says at one point how glad she is that Esther â€Å"decided to be well again† as if it’s been in her control the whole time. This relates to the rest cure in The Yellow Wallpaper because with that, the idea is that the state of rest, lack of intellectual stimulation, and a carb based diet will make the person want to have their normal life back, so therefore they will be back to normal. However, this was a misunderstanding of the illness similar to how it is misunderstood in The Bell Jar. This made me think about how some people view suicide as selfish whereas that is really just a misunderstanding of what can bring someone to want to kill themselves. Another thing I liked about The Bell Jar was that it gave a very real idea about what asylums were like and the stigma attached to them. Plath highlighted stigmaShow MoreRelatedThe Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath1211 Words   |  5 PagesSylvia Plath Research Paper Title The Bell Jar place[s] [the] turbulent months[of an adolescent’s life] in[to] mature perspective (Hall, 30). In The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath uses parallelism, stream of consciousness, the motif of renewal and rebirth, symbolism of the boundary-driven entrapped mentally ill, and auto-biographical details to epitomize the mental downfall of protagonist, Esther Greenwood. Plath also explores the idea of how grave these timeless and poignant issues can affect a fragileRead More Conflict between Individuality and Conformity in The Bell Jar2060 Words   |  9 PagesConflict between Individuality and Conformity in The Bell Jar    In Sylvia Plaths novel The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood seems incapable of healthy relationships with other women. She is trapped in a patriarchal society with rigid expectations of womanhood. The cost of transgressing social norms is isolation, institutionalization and a lost identity as woman. The struggle for an individual identity under this regime is enough to drive a person to the verge of suicide. Given the oppressive systemRead MoreThe Bell Jar, By Sylvia Plath1657 Words   |  7 PagesOf the two readings we were given to select from for our Midterm Assignment, I chose to conduct my initial psychosocial and diagnostic assessment on the character, Esther, from the semi-autobiographical novel â€Å"The Bell Jar†, by Sylvia Plath. The protagonist in the novel is a 19-year-old girl from the suburbs of Boston growing up in the 1950’s who has accepted a summer internship working at a prominent magazine in New York City. It is made clear from the beginning of the nove l that Esther’s moveRead MoreTypes Of Major Depressive Disorder1614 Words   |  7 Pagesof the disorder. Through reading on the disorder, and the psychology classes I have taken, I was able to push past the stigma and what I was socialized to believe. I disregard the saying that it’s just a sign of weakness, and people just need to get over it. I learned that anyone can be affected by the disorder, even someone who is privileged, and lives a comfortable life. It is not always an environmental/sociocultural cause, but can be a more chemical/biological response. This definitely reinforcedRead More Holding Onto Reality975 Words   |  4 PagesReality For me, Holding On to Reality, by , does just that: grabs on to the realest, most relatable ideas about the Information Age, and refuses to let go. I have had a difficult time talking and writing about Borgmann. For our class listserv responses, I felt like I had nothing to comment on. In our class discussions, I had a hard time figuring out what everyone was talking about. Borgmann’s writing style (and diction and even content) is clear and straightforward, and it leaves me at a lossRead MoreAnalysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo s Nest 3755 Words   |  16 PagesClerambault’s syndrome which habitually affects women. While Plath struggled with the â€Å"ardent feminist within her’’, she sought to â€Å"embrace the ideology of feminineness that had been indoctrinated into the women of her generation’’ leading to a â€Å"schizophrenic split within herself’’, a struggle not shared by McEwan and Kesey. Kesey described himself as ‘’comfortable with {his} identity and masculinity’’ as he understood he was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie’’ and so his