1. The passage that Im choosing from my independent reading book is the description when Esther is going into Doctor gordons Hospital and she is going to shock therapy. She describes the people who are living there and the smells there and it really put me in the place of the writer.
2. The main character of this book was from Northampton Massachusetts, and went to Smith College, and I think if she was in my shoes she would be happier because my life is not as hard as hers.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
no.11
1. Intertexually, I think that my character easily relates to Ophelia, but she is also a character that is hard to define through other people, because it is autobiographical.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
no. 10
1.The character that I know the most about from my reading so far is Esther, the main character who plays the authors autobiographical character at Smith college. I have mixed feelings toward her because i both admire and dislike her. I admire her because she is a writer and seems motivated acidemically, but also has a manipulative side when it comes to professers, which may seem evil but is a skill that if you can obtain it, i would say use it. I also like her because she is somewhat neurotic and i think that makes me more curious about the book and want to know what happens in the ending because on the back it says that she has a suicide attempt. so the reader is already informed that the book will have some major change at some point. i am anxoius to see when.
i somewhat dislike esther (silvia) because she seems a bit pretentious for how insecure she is. But she also is pretty neurotic, so i guess that makes sense. She see's everything in black and white, and does not look at the gray scale of life.
I like the way she deals with an illness that takes over her whole hotel floor. she is away in NYC for an internship for young writers and fashon magazines (maybe that is why she is somewhat pretentious) and she describes the feeling of her throwing up and she was so sick she was going to die. "I felt the sickness in great waves." I thought it was a good description for me to really feel the pain as a reader.
If my character found a $100 bill on the ground, i think that she is the type of person who would not know what to do with it. She would over analyze it too much, or think herself into some sort of panic attack, and would have to give it to the next person she saw or just leave it on the ground. But not in a kind way, more in a distressed way because she is so indecisive.
1.b
I uploaded this image because the last few chaptes i have read have been somewhat depressing, and this is a famous poem (also known as a very depressing one) bu the author called "Mad Girls Love Song" This is the first and last line of the poem.
Two other quotations I found in the reading that I saved because I thought they were significant were -
"When I was nineteen pureness was the great issue.
Instead of the world being divided up into Catholics and Protestants or Republicans and Democrates or White men and Black men or even men and women, I saw the world devided into people who had slept with somebody and and people who hadent. And this seemed the really only significant difference between one person or another. I thought a spectacular change would come the day I crossed the boundary line."
You can tell a lot about Esthers character from that quote- and the next one you can also tell a lot about that also relates back to the 100 dollar bill question.
"I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldnt make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as i sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one they ploped to the ground at my feet."
pages 63 & 66
i somewhat dislike esther (silvia) because she seems a bit pretentious for how insecure she is. But she also is pretty neurotic, so i guess that makes sense. She see's everything in black and white, and does not look at the gray scale of life.
I like the way she deals with an illness that takes over her whole hotel floor. she is away in NYC for an internship for young writers and fashon magazines (maybe that is why she is somewhat pretentious) and she describes the feeling of her throwing up and she was so sick she was going to die. "I felt the sickness in great waves." I thought it was a good description for me to really feel the pain as a reader.
If my character found a $100 bill on the ground, i think that she is the type of person who would not know what to do with it. She would over analyze it too much, or think herself into some sort of panic attack, and would have to give it to the next person she saw or just leave it on the ground. But not in a kind way, more in a distressed way because she is so indecisive.
1.b
I uploaded this image because the last few chaptes i have read have been somewhat depressing, and this is a famous poem (also known as a very depressing one) bu the author called "Mad Girls Love Song" This is the first and last line of the poem.
Two other quotations I found in the reading that I saved because I thought they were significant were -
"When I was nineteen pureness was the great issue.
Instead of the world being divided up into Catholics and Protestants or Republicans and Democrates or White men and Black men or even men and women, I saw the world devided into people who had slept with somebody and and people who hadent. And this seemed the really only significant difference between one person or another. I thought a spectacular change would come the day I crossed the boundary line."
You can tell a lot about Esthers character from that quote- and the next one you can also tell a lot about that also relates back to the 100 dollar bill question.
"I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldnt make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as i sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one they ploped to the ground at my feet."
pages 63 & 66
Saturday, May 5, 2012
no. 9
I find that it's hard for me to hold my attention on a book for too long if I am not interested in it enough. This book is great, and if you like to read, you will like it. If you don't like to read, you will like it too.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
no. 8
Plath was so concerned about the closeness of her novel to her life that she published it under a pseudonym, Victoria Lucas (just as in the novel Esther plans to publish a novel of her life under a different name). It only appeared under Plath's real name in 1966, three years after she committed suicide.
Overview: The Bell Jar
The story relates a year in the life of Esther Greenwood, who seems to have a rosy future in front of her. Having won a competition to guest edit a magazine, she travels to New York. But, she worries about the fact that she is still a virgin; her encounters with men in New York go badly awry. Esther's time in New York heralds the start of a slow mental breakdown; she slowly loses interest in all the hopes and dreams.
Dropping out of college and staying listlessly at home, her parents decide that something is wrong and take her to a psychiatrist, who refers her to a unit that specialises in shock therapy. Esther's condition spirals even further downwards due to this inhumane treatment, and she finally decides to commit suicide. Her attempt misfires however, and a rich older lady whose support Esther had gained through her writing agrees to pay for treatment in a center that does not believe in shock therapy as a method for treating the ill.
Esther slowly starts her road to recovery, but a friend she has made at the hospital isn't so lucky. Joan--a gay woman who had, unbeknownst to Esther, fallen in love with her--appeared to be cured of her illness, but she commits suicide when she leaves the hospital. Esther decides to take control of her life and is once more determined to go to college. However, she knows that the dangerous illness that put her life at risk could strike again at any time.
The story relates a year in the life of Esther Greenwood, who seems to have a rosy future in front of her. Having won a competition to guest edit a magazine, she travels to New York. But, she worries about the fact that she is still a virgin; her encounters with men in New York go badly awry. Esther's time in New York heralds the start of a slow mental breakdown; she slowly loses interest in all the hopes and dreams.
Dropping out of college and staying listlessly at home, her parents decide that something is wrong and take her to a psychiatrist, who refers her to a unit that specialises in shock therapy. Esther's condition spirals even further downwards due to this inhumane treatment, and she finally decides to commit suicide. Her attempt misfires however, and a rich older lady whose support Esther had gained through her writing agrees to pay for treatment in a center that does not believe in shock therapy as a method for treating the ill.
Esther slowly starts her road to recovery, but a friend she has made at the hospital isn't so lucky. Joan--a gay woman who had, unbeknownst to Esther, fallen in love with her--appeared to be cured of her illness, but she commits suicide when she leaves the hospital. Esther decides to take control of her life and is once more determined to go to college. However, she knows that the dangerous illness that put her life at risk could strike again at any time.
The Truth: The Bell Jar
Perhaps the single greatest achievement of Plath's novel is its outright commitment to truthfulness. Despite the fact that the novel has all the power and control of Plath's best poetry, it does not skew or transform her experiences in order to make her illness more or less dramatic. The Bell Jar takes the reader inside the experience of madness like very few books before or since.
When Esther considers suicide, she looks into the mirror and manages to see herself as a completely separate person--from herself and from the world. Being trapped inside the "bell jar"--the symbol Plath uses to explain this strange feeling of alienation--is precisely what stops her from functioning on a human level (at one point she even refuses to wash herself). But, the "bell jar" also steals away her happiness.
Plath is very careful not to see her illness as the manifestation of outside events. If anything, her dissatisfaction with her life is a manifestation of her illness. Equally, the end of the novel does not pose any easy answers. Esther understands that she is not cured; in fact, she realizes that she might never be cured, and that she must always be vigilant against the danger that lies within her own mind.
This danger made itself felt to the books author, Sylvia Plath, not very long after The Bell Jar was published. Plath committed suicide in her home in England.
Perhaps the single greatest achievement of Plath's novel is its outright commitment to truthfulness. Despite the fact that the novel has all the power and control of Plath's best poetry, it does not skew or transform her experiences in order to make her illness more or less dramatic. The Bell Jar takes the reader inside the experience of madness like very few books before or since.
When Esther considers suicide, she looks into the mirror and manages to see herself as a completely separate person--from herself and from the world. Being trapped inside the "bell jar"--the symbol Plath uses to explain this strange feeling of alienation--is precisely what stops her from functioning on a human level (at one point she even refuses to wash herself). But, the "bell jar" also steals away her happiness.
Plath is very careful not to see her illness as the manifestation of outside events. If anything, her dissatisfaction with her life is a manifestation of her illness. Equally, the end of the novel does not pose any easy answers. Esther understands that she is not cured; in fact, she realizes that she might never be cured, and that she must always be vigilant against the danger that lies within her own mind.
This danger made itself felt to the books author, Sylvia Plath, not very long after The Bell Jar was published. Plath committed suicide in her home in England.
A Study: The Bell Jar
The Bell Jar does not quite reach the poetic heights of Sylvia Plath's poetry (particularly her supreme collection Ariel, in which she investigates similar themes to those that can be found in The Bell Jar), but the novel should be judged on its own merits. Plath managed to instill a sense of powerful truthfulness and brevity of expression in the novel--which anchors it to real life.
When she chooses literary images to express her themes she cements these images in everyday life. For example, the book opens with an image of the Rosenbergs who were executed by electrocution, an image that is repeated when Esther receives electro-shock treatment. Really, The Bell Jar is stunning portrayal of a particular time in a person's life and a brave attempt by Sylvia Plath to face her own demons. The novel will be read for generations to come."
'The Bell Jar' Review
The Bell Jar does not quite reach the poetic heights of Sylvia Plath's poetry (particularly her supreme collection Ariel, in which she investigates similar themes to those that can be found in The Bell Jar), but the novel should be judged on its own merits. Plath managed to instill a sense of powerful truthfulness and brevity of expression in the novel--which anchors it to real life.
When she chooses literary images to express her themes she cements these images in everyday life. For example, the book opens with an image of the Rosenbergs who were executed by electrocution, an image that is repeated when Esther receives electro-shock treatment. Really, The Bell Jar is stunning portrayal of a particular time in a person's life and a brave attempt by Sylvia Plath to face her own demons. The novel will be read for generations to come."
'The Bell Jar' Review
by James Topham
no. 6
they are making another movie of this novel that will be released this year (2012)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844467/
there was one filmed in 1979
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844467/
there was one filmed in 1979
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