Trapped in the Jar

By Keisha N.

For our book review, I read the book The Bell Jar which was written by Sylvia Plath. She is also the author of Ariel, The Collected Poems, Crossing the Water and and more, that's just a few book she's written. The genera of this novel is Roman à clef meaning it's real people and events that happen but with fake or other names used instead. The Bell Jar was first published under the fake name "Victoria Lucas" in 1963 and it's a  semi-autobiographical, with different names of the places and people in the book. The story starts off in the year is 1953. Esther Greenwood is a college student in Massachusetts who has just finished her year there and she has won a paid internship at Ladies Day magazine in New York City for a whole month along with eleven other college students. Jay Cee is her manager there and has high expectations for Esther. For the month in NY, Esther makes a good friend who's name is Doreen and is kind of a slacker. Her boyfriend's name is Buddy Willard. He's a Yale medical student and doesn't care for poetry and writing like Esther does. Working for Ladies Day should be the best and most exciting experience for Esther but she actually feels numb to it all. She's not sure what to do with her life after college.

Overall, I loved this book. I found the story interesting and something was constantly happening which would make it hard for me to put the book down. That's a big deal coming from someone who is not the biggest fan of reading. Also, it's interesting to see how Esther would handle situations she was put into. You can sort of get an understanding of how mentally traumatized she was. I feel like the length of the book is also appropriate for the story considering all that happens. I don't have much bad to say about this book really.

I feel like it could speak to many students around this age because we all go through a lot during these years. Especially many females because i've read a lot of reviews and they were mostly female but there were some males here and there. Like I said before, while reading this book, you can really get a sense of how troubled and disturbed her life was during this time. It keeps sucking you back in and wanting to read more. I would definitely recommend The Bell Jar to other students.