For every devout writer and reader, there comes a time when you're reading something, whether it be a book, poem, or one single quote when you realize that this is your favorite author.
Maybe they wrote something that really touched your heart or published a piece that displayed such skill that they earned the ultimate respect from you. Regardless, that moment comes for each of us, and for me, it came when I picked up The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
Beforehand, I knew about as much about Sylvia Plath as anyone else did. If they knew her at all, many simply knew her for her suicide and the way she chose to go: sticking her head in an oven with the gas on to induce carbon monoxide poisoning. Sylvia was depressed for years prior to her death and had attempted suicide before, so sadly, her early death felt inevitable. Despite all of this, Sylvia was a very talented writer and based on references from The Bell Jar, writing was one of the greatest joys in her life.
Sylvia Plath is renowned for her poetry more than anything else, but her first novel is what made me fall in love with her writing. The Bell Jar describes a time in Sylvia's life when she became unsure of her path in life and began developing the crippling depression that took her life years later. The "bell jar" is a metaphor for the constant feelings of entrapment that Plath felt throughout her life.
Sylvia writes about the frustration she felt over having to choose one path in life when she wanted to live them all: "If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days."
I think we can all relate to seeing multiple possibilities for our futures and being unsure of which is the best one, and with Sylvia being the intelligent and driven student she was, I can see where this frustration started.
As a fellow writer, I have a lot of respect for Sylvia's honesty on what it feels like to want to write and have nothing to write about: "How could I write about life when I'd never had a love affair or a baby or even seen anybody die?" It's evident in her novel that as her depression deepened, she gave a lot of thought to taking her life before ever attempting to. She even describes attempts that weren't seen as such at the time.
Beyond that, Sylvia knew how to write about insanity in the sanest ways. It pains me to read about the bell jar closing in on her and suffocating her, but I can't help but appreciate her honesty and her sincerity about this time in her life.
There is no denying that Sylvia Plath was a gifted writer who was stolen from us far too soon, but as a writer myself, I will forever be thankful for her sincerity and her determination to live her life the way she wanted.
I would encourage everyone to read The Bell Jar at least once because it will either make you think about something new or unveil something that has been within you all along.
