The Bell Jar Research Paper

Sylvia Plath wrote an autobiography which was never meant to be known that it was about her own self, or even to be read in America until after her death. Who and what could she have been protecting and why would she even have wrote if it was such a big secret? Plath tells her story of the madness that came over her through Esther, the main character in The Bell Jar. She could make this story come to life because it was her own story and she lived it, and so she told it; Of course with the help of some literally devices! Plath used her personal writing style, theme and tone to make her story the fullest.

Plath had drowned us into her world with her writing style. Through out the novel, Esther had constant flashbacks of important events
Some might say that The Bell Jar is a story of Esther's coming-of-age, although it can also be a story of anti-coming-of-age, but it is more reasonable to say that a theme of this novel is growth through pain and rebirth. Throughout the novel Esther experiences a few female milestones such as being proposed to, her first time in a big city, success in college and losing her virginity. How these things might excite someone, instead confused and upset Esther, and finally brought her down once she had to make decisions for her future. While recovering from a suicide attempt because she didn't want to be living an untrue life, she rediscovers her confidence and strength, and her own self. A second theme is a woman's search of fulfillment in a sexist society. Esther had worked hard for becoming successful in school and in life. She had gone beyond most people in order to try to reach her dreams and goals in life, but she is also expected to get married and become a house wife. Esther wants to be a famous poet but she doesn't believe she would be able to be both a house wife and a poet at the same time which challenges her in a negative way and soon she despises all form of sexism. Esther likens all her choices of her future occupations to a fig tree. This fig tree, which is a symbol in the novel, is full of figs which Esther can not choose one to pick and so she starves. Another theme in the novel is Psychiatric medicine and treatment. Through Buddy, Esther is introduced into the medical world when he shows her the birth of a baby and other wonders of the medical field. Then, Esther goes through a series of different hospitals and wards each which treated her in a different way. She had received harmful shock treatment from Dr. Gordon who was unsympathetic, and then after her suicide