'The Bell Jar'

Why hadn't I read The Bell Jar before? It's right up my alley.

Alienated late-teen trying to not only find happiness, but to define it as well. It's one thing to futilely strive for something or someone. It's another thing to simply strive for it, all the while not really knowing what you're looking for in the first place.

Esther Greenwood is the female's hero; what Holden Caulfield is to guys. They say and do everything that we all really want to say and do, but we don't have near the guts to do any of it. Or we're entirely more brave for battling on despite everything.

Is it best to be angry and dissatisfied with the world, or to kind to have a clue. Esther and Holden represent that little voice in our brains.

They don't represent us. We love them the way we kind of love ourselves. We all have urges and fears. We also realize that the sun will still rise the next morning. And that, somewhere and some time, the grass will get green. When you're sent to distinguished boarding schools or given internships at a respected magazine in New York City, life will not always suck even if you don't know where you'll wind up in 20 years.

The Bell Jar is at least semi-autobiographical. Sylvia Plath killed herself about a month after the novel -- her only -- was published in Europe. I can imagine Plath was just as disillusioned and afraid as Esther. And that's sad. It's sad that she didn't the the sun rise or grasp the idea that it all gets better, clearer.