The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

If you are not a fan of Sylvia Plath I suggest you skip this one.

In few words this book is only novel, a semi-biography written by Sylvia Plath and basically a narration of her downward spiral, covering her suicide attempts and hospitalization.

If you know anything about her life and her writing, it’s going to be of great interest to you because you will be able to connect dots easily.

But honestly, if this is the first time you are reading this name, or you are in pleasant phase of your life you might through this book on the nearest wall just after few pages.

Everyone told me not to read it, because it’s depressing. For my folks it looks like an act of self-immolation.

But I told them it’s validating and empowering to me.

Sylvia held my hand and took me on a tour of her life that must have looked normal to a passerby (only initially) but silently slipped into the rabbit hole deeper and deeper.

At one point she wrote,

“it felt dark and safe under there, but the mattress wasn’t heavy enough. I needed about a ton of more weight to make me sleep”

That suddenly reminded me of my own words. During a late night phone call, with one of my most patient friends, I said,

“i feel like a paper at times, I want someone to put paper weights on my hands and feet so that I don’t fly away”

This phenomena is common with people who live with anxiety.

The whole book is quite accurate depiction of mental health struggles.

Constant self-loathing, a feeling of emptiness, loss of ability to feel joy.

One moment you feel you are ok, next you don’t want to live.

In her own words,

“To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby. The world itself is a bad dream.”

The deeper you descend into the book, the more you admire the accuracy of its title.

It’s brilliantly written, the analogies will make change your perspective forever.

And it’s brutally honest.

She didn’t hold back for a moment, even if it would place her in the bad light.

I have read, marked, etched few lines in my mind.

Whenever I feel I lack words to express my pain, I will pick The bell Jar and open a random page to freshen my wounds.

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Kindly visit my post Warriors Invited To Raise Mental Health Awareness where I am inviting Mental Health Warriors to submit their blog’s address so that we can join hands to control this wildfire.