Feeling sad and hopeless

An American classic, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath takes us down Esther Greenwood's twisty path into depression. A similar story in modern pop culture is Hannah Baker in 13 Reasons Why. For those of you excited for season two, this is a great a book to read while you wait in along a similar vein. Here are my thoughts on the story thus far.

1. Esther is going through something serious and we can't do anything to help her. She is surrounded by confused peers and incompetent doctors. We're forced to watch the downward spiral from behind impenetrable glass.

2. This book is surprisingly witty! Often with books written decades ago, it's difficult to still find them funny, but the humor in this one is still relevant.

3. Esther serves as a completely unreliable narrator. Like Humbert Humbert in Lolita, the story is told solely from one point of view. Specifically the perspective of someone who is mentally unstable. The reader gets a fantastic view of what's going on inside, but not how the rest of the world is sanely perceiving the situation.

4. You may feel good about yourself after realizing how many more opportunities we as women currently have in comparison to those who came before us.

5. Esther's chronic unhappiness made me realize that suicide and depression in the seventies is not so different than suicide and depression now. This book highlights the idea that mental health is not a new phenomenon. Rather it is something we as a society have been struggling with for a very long time.

*Definite trigger warning on this book for anyone who has dealt with suicide or depression. The story does not shy away from it at all. Rather, it paints a pretty portrait of it as the main character contemplates how she would do it.