Several Tuesdays ago was book club night and on the docket was Syliva Plath’s The Bell Jar. Without wanting to be dramatic, I knew this type of book had the potential to make or break our little group, which was only on its third meeting. Would we be able to handle the heavy themes of this classic? I was pretty sure we would.
It took a couple bottles of wine, but the four of us debunked our current society’s view of medication, gender, the mentally ill & social class. It was enjoyable and at times personal, but now I do believe we’re able to take on just about anything--so long as it doesn‘t bore us.
The Bell Jar is Sylvia Plath's most renowned novel, although the author was well known for her poetry, winning the Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems in 1962, the year before her death.
Before reading the novel I was completely unfamiliar with what a bell jar is, in either the metaphysical nor literal senses. It's the type of metaphor that hangs about--everyone knows the lead character is experiencing intense heaviness, so why ask what it means? The actual reference of the term “bell jar” was largely avoided in our discussion, allowing each member to take its meaning in her own way.
Not until late in the novel, when Esther Greenwood has been institutionalized after a suicide attempt, does the lead character agonize in anticipation of the “descending of the bell jar.” Much earlier in the book, Esther is given a tour by her suitor, who is a promising chap in the medical field. Esther is shocked and mesmerized when she comes across a still-born infant pickled in a jar. To me, the still-born human preserved in infancy is a lasting image that I connect with the metaphor of a bell jar.
While a bell jar in the real world can be a display covering for such items as old clocks or taxidermy, it more pertains to a vacuum in a glass case used for scientific experiments. Scientists have made use of this type of fixture to study sound. If a clock is set on alarm, its sound will decay since the air is so stagnant. I take this as a fitting description to someone suffering from depression--the air around you doesn’t move, there is no music, only stillness.
Much of the image of the bell jar relates to innocence. I’d heard the song “Ingenue,” by Atoms for Peace, many times but in reading the lyrics I found a reference to Bell Jar. Then I saw the video, which features a dancer beautifully mimicking Thom Yorke’s awkward movements. How significant is this reference to a bell jar, I wondered?
The Ingenue is a stock character in film, literature and theater who is innocent and virginal. There is sometimes a romantic side-story, and that male might be innocent as well. This theme ties into the Bell Jar, and many other stories, particularly as it relates to Esther’s desire to lose her virginity. When she finally does, her body reacts to the point of hemorrhaging. It’s as if her innocence is a liability even after it’s gone.
Although I didn’t feel it was completely apparent Esther would head down the path of mental illness, neither was I completely surprised. I've often thought of the difficulties for women in our sociey, the fact they are supposed to simultaneously hold their family together and be competitive in the job market. It can be difficult to engage with the normal things in this environment.
I play video games from an age where the purpose of too many game was to save the princess. In these games, the gender lines are pretty clear. Needless to say, those types of plotlines don’t interest me too much. But what do I do instead? Play football games where the women make a cameo at halftime to push their pom-poms together.
What if The Bell Jar had featured a man? It would have been the crass Jack Nicholson of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. That guy could do whatever he wanted to do, it didn't matter. Sure, he didn't live till the end (spoiler!), but one got the sense he was his own person throughout. Esther Greenwood was not so lucky.
If gender has so much to do with those who suffer under the bell jar, then we have to connect that to the fact that under society's present structure, whatever that may be, it is society's members who make life difficult for the others.
Book Response: Malcom Gladwell's Tipping Point
"We like to think of ourselves as autonomous and inner-directed, that who we are and how we act is something permanently set by our genes and our temperament. But if you add up the examples...they amount to a very different conclusion about what it means to be human."
Gladwell believes that within the human race there are people with special capabilities. These talented people are needed to create epidemics of all kinds, whether it be spreading diseases or fashion trends. The general population, who on the average day seem unlikely to change their minds or behavior, will change when these special people--Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen--are at work.
The Tipping Point theory attempts to explain epidemics in social, non-magical terms. Gladwell shows an appreciation for diversity; we are not all the same, and some of us play vital roles in products or trends that "stick." My value for diversity was satisfied when I read this. So there is a rhyme and reason to the way some things catch fire, while others fizzle within a short time! The problem I faced, as I read on, is that I am not one of those talented people.
The theory is far from a control-the-masses idea. Gladwell is not saying most of us go along for the ride while a few significant people really run the show. I'll admit I sometimes willingly become caught up in something incredibly popular. I saw the midnight premier of "The Hunger Games" back in March, and dispite a theater filled with teenagers giggling awkwardly I enjoyed being the intoxicating excitment. Gladwell believes it's the "stickiness" of a message or product which accounts for its popularity being pushed over the edge.
Gladwell's theory helped dispell my tendency to idealize the successful. Like many my age I adored and grew up on Sesame Street, but Gladwell credits the creators of Blue's Clues for building on the former show's success while avoiding its inadequacies. As endearing as Sesame Street is and was, in tests the latter show has proven to help its audience learn the target skills. Despite my emotional attachment to the monsters from the street, the tests show Blue's Clues found away to be "stickier" than its parent. There was a rhyme and reason to its popularity.
Recently I was recruited to be a core member of a local start-up business in the field of fitness and nutrition. I was wooed not because of my large social circle, my stockpile of information, or my retail persuasiveness--I can claim none of these. I was welcomed to the team because I am positive, determined, and one hell of a latte crafter. I am fortunate that the company owners are in fact a Connector, a Maven and a Salesman. Like a nose tackle in a 3-4 defense, I have the unsexy role of "holding the point" while the stars of the show make plays.
I take it back. I'm Bruce Lee, using the inertia of others toward my own successful ends.
What if The Bell Jar had featured a man? It would have been the crass Jack Nicholson of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. That guy could do whatever he wanted to do, it didn't matter. Sure, he didn't live till the end (spoiler!), but one got the sense he was his own person throughout. Esther Greenwood was not so lucky.