Revisiting the Bell Jar: What If Esther Were Black?

Not too long ago, my close friend Lisa (who happens to be a very gifted African-American woman) introduced me to the work of Sylvia Plath. Plath, a famous poet, is known equally for her literature as she is for her mental breakdown and ultimate suicide. Over the phone, Lisa read to me Mad Girl's Love Song. I was hooked.

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead..."

Ever the researcher, I went out and rented the biographical movie titled, Sylvia, starring Gwyneth Paltrow as the brilliant and deeply troubled Plath. So touched, by the movie's end, I was sobbing great big salty buckets. And because I'm such a glutton for punishment, I picked up her novel, The Bell Jar a bit later. I soaked it up like a Brawny ™ paper towel and savored all of its bleak alluring despair. Just in time too. I just learned that in 2008, this novel will be adapted into a movie, just as it had in 1979.

"It was a queer, sultry summer...."

The Bell Jar takes place in the early 50's, leading the reader on the downward physical and psychological spiral of Esther Greenwood, a sagacious student and writer. Upon returning home to Massachusetts from a poisonous New York trip, Esther's depression expands as she learns of a rejected petition to a summer class she had her heart set on taking. This is the beginning to a series of events that lands her in an asylum.

"I felt sorry when I came to the last page."

Now, I have this funny habit of placing myself in stories, just like many people do, mistakenly throwing some of the most crucial details out the window. I did this very thing with Plath's work. I was thinking about how I would behave if I tripped into the great misfortune of finding myself in her situation. Then I had a revelation. Wait - I'm Black! Don't laugh - it's not funny. From time to time I still have to remember that. Just like when I was younger, reading inspiring stories about hitch hiking in Europe. It sounded exciting and romantic, but not very smart for a woman.

"The Negro wheeled the food cart into the patients' dining room."