Re: plath, relating, & more

David Schrimpf (david@cybermail.net)
Wed, 17 Dec 1997 18:56:39 -0800

Susan wrote:

>Hey y'all, (that's what we say in Oklahoma)
>I read the Bell Jar this weekend and I was talking to a friend about how
>it related to Catcher. She was saying that she felt like it did in a lot
>of ways, but I think it is only in the most surface of ways. Same time
>period, same city, they are both teenagers, they deal with some of the
>same issues (sex, phoniness, friendships, innocence, etc.) But Plath
>differs from Holden because Holden sees all this innocence and beauty in
>the world that is being spoiled and he wants to preserve it. The main
>idea of Bell Jar is that she is in this--what do you know--bell jar and
>is blind to the outside world after a point. Is it ever clear why she
>wants to kill herself? I doubt it is for the same reasons that Seymour
>did and Holden would which in my opinion because they live too deeply.
>Sometimes it hurts to live that fully and that leaves you with the
>choice of dying or not living. (That is a paraphrase of something that
>someone on this list said earlier that has stayed with me.) I just don't
>see Plath that way. Any other thoughts on this? Also I think that
>Salinger is just a better prose writer. Plath is a poet and she can't
>get around it. Okay, enough rambling for now.
>Susan

Well I'm only about halfway through The Bell Jar, but so far I guess I
agree with you. Esther seems even more confused than Holden because she
sees things she hates and things she doesn't understand, and instead of
getting angry about it, she just gets sick and it seems like she doesn't
even know WHY. I don't know if that made any sense but I had to respond to
your second-to-last sentence... I love when poets try to write prose. All
those paragragh/sentence structure rules are silly anyway.  8)


-David

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