The Bell Jar

Autor: Sylvia Plath

The story is told through the eyes of Esther Greenwood, an intelligent, aspiring young woman from Massachusetts who wins a coveted summer internship at a high-fashion magazine in New York City in the 1950s.  Initially excited by the opportunities of New York, Esther soon finds herself disillusioned and overwhelmed by the superficiality of the city and the rigid societal expectations placed on women during that era. The excitement gives way to a profound sense of alienation, numbness, and despair. When she returns home to Boston, she suffers a severe mental breakdown and attempts suicide. The novel chronicles her subsequent institutionalization, various forms of psychiatric treatment (including electric shock therapy), and her gradual, difficult path toward recovery and finding her own identity.