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When the late Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar was released in 1963, it was considered groundbreaking. It focused on topics quite controversial just over 60 years ago, including ambition in young women in a time when women were supposed to desire only marriage and motherhood and dealing with horrifying mental health issues. Originally published under the name Victoria Lucas, Sylvia’s only novel is still considered a classic in the feminist canon. But how well does The Bell Jar hold up in 2024? I decided to read it and found out for myself.
Meet Esther Greenwood, raised in the Boston suburbs by her widowed mother, Esther is now in college, which is being funded by a wealthy local author. It is the summer of 1953, and Esther has procured an internship with the fictional women’s magazine “Ladies Day” in New York City. Though Esther’s days are filled with magazine-related activities, and her nights trying to socialize with her fellow interns, Esther feels disconnected and empty. She just can’t work up the excitement over this opportunity that most girls would give their eye teeth for. Esther is riddled with anxiety and depression. Can she shake out of this funk?
Several incidents occur during Esther’s internship that Plath goes into great detail to describe. Esther talks about the various assignments for “Ladies Day” the interns get to work on as well as the nice swag they all receive (not to mention the horrid food poisoning everyone gets at a luncheon). She also describes Esther trying to befriend her fellow interns like the flirtatious and sociable Doreen and the very pious and naïve Betsy, who Esther is more drawn towards. Esther also reminisces about the various scrapes she gets into when it comes to men, like when a local New York City radio host tries to seduce her, but later he decides to date Doreen. And towards the end of her internship, Esther is nearly raped at a country club party she attends with Doreen. Esther escapes but this causes her to throw out her new clothing and sends her further into despair.
After the internship ends, Esther returns to her childhood home. During this time, Esther is absolutely crushed when another scholarship opportunity, a writing course featuring a well-known author, does not come through. She is not accepted into this prestigious program. Esther tries to fill her time before school resumes in the fall by writing a novel. Yet, she thinks she lacks the life experience to write a proper book. And she also questions what her life will be like after she graduates from college. Up till then, Esther’s whole life has revolved around academics. Will she have a career or will so end up “just a wife and mother” as the fifties often dictated to women back then.
Esther continues to fall into deeper and deeper depression, not being able to sleep or attend to basic activities. She does see a psychiatrist for a while (whom she doesn’t exactly warm up to because she thinks he’s too handsome). And when this psychiatrist suggest electroconvulsive therapy, better known as ECT. The ECT doesn’t work, and Esther makes some half-hearted suicide attempt.
However, she does nearly die after she crawls into a cellar and takes far too many sleeping pills. When her mother can’t find Esther, it is assumed she has been kidnapped and possibly murdered, which the media takes note of. Once discovered, Esther spends time at several mental hospitals, the last one paid for by her college benefactor, the writer who is named Philomena Guinea. It is at this facility, Esther meets Dr. Nolan, a woman therapist, receives questionable treatments including insulin shots, and more ECT. She also meets another patient named Joan, and it is implied Joan is a lesbian who is attracted to Esther. Esther is not fond of Joan at all.
Esther also muses about her old boyfriend, Buddy. Buddy thinks the two might get married someday, but Esther won’t entertain the idea. Esther thinks Buddy is a hypocrite because he lost his virginity to another woman instead of staying pure for Esther. It is also found out that Joan also dated buddy (even though she may be heavily closeted).
During her sessions with Dr. Nolan, Esther bemoans the life women back then must lead and she wants to have the same freedom men have, which includes everything from having sex (Dr. Nolan suggest Esther be fitted with a diaphragm), and to have a full life outside of total domesticity. And as the The Bell Jar ends, Buddy visits Esther and wonders if he’s the cause of both Esther and Joan going crazy and ended up hospitalized. Perhaps he did have a part in it, but who cares? Esther is relieved when Buddy decides to end their non-engagement. Now she is free to really live.
While reading The Bell Jar, I could understand why it was so groundbreaking when it was published in 1963. It portrayed a young woman who had ambition beyond getting married and having oodles of children. It’s wonderful Esther is smart and has goals her life that don’t necessarily include marriage and motherhood solely. And as someone who has dealt with mental health issues, I appreciate a novel that spoke of one woman’s struggle and her fight to remedy herself.
However, in 2024, The Bell Jar just cuts different. For one thing, there is a lot of racism in this book. Esther talks about the ugliness of Peruvians and Aztecs. She also keeps referring to a Black orderly at the mental hospital as the Negro. He is never given a name or just referred to his profession as an orderly. Plus, I found Esther to be rather insufferable to the other women in the book whether it was her mother (who struggled greatly to raise her without Esther’s father) or looking down on a woman in the neighborhood who is raising a large brood of children.
Still, I do think The Bell Jar is an important work. Just keep in mind how things have changed since the fifties when it takes place, and in 1963, when it was published. And be grateful things have changed for women in the past sixty years…or have they? Hmm.
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Back in 1991, charming Irish film was released. It was called The Commitments. Based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Roddy Doyle, The Commitments was about a band trying to make it the gritty and struggling city of Dublin, Ireland.
Meet Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins). Jimmy is on the dole and lives with his parents on the northside of Dublin. But that doesn’t mean he’s a total slacker who lacks ambition. He wants to manage a band, an no, this band won’t follow in the footsteps of their fellow Irish citizens like U2 or Sinead O’Connor (RIP). Instead, Jimmy wants the band to follow the 1960s’ soulful musical stylings of Black American singers and musicians.
At first, Jimmy puts an ad in the local newspaper asking for aspiring singers and musicians. He holds auditions in his parents’ parlor. Unfortunately, these auditions are not fruitful. Nobody can fill Jimmy’s soulful aspirations. Jimmy then looks to his friends to make the band, which includes lead singer Deco Cuffe (Andrew Strong), keyboardist Steven Clifford (Michael Aherne), bassist Derek Scully (Kenneth McCluskey), lead guitarist Outspan Foster (Glen Hansard), sax player Dean Fay (Felim Gormley), and drummer Billy Mooney (Dick Massey). Three local girls, Bernie McGloughlin (Bronagh Gallagher), Natalie Murphy (Maria Doyle), and Imelda Quirke (Angeline Ball) are brought onboard to be back-up singers. Jimmy soon meets an older man by the name of Joey “The Lips” Fagan (Johnny Murphy). Johnny has been playing music for decades and boasts about meeting many musical legends.
It is Jay who comes up with the band’s name The Commitments. But it is a long road before hit records and sold-out shows at famous arenas through out the world. The Commitments have a lot of work to do to reach musical greatness.
First the band has to procure musical instruments. Steven’s grandmother sells them a drum kit and a piano. And Duffy procures the rest of the instruments through some rather dodgy maneuvers. The Commitments find a rehearsal place to hone their musical stylings. The Commitments get their first gig at a local church’s community center. The band claims its a benefit to combat drug addiction (heroin was a huge problem in 1980s Ireland).
The Commitments draw a sizable crowd, but the gig doesn’t quite go as well as planned. Equipment malfunctions causing a power outage. And it doesn’t exactly help matters when Deco accidentally beams Derek with his microphone stand. Oops.
Though the Commitments are tight on stage, things aren’t exactly harmonious behind the scenes. Deco becomes an out-of-control diva. After one brawl between Deco and Billy, Mickah Wallace (Dave Finnegan), who had been acting as security for the band, takes over on the drums. Billy has had enough. And then there is also a scuffle when Jimmy is confronted about paying for the instruments he procured for the band. Mickah beats up Duffy, who is then escorted out of the gig. Meanwhile, Joey manages to woo and bed Bernie, Natalie, and Imelda. No, not at the same time. It’s not that kind of movie. But how do you think Joey “The Lips” Fagan got his nickname? Wink, wink.
However, despite all the backstage chaos and romantic shenanigans, The Commitments are gaining a considerable following and more and more gigs. They are local musical heroes. Then Joey tells them some interesting news when the band gets yet another gig. Joey tells his bandmates that the Wilson Pickett will be in Dublin for a concert, and because he and Joey are tight, Wilson can join The Commitments for a performance. Jimmy is so excited, he tells some local journalists this juicy tidbit and convinces them to come to this gig. It will be major. Will Wilson show up? Things do look doubtful, and Deco and Jimmy get into a row. And this also causes quite a bit of of protest amongst the audience, but they are placated once the band plays the Wilson Pickett classic, “In the Midnight Hour.” Things don’t go very well for the band after the gig. Big fights break out and thus, it looks like The Commitments are over when they are just beginning.
In the end, The Commitments don’t reach the musical heights they had hoped for, and the film ends with a montage narrated by Jimmy of where the band members are post-The Commitments. Imelda gets married and is forbidden to sing by her husband, but Natalie becomes a successful solo singer and Bernie is in a country band. Steven is now doctor. Outspan and Derek are street buskers. Dean formed a jazz band. Joey claims on a postcard to his mother that he’s touring with Joe Tex. Too bad Joe Tex is dead. Mickah is the singer of a punk band. And as for Deco, well, he got a record deal and is still a diva and a royal pain in the arse.
Directed by Alan Parker (who also directed the original Fame movie released in 1980), The Commitments wasn’t necessarily a huge hit when it was initially released in 1991. But since then, has become a beloved cult classic. The movie spawned two soundtracks that were big hits and introduced iconic soulful songs and sounds to a new generation. And the cast is still involved in acting and/or music. Glen Hansard is probably the best known. He was in another Irish charmer, Once, and one an Oscar for the song “Falling Slowly.”
I loved The Commitments. The cast has incredible chemistry, the music is fabulous, and Parker truly captures the grittiness of Dublin back in the day. The Colm Meaney nearly steals the show as Jimmy’s Elvis-loving father. The Commitments is a delight!
We were first introduced to author Stephanie Land with her debut Memoir Class (which I reviewed nearly five years ago in 2019). Maid chronicled Land’s escape from an abusive relationship with her young daughter in tow. Life was so precarious for the two of them. The faced homelessness and a tattered safety net when it comes to getting public assistance. Land tried to support herself and her daughter by cobbling together housekeeping jobs, which mostly paid really crappy wages and where far to many people don’t value as truly hard work. Maid became a blockbuster best-selling book and the Netflix series based on Maid was critically-acclaimed and a hit with audiences, and gained Land more readers and fans. Now Land is back with another memoir Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Learning.
In Class, Land is now living in Montana with her daughter Emilia. She’s still trying to support the both of them by taking on housekeeping and cleaning gigs. But struggle and poverty follow them. Land is also attending the University of Montana in pursuit of a degree in creative writing. A degree doesn’t guarantee Land will obtain a six figure job with a fancy, impressive title. But it may help her get out of poverty and provide her and Emilia with a much better life.
Land still faces difficulty. Struggle and impoverishment continue to plague Land and affect nearly every decision she makes. Land tries to balance taking care of Emilia, procure housekeeping gigs, and got to school and do her homework. I went to college with a lot of single moms, so I can easily imagine how monumental this was for Land.
Though Land’s ex isn’t completely out of the picture as he takes Emilia in during her summers off between school, he’s a total ass when it comes to paying child support. This ex has a decent job, so it’s not like he can’t help pay for Emilia’s care. Land’s concern for Emilia’s needs are viewed as a mere irritant like a buzzing mosquito rather than something that should be fulfilled by Emilia’s very own father.
Land and Emilia live in a ramshackle house with roommates. The house is very drafty during Montana’s brutal winters, and cupboards and refrigerator are often bare. Land tries to cobble some type of safety night through public aid like food stamps, but the help she reaches out for is often not there. As she seeks help, Land has to jump through many hoops and condescension and rudeness from social workers. And after all of that, she still denied the bare minimum she and Emilia desperately need. She’s told her freelance cleaning gigs don’t count as “real work,” and her pursuit of an education is frivolous and unneccessary.
And then there is Land’s pursuit of her degree. At the University of Montana, Land is an anomaly at the university. There aren’t many thirtysomething single moms in her classes. Land is more than a decade older than her classmates. But Land tries to pay of that no mind, as she buckles down with her classes, homework, and papers. And unlike her classmates, Land doesn’t have a lot of family support. Not to mention, she couldn’t exactly indulge in such collegiate pursuits like frat parties and spring breaks in Florida.
With her struggles and housekeeping work, Land is kind of seen as a “working class writer” at the university. Writing is just in her blood; Land knows she must write. She’s a storyteller at heart. She does seek out mentorship from her program’s director. This director had attended grad school as a single mom, and later wrote a book about these experiences. But instead of acting as a mentor, this woman rebuffs Land. Ah, the whole “I got mine; fuck the rest of you,” an infuriating and all-too-common trope. Not everyone who has been in similar circumstances is an ally.
Okay, Land does get into some situations that may make readers a wee bit judgmental. She has fly-by-night relationships with men where pregnancy is the result. Though Land is in her thirties by this time, she doesn’t really seem to be concerned about birth control and getting pregnant. One pregnancy prompts Land to get an abortion. But with the second pregnancy in this time, Land decides to keep the baby. It’s baffling how Land is going to handle another child while she’s dealing with school, Emilia, a crappy ex, poverty, and cobbling together housekeeping gigs. And through all of this, Land realizes who is in her corner and who isn’t. And in the end, Land graduates about to give birth to her second daughter, Coraline, with Emilia by her side.
Like Maid, Land is brutally honest with the obstacles she faced and those she made. She shows fierce love for her children and a lot of guts and grit as she tries to fulfill her dream of an education and success as a writer. Being poor single mom, I’m sure there are people out there who think Land should have studied something more practical than creative writing like accounting or she should have learned how to code or something. But why should creative pursuits be only for the privileged and well-to-do? Class will definitely challenge those assumptions.
Class is yet another literary feather in Land’s cap, and proves Maid was no one-hit-wonder fluke. Perhaps Netflix should look into making another limited series based on Stephanie Land’s Class.
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