The Bell Jar

Hey! This is just to show that I can make my blog look a little bit cuter. :)

I am currently in my last semester of school, which includes finishing up my history minor. I am now in:
History of Modern France
World History to 1500
World History 1500 +
Civil War and Reconstruction

I feel like I've learned so much, but I still miss English a lot! Hopefully I can take two credits of English and have my diploma.

It's been tough because I am not used to the history format of writing. I know that I can use Chicago Style because I have tutored others who needed this, but it's different when you do it for yourself. I mostly write literary criticism, so when I actually go into history and having to name dates and facts, it makes the process a bit difficult. I have to get used to getting some C's in this subject, even though I try hard not to.

I have currently been reading Sylvia Plath's journals, and I have found that they relate very closely to me. When she was attending Smith College, she was facing the same issues and frustrations that I have. She felt a need to over compensate to achieve a greater status than her peers. She also lived in a very competitive environment, so she always felt that she didn't have enough to achieve her greatest. I don't have that much talent as a creative writer, but I understand what she knows. I have experienced a weird moment as well a couple of days ago because I watched a French film that she watched when she was studying. It was uncanny how much she wanted to succeed like I do. But then again, she's a poetic genius.

I have also heard the news that her son, Nicholas killed himself. It wasn't the same way she did, but there was so much depression in that family. When her husband had an affair with another woman, six years after Plath's death, she killed herself the exact same way as Sylvia. It must have been heartbreaking to be in that family. As her journals have indicated, she was always wishing to rise above her situation in life. In her book The Bell Jar, the main character has a nervous breakdown exactly like she did in life as well. She was always confessional, always willing to share very personal details of her life. When her death occured, the feminist movement started to have their moment of triumph because they felt that Sylvia Plath had their voice of a woman who was always oppressed by a husband or the men in her career. She was never able to make so much of a name for herself as the men in her time, but I don't think that she was necessarily a feminist. She was very personal about her gender and her anonymity, but it was more than the oppression of a woman: it was about her life in total that made her so depressed. She was fighting against herself most of her life. This is mostly what I am feeling like now, and it isn't the men in my life that make a difference.