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."

So what if Esther were Black? After the novel, it doesn't take a MENSA member to know that the experiences for a Black Esther in the early 50's would be overwhelmingly different. There would have been none of the New York escapades with her new friend Doreen, which may have actually been a good thing. No staggering drunk on the streets to the hotel. No attempts of seducing a UN simultaneous interpreter. No fighting off a woman-hating-Peruvian-rapist either. Well okay, with that last one, there's no guarantee.

"Then I decided I would spend the summer writing a novel."

A young Black unmarried college student in the early 50's wouldn't really have the luxury of not working during the summers, and if she came up missing, most likely, it wouldn't have made the papers. If she were committed to a psychiatric hospital (an asylum) it probably would be a city or state hospital - nothing as posh as the one the original Esther ended up in. And without a doubt, the Black Esther would have ended up marrying Buddy Willard - I mean, if he were Black and possibly still, even if he weren't.

"The Negro kept grinning and chuckling in a silly way."

In the entire novel, there was only one Black person mentioned. Plath had made him into a caricature with his bucking eyes and dim ways. Because this novel is pretty much an autobiographical depiction I had to keep in mind that Plath may have very well run into a character like, "the Negro" while committed. It was a bit disturbing (no pun instead), especially since this was the only person Esther was violent towards in her stay at the asylum.

I can't draw any conclusions about Plath's views about Blacks based on The Bell Jar, however, after thinking a bit on the social climate concerning race, I can't help but imagine how drastically different the novel would have read if Esther looked more like me. But what if Plath were Black? Now that's something to think about.