[IR] I Am Plath, Plath Is Me

My 2nd quarter independent reading group is reading The Bell Jar by the almighty Sylvia Plath, which fulfills the female author reading requirement.

For this blog post I will discuss the only thing running through my mind as I read this book: Sylvia Plath's main character and I have some much in common.  Here is a running list of events/characteristics that apply to the main character (Esther Greenwood) of this book and myself:

1. We both think NYC is a little overrated.
2. We both enjoy writing, especially poetry.
3. We feel like our academic achievements have fallen flat in comparison to their past states.  While we both still do well in school, the sense of fulfillment has worn off or a slight drop in assignment scores leaves a more profound gash in the mental leather upholstery of life than it does in real life.  I used to be called the "curve killer" until the last 2 years of high school punched me in the gut.
4. We both feel successful in an academic setting, but feel a little beat up in the real world.  Even the valedictorian is one fish in a sea of valedictorians.  Also, no one's dreams are as cool when they're presented to the real world as they are on the drawing board at home (that hurts to write but it's the sad truth).
5. Our dreams have both been verbally abused by respected, knowledgeable professionals in the business world.  
6. We both are of German decent and want to learn German really badly but never really get around to that whole "studying" thing.
7. We both tend to hang around the people who we think are cool (when thrown into new situations) and end up finding ourselves incredibly bored and/or uncomfortable.
8. We both love sleeping in and food (duh).
9. We both have a younger brother.  Her brother is incredibly successful and mine is bound to be successful in one area or another.  I'm thinking endocrinology, weapon engineering or nonprofit Indian reservation work.
10. We both wear a heck of a lot of black.
11. We are both always the wing woman.  Pro tip: be as repulsive as possible in order to make your already attractive friend appear even more attractive.

So my reading group has decided to split our perspectives up into two groups: two of us read the story as if the main character is an autobiographical representation of Plath herself, and the other two of us read the book as if Ester Greenwood is a completely detached image that Plath simply invented for the story.  There is already much speculation among scholars that suggests The Bell Jar is reflective of Plath in more ways than a typical book would reflect its author.  This being said, it's important to clarify one huge difference between Plath's main character and myself: I am not suffering from depression and I have never contemplated committing suicide.  I don't know if I was seeking out similarities between the main character and myself (that wouldn't be too shocking considering a reader always wants to connect to the main character in a book), but I was certainly noticing a lot of them.  Maybe I am trying to scare myself into thinking I'm more like Sylvia Plath than I ever want to be.  I am hoping these parallels will start disappearing once Ester Greenwood begins to spiral downward into depths in which I am lucky enough to have never found myself.