Unexpected Friendships: Remembering Sylvia Plath
The summer before my senior year of college, I found an unexpected friend in Esther Greenwood, the protagonist of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. As I tore through the novel, I was captivated by the plights of this young woman, many of which—her abashed sense of self-identity, failed romantic exploits, and apprehension for the future—mirrored my own internal struggles. Having been rejected by every journalism internship program I’d applied to, I too was fighting an uphill battle against malaise and disillusionment, and I found comfort in Esther’s woes, in our shared difficulty to understand our place in the world. But […]
