The Bell Jar by Sythia Plath

Silvia Plath's The Bell Jar teaches the sometimes painful reality in the journey of a woman. This relates to the film Girl with a Pearl Earring.


The novel teaches about relationships and manipulation between men and women. This relates to the novel Running with Scissors.
Plath's writing style demonstrates a highly descriptive and graphic method of conveying ideas. This is paralleled to the song "Strange Fruit" recorded by Billie Holiday.

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias

, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.