Many authors work impact the culture and society around them. The author Sylvia Plath definitely impacted American culture by writing about her battle with mental illness, like depression and her views on women's role in society. The roles for women in America at that time were not what Plath wanted. In novel, The Bell Jar, Plath shows her troubles with conflicting identities. Between trying to please her mother, trying to become successful, relationships, and mental illness. She also was considered a feminist because of her work about gender roles for women. She wanted women to be more independent and powerful, and thought the world benefited men more than women.Another vital piece of her other work centered around her mental illness. Her
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Some of her most popular poems include: Three Women, Letter in November, A Birthday Present, Words, and Daddy. Ariel was a significant collection of poems because they were written before the weeks of her suicide. These poems all showed a different range of subjects, but all displayed her mental anguish. The Bell Jar was a novel that was considered an autobiography. Even though names had been changes in the story, the story mirrored Sylvia’s life. Her novel The Bell Jar, many critics gave it good reviews saying "A clever first novel.… The first feminine novel … in the Salinger mood," -Robert Taubman. Others like Laurence Lerner said The Bell Jar was “"brilliant and moving," Many considered the novel a feminist classic. Some found the novel too optimistic to be unconvincing. Critics also said many of her problems could not be understood today by teenagers today. Critics also claimed it to be a feminist manifesto, but Plath was concerned with the roles for women and trying to become a successful woman, when many positions for woman were not available in that time. Saul Maloff concludes that the novel is “good as it is, the novel has an absence of weight and complexity sufficient to the subject” Another criticism is that her poems should be read with the novel, and the novel has some trouble standing on its
Some of her most popular poems include: Three Women, Letter in November, A Birthday Present, Words, and Daddy. Ariel was a significant collection of poems because they were written before the weeks of her suicide. These poems all showed a different range of subjects, but all displayed her mental anguish. The Bell Jar was a novel that was considered an autobiography. Even though names had been changes in the story, the story mirrored Sylvia’s life. Her novel The Bell Jar, many critics gave it good reviews saying "A clever first novel.… The first feminine novel … in the Salinger mood," -Robert Taubman. Others like Laurence Lerner said The Bell Jar was “"brilliant and moving," Many considered the novel a feminist classic. Some found the novel too optimistic to be unconvincing. Critics also said many of her problems could not be understood today by teenagers today. Critics also claimed it to be a feminist manifesto, but Plath was concerned with the roles for women and trying to become a successful woman, when many positions for woman were not available in that time. Saul Maloff concludes that the novel is “good as it is, the novel has an absence of weight and complexity sufficient to the subject” Another criticism is that her poems should be read with the novel, and the novel has some trouble standing on its