The Bell Jar ~ Week 2

My chosen book is continuously forming into a slightly creepier story the more I read.  I'm not too surprised, considering I was warned of its ability to have strange effects on people.  However, I do still fear my ability to withstand the emotions that are so sharply thrust into the face of the reader (that would be me, in this case).  I was discussing the book with my friend this morning whilst drinking a chai latte with my creative writing class when she brought up an interesting thought. She said that "The Bell Jar" most likely decreased her thoughts of suicide due to the scary nature of Esther's (the main character) life. I found this quite interesting because of its truth. My life is nothing like Esther's rich, spoiled, seemingly flawless life. It's times like these I thank the higher beings for granting me a birth into a middle-class family. Amen.
The more I read, the more I wonder whether the author liked her beef steak as raw as her stories.  She has absolutely no issue in bringing up the topic of virginity, childbirth (in DEEP detail), or really just uncomfortable topics in general that leave me feeling squeamish.  I guess books that leave a large mark on you, no matter what they use to accomplish this, are more appreciated by readers in the long run. Now I see why "The Bell Jar" is such a classic. If Sylvia Plath had simply written a book that censored all controversial topics and simply dropped a suicide attempt in here and there to add some shock factor, readers would bulge their eyes at some parts and yawn through the rest of it. It would be like driving through a corn field covered countryside and seeing a cow peak its nose out every seventeen miles. What a bore.  Because of Plath's willingness to strip the countryside of its drowsy and familiar corn fields and allow us to see all of the cows, the book is now seen as a classic. Consider its fame: deciphered. 
I impatiently sneak up on the first suicide attempt, which I have been apprehending since the very beginning of the book. For now, I'll look at some more cows. Moo.
Sayonara!