The Bell Jar
The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet, Sylvia Plath.
The story focuses on the mental decline of Esther Greenwood; a guest editor for a magazine in New York City who experiences burnout and moves back home. There, she is forced to question the inner workings of her mind and whether she has a future.
This book cover focuses on one of the books most the famous quotes:
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked.
One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out.
I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
This is why the figs in the illustration slowly become darker and rotten as it goes down the cover. The style is made to look like oil pastels as it is almost sketch- like and rich in colours, referring to the character trying to build an idea of herself but ultimately feeling like the isolated fig in the back cover.
The book title and author’s name are both positioned at the centre of the cover but separated using different fonts. The title THE BELL JAR is in all caps and bold as it is to be clearly seen within the bright and colourful fig drawings. While the author Sylvia Plath’s name is in cursive, giving the book a more mature and almost diary-like feel as the story is heavily influenced by Plath’s own life. The cursive handwriting also follows the natural line of the fig illustration. This contrasted with the bold, solid text of the title shows the conflict Plath’s character, Esther, has between the modern and natural world.
The spine is an accumulation of all the figs slowly turning rotten. This gives the reader an insight to the cover and theme of the story.