We'll act as if all this were a bad dream.A bad dream.To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream.A bad dream.I remembered everything.I remembered the cadavers and Doreen and the story of the fig tree and Marco's diamond and the sailor on the Common and Doctor Gordon's wall-eyed nurse and the broken thermometers and the Negro with his two kinds of beans and the twenty pounds I gained on insulin and the rock that bulged between sky and sea like a gray skull.Maybe forgetfulness, like a kind snow, would numb and cover them.But they were part of me. They were my landscape.
Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar
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In "The Bell Jar," the protagonist experiences the world as a nightmarish landscape, feeling trapped and disconnected, much like someone caught in a bell jar. She reflects on her past, recalling vivid, often disturbing memories that shape her reality. This notion of the world as a bad dream highlights her mental struggles, where her experiences seem surreal and overwhelmingly heavy.

Despite the desire for forgetfulness to ease her pain, she recognizes that these memories are integral to her identity. They create a landscape of her mind, intricately woven into who she is. The imagery of her recollections illustrates the complexity of her experience, emphasizing that while she may wish to escape her troubled thoughts, they remain a fundamental part of her existence.

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The Bell Jar
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Other quotes in The Bell Jar

I wanted to be where nobody I knew could ever come.
Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar
I wanted to be where nobody I knew could ever come.
At this rate, I'd be lucky if I wrote a page a day.Then I knew what the problem was.I needed experience.How could I write about life when I'd never had a love affair or a baby or even seen anybody die? A girl I knew had just won a prize for a short story about her adventures among the pygmies in Africa. How could I compete with that sort of thing?
Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar
At this rate, I'd be lucky if I wrote a page a day.Then I knew what the problem was.I needed experience.How could I write about life when I'd never had a love affair or a baby or even seen anybody die? A girl I knew had just won a prize for a short story about her adventures among the pygmies in Africa. How could I compete with that sort of thing?
The trouble about jumping was that if you didn't pick the right number of storeys, you might still be alive when you hit bottom.
Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar
The trouble about jumping was that if you didn't pick the right number of storeys, you might still be alive when you hit bottom.
So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about as numb as a slave in a totalitarian state.
Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar
So I began to think maybe it was true that when you were married and had children it was like being brainwashed, and afterward you went about as numb as a slave in a totalitarian state.
Ever since I was small I loved feeling somebody comb my hair. It made me go all sleepy and peaceful.
Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar
Ever since I was small I loved feeling somebody comb my hair. It made me go all sleepy and peaceful.
There I went again, building up a glamorous picture of a man who would love me passionately the minute he met me, and all out of a few prosy nothings.
Sylvia Plath The Bell Jar
There I went again, building up a glamorous picture of a man who would love me passionately the minute he met me, and all out of a few prosy nothings.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
For me the curse is a crutch, but the con is everything.
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For me the curse is a crutch, but the con is everything.
I don't have anything against God. Far from it. But I don't understand Him. And I don't trust a lot of the people that go around claiming that they're working in His best interests.
Jim Butcher Grave Peril
I don't have anything against God. Far from it. But I don't understand Him. And I don't trust a lot of the people that go around claiming that they're working in His best interests.
Now that you're an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or you're told that you're "in your head too much," a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral. Of course, there's another word for such people: thinkers.
Susan Cain Quiet: The Power of...
Now that you're an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or you're told that you're "in your head too much," a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral. Of course, there's another word for such people: thinkers.
I found Esau's field guide at the bottom of my pack. Taking a candle into the bedroom, I read his book until my eyes grew heavy. From his vast notes, it seemed that almost every plant and tree in the jungle had a reason for existing. I caught myself wishing there was a page in his guide that had my picture on it with the reason for my existence written underneath in Esau's neat hand.
Maria V. Snyder Magic Study
I found Esau's field guide at the bottom of my pack. Taking a candle into the bedroom, I read his book until my eyes grew heavy. From his vast notes, it seemed that almost every plant and tree in the jungle had a reason for existing. I caught myself wishing there was a page in his guide that had my picture on it with the reason for my existence written underneath in Esau's neat hand.
Here's a nifty solution: Each couple that marries should take on an entirely new surname, chosen however they want as long as both agree to it, so that a day after the wedding, both husband and wife can hold hands and joyfully journey off to the municipal offices to change their passports, driver's licenses, signatures, initials, bank accounts, etc.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Dear Ijeawele, or A...
Here's a nifty solution: Each couple that marries should take on an entirely new surname, chosen however they want as long as both agree to it, so that a day after the wedding, both husband and wife can hold hands and joyfully journey off to the municipal offices to change their passports, driver's licenses, signatures, initials, bank accounts, etc.
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