It's no coincidence that the year her youngest son went off to college, Meg Wolitzer decided to write a book about teens. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of The Bell Jar and what it means. One of the boys in Jam's English class says that he saw a porn tape of his father having sex with another woman. Belzhar focuses on just one semester at the boarding school, and it's a transformative few months, to say the least, in the lives of Jam and her classmates, all who came to The Wooden Barn because of trouble dealing with life-changing events. But, as their journals start to fill up, Jam and the other students wonder whether they'll ever be able to visit the place they call Belzhar (named to sound somewhat like "the bell jar") or be their unscathed selves ever again. In 1979, the author won the same Mademoiselle Guest Editor competition that Plath made famous in The Bell Jar (for which Wolitzer's new book is named), and, like the students at Belzhar's Wooden Barn, she found herself immersed in Plath's poetry, fascinated by the ferocity of the troubled writer's work. All rights reserved. At school, Jam's roommate has a girlfriend, much to her girlfriend's mother's dismay. There's some swearing, drinking, and marijuana smoking. Though Belzhar has fantasy elements, this is a better choice for realistic fiction lovers; the magical elements are never fully explained. Belzhar Essential Questions What are our modern conceptions of mental illness? To say more would be spoiling one of the most original twists in recent YA, but know that it involves school-prescribed journals, a wise teacher, and the words of Sylvia Plath. Belzhar A Novel (Book) : Wolitzer, Meg : Jam Gallahue, fifteen, unable to cope with the loss of her boyfriend Reeve, is sent to a therapeutic boarding school in Vermont, where a journal-writing assignment for an exclusive, mysterious English class transports her to the magical realm of Belzhar, where she and Reeve can be together. Belzhar is about a group of 'emotionally fragile, highly intelligent' teenagers sent to a desolate boarding school in hope of rehabilitating and recovering themselves. It’s almost impossible to have that not have happened — sometimes a lot earlier than middle age, but for me, I’ve been taking stock of that right now. Parents need to know that Belzhar, by Meg Wolitze r, is a coming-of age novel about teens who've experienced trauma: A character's friend accidentally sets fire to a barn, killing all the goats inside; a girl is paralyzed when her drunk mom drives into a wall; a girl’s younger brother is abducted; and protagonist Jam reveals to her new friends that her boyfriend died suddenly. 'Meg Wolitzer managed to produce an extremely lovable set of characters which you are sure to become attached to. An adult is sent to rehab for her alcohol problem. Join the site and send us your review! Looking for Alaska, in particular, was a major find, the first book that convinced her of the power of teenage lit. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans. I felt slightly as though Plath had been added as a tool to speed up the situation within the story and, ultimately, just show literary knowledge. How does insight (provided through Belzhar) help us better understand it? Griffin smokes marijuana on the night he sets the farm on fire, and he brings alcohol when the kids from Jam's class get together. Belzhar offers a positive message about the possibility of working through trauma with the support of friends and tools such as journal writing.

Jam Gallahue, fifteen, unable to cope with the loss of her boyfriend Reeve, is sent to a therapeutic boarding school in Vermont, where a journal-writing assignment for an exclusive, mysterious English class transports her to the magical realm of Belzhar, where she and Reeve can be together. Later, she kisses and takes off shirts with Griffin. "I’m interested in the shiftings," says Wolitzer. "I’m in middle age," Wolitzer explains. Albeit being surprised and slightly disappointed at the irrelevance of Belzhar to Plath, (I will extend on this later), I found the book extremely enjoyable and thought-provoking.
Having just read The Bell Jar and been thoroughly astounded by it, and in the midst of Ariel, my Plath-loving levels were high and I was eager for anything which might give me more information to this wonderful woman. Families can talk about the fantasy elements here. Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
In the end, Jam slowly starts to find reasons to participate in life, including helping friends, looking after her younger brother, and even trying to love again.

where she is told she will read The Bell Jar and also write in a journal. In Belzhar, Jam and her fellow Special Topics in English classmates spend the semester examining Plath's work, led by the memorable Mrs. Q. In that book, the main theme was "the quiet envy you feel for people you love," says Wolitzer, but in Belzhar, the focus is on "seeing our friends as an extension of family, or even as our real family. At a party, Jam walks in on a couple hooking up and another group playing strip poker.

Join now. 2020 Bustle Digital Group. Vivid, compelling, and wholly original, the book is one of Wolitzer's finest works to date. CCPA: Protect your family's data privacy under new California law. "I write a little differently than I once did," she says. "It's over — not only the part of my life where I had oversight of me, but I had oversight of another person. "It's the way that I filter the world.". • Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop. ", Now, writing for teens, she tries "to think about that combination of the book I would’ve wanted to find on the shelf then, with what really interests me as a writer now.". "This is a girl who feels she’s lost so much, and is finding a way to get it back, even for awhile.". Can we judge/rank the pain people experience? Parents need to know that Belzhar, by Meg Wolitze​r, is a coming-of age novel about teens who've experienced trauma: A character's friend accidentally sets fire to a barn, killing all the goats inside; a girl is paralyzed when her drunk mom drives into a wall; a girl’s younger brother is abducted; and protagonist Jam reveals to her new friends that her boyfriend died suddenly. Many readers will want to read the book one more time once they finish, and it's rich enough to deserve that second read. "There’s no more parental oversight in my life," the author tells me over scrambled eggs at a New York café about her life as an empty nester. That’s the reason that we all remember adolescence — you can remember everything at 15 because they had never happened before. "The books I love best think about characters as people who walk the world," the author says, adding, "there’s no such thing as a teenage stock character. It’s a school year like no other. It’s all been removed. Could open some meaningful discussions about how stories we write and read can be used to help us heal. "I really like the interiority of novels," she says. I was drawn to this book purely because of the mention of Sylvia Plath. A boy throws a bottle at his father's computer during an argument. Get resources from Wide Open School, Online Playdates, Game Nights, and Other Ways to Socialize at a Distance, Keeping Kids Motivated for Online Learning. The fragile students in Jam's English class are surprised to read something as dark as Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, which deals with depression and suicidal thoughts. Says Wolitzer firmly, "You have to look out for one another.". Is it a place you would like to go? Searching for streaming and purchasing options ... Common Sense is a nonprofit organization. Jam's parents send her to a school for "fragile" students so she can recover from a trauma. "Can I go into another world? ", "But more than that," she continues, "it’s about if you can’t accept what’s happened, the idea of finding a way to make it not have happened. Girl uses fantasy world to recover in moody, moving book. Also, Yankee Candle, Disney World, Charlotte's Web, America's Got Talent, and Monty Python. "But I remember self-consciousness and I remember isolation ... there’s a line in the book where somebody says to Griffin [a classmate of Jam's], 'It may not be the worst thing in the world, but it’s the worst thing that happened to you,' and that line for me was something I tried to have as a mantra throughout the book, knowing where it was going.". Each pupil discovers Belzhar a separate world which they can escape into the bliss of for a while, as their previous problems fade away. "She allowed you to think about what it might be like if some of the bad ways you feel got worse ... there’s such inevitability about it, because you know what happened to the author and you can’t stop it... it was haunting to me.". "Adolescence is a time when there’s still a thought that a lot of things are possible," explains Wolitzer.

Writing Belzhar, the author constantly worried about balance; unfamiliar with YA writing, she struggled with keeping the book's intensity intact while not condescending to an audience likely younger than her usual readers. Want to tell the world about a book you've read? Common Sense and other associated names and logos are trademarks of Common Sense Media, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (FEIN: 41-2024986). Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Belzhar and would recommend it to any Sylvia Plath fans and/or boarding school book fans.