"If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll fly back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days" (Plath). Plath was actually a schizophrenic, never truly recovered and only received temporary relief from her mind with electroshock therapy. His novel, The Bell Jar, is almost an autobiography with the veil of fiction over Plath's life story so thin that her mother opposed its publication (McCann 1631). However, Plath's immense hard work paid off and it was published. Writing was Plath's passion and when she wrote, her life became a compelling story. Sylvia Plath's late adolescence, time right after college, and time spent in a mental hospital were all influential in the writing of The Bell Jar. Recognized early on as gifted in writing, Plath put all her energy into this subject by becoming editor of her school newspaper. newspaper and submitting over forty-five articles to Seventeen Magazine before finally being published. Plath was a perfectionist when it came to writing. In college, the intense pressure of trying to maintain her scholarship and perfect grades began to bother her. He even wrote to his mother saying, “I have practically considered killing myself to get out of [a science class] (qtd. in Malmsheimer 530). He also felt pressured about what he would do with his life after college. “Her brilliance and her successes have no power to take her anywhere in the world. Instead, they chase her away” (Allen 400). As noted by Novels for Students, part of Plath's frustration lay in what she perceived as a choice between becoming a free-spirited poet or choosing her wife/... center of paper... lmsheimer, Lonna M. "Silvia Plath ." American writers. Ed. Leonard Unger, A. Walton. Litz, Molly Weigel and Jay Parini. Supplement 1 Part 2. New York: Scribner, 1974. 526-49. Print.McCann, Janet. «Sylvia Plath.» Magill's survey of American literature. Ed. Frank N. Magill. vol. 5. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1991. 1626-39. Print.Perloff, Marjorie G. “ 'A Ritual for Being Born Twice': 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Path .” Contemporary literature. 13.4, 1972. 507-22. Rpt in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Ruggero Matuz. Vol 62. Detroit: Gale, 1991. 390-95. Print.Plath, Sylvia. The bell jar. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. Print.Allen, Mary. “Syvia Plath's Challenge: 'The Bell Jar',” The Necessary Emptiness: Women in Major American Fiction of the Sixties. 1976. 160-78. Rpt in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Ruggero Matuz. Vol 62. Detroit: Gale, 1991. 395-400. Press.