The film Girl, Interrupted directed by James Mangold is a contemporary popular culture appropriation of the text The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and many parallels can be drawn between the two texts. Through both the different mediums, the concept of journey is featured, exploring a young woman's personal struggles against society's conventions and mental illness. The cinematic translation and the semi-autobiographical novel provide insight to the role of women and attitudes towards the mentally ill in their contexts through the use of imagery, symbolism, music and other film techniques.

The Bell Jar was set in the 1950s, America, the era of repressed feminism and social confusion about the role of the women. During WW II, millions of women entered the labor force to help the war effort. The majority of women didn't want to give the jobs back after the war because they had discovered that they...