Part of the aura surrounding Ruth arose from his modest origins. Though the legend that he was an orphan is untrue, Ruth did have a difficult childhood. Both his parents, George Herman Ruth, Sr., and Kate Shamberger Ruth, came from working-class, ethnic (German) families. Ruth, Sr., owned and operated a saloon in a tough neighbourhood on the Baltimore waterfront. Living in rooms above the saloon, the Ruths had eight children, but only George, Jr., the firstborn, and a younger sister survived to adulthood.…
As we read more into the story, we learn that Annie Wilkes is not just a friendly ‘do-gooder’. She has intense anger issues, problems with control, and displays extreme paranoid tendencies. Forensic psychologist Reid Meloy said that ‘Wilkes personality is a virtual catalogue of mental illness’. Meloy also believes she suffers from bipolar disorder. I feel that this is relevant not only to the story but to the feeling of repulsion towards Annie Wilkes.…
Dorothea Dix was at a young age relatively in charge of keeping house and taking care of her younger siblings due to her mother’s crippling depression and likely other mental illnesses and her father’s abusive achollisim. While her mother likely being her first and most formative experience with mental illness, she was in no way her last. Having always had a fascination with the mentally ill Dorothea took a teaching position at the East Cambridge Women’s prison where she was shocked to see the inhumane treatment of the women there. Not only were some many of the inmates mentally ill people who had committed no real crime housed alongside actual criminals, the women there were subjected to harsh, corrupt, inhumane treatment. Many of the women…
There are two authors that really connect with readers, Steve Pacheco and Trevino Brings. While not every reader will have gone through lives like their own, both men draw the readers into their stories and make them relatable and inspiring. Steve Pacheco is a Native American Poet. The way he finds a way to incorporate political aspects into his poems without sounding as though he his standing on a soap box. Another aspect that he integrates in his works is nature.…
Immediately after reading this section, I began to sympathize with the grandfather. His memory seems to be substantially impaired. Alzheimer's runs on my mother’s side of the family, so I know my fair share about memory loss and aging. My mom has had aunts who couldn't remember her face or name and watched as her grandparents’ memory deteriorated. Telemachos's grandfather's condition mirrors my kin's.…
The problem with Emily In the passage “A rose for Emily” by William Faulkner the protagonist Emily Grierson who lived in the south where a person’s social class determined the expectations of a person’s behavior and how society viewed and treated them. Emily Grierson is an older woman who comes from a wealthy family but suffers from schizophrenia. “Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness characterized by incoherent, illogical thoughts, and bizarre behavior” (Kazdin 2000) Miss Emily goes through many obstacles and the town of Jefferson where she resided feels pity for her but Miss Emily still demands respect and dignity.…
One of the examples of mental illness used in Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson was the case of Herbert Richardson. Herbert had a girlfriend; he tried to date and wanted to marry her someday. She resisted at first because he was suffering from the side effects of the Vietnam War. Herbert became overly obsessive over her in the relationship. She tried to break up with him.…
I met *Dorothy in August when I began interning this past summer. Dorothy is African American and I can only assume that she is homeless as her clothes are unusual or dirty and her hair seems like it has not been combed or washed in a while. During group she almost always wants to volunteer to read first and if she is not volunteering to read she is wiping down the tables while the other clients are reading. What’s intriguing about Dorothy is that when she is not talking to herself she can grab a person’s attention with words of wisdom. Dorothy is suffering from schizophrenia and has been for the last ten years.…
During the Victorian Era, there was a change in the views towards mental illness as people began to realize the conditions and treatments towards patients of the mental institutions. Jane Eyre follows the story of a girl who is living through the social discriminations of the Victorian Era and observes the way the mentally ill were treated. In most cases, judging someone’s mental health was closely related to gender and where they stood on the social scale. Charlotte Bronte’s accurate yet insensitive portrayal of how mental illness was viewed in the Victorian Era is shown through the depiction of the character Bertha Mason in the novel Jane Eyre. Victorian Era mental patients were first treated with ignorance and anger.…
A Rose for Emily: It’s no secret that Emily Grierson seemed crazy, she may have even suffered from a mental illness. Having such an illness could be drastic for one’s self or for others around them. Her actions were bizarre, from denying that her father had died to buying poison from the pharmacy and everything in between. Everyone in the town had noticed this, but never said anything to Miss Emily.…
Mental illness is a condition that affects an individual’s thinking, feelings, mood and daily functioning. It also affects an individual’s ability to cope with the ordinary demands of life. Serious mental illnesses include depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder and borderline personality disorder. It can affect an individual at any age, race or religion. It can also occur due to illness, personal weakness and poor childhood.…
The mentally ill are treated unfairly due to the negative stigma surrounding mental disorders. Mental illness is not just a problem in the real-world, it is also portrayed in many works of literature. For example, in the novel, Sula, by Toni Morrison there is a great focus on mental illness with Plum and Shadrack who both suffer with forms of PTSD from wartime. People suffering with mental disorders are less likely to seek help due to the negative stigma surrounding mental health. National Suicide Day is a day that Shadrack, war veteran, celebrates.…
Memory represents a person’s perception of self and identity. Reflecting on past memories and experiences allows a person to recognize who he or she is and where he or she came from. In the novel, Brain on Fire, by Susannah Cahalan, a disease known as anti-NMDA receptor autoimmune encephalitis inflames Cahalan’s brain, inducing cognitive deficiencies such as hallucinations, paranoia, and slurred speech. Cahalan refers to her hospital stay as her “month of madness” because these symptoms destroy her memory and alter her identity.…
Kashmala Rehman Losing a cherished one is sorrowful enough, but watching a loved one go away slowly is even more depressing. Alzheimer’s is a disease that can occur is middle to old age which causes people to lose their memory and other important mental functions. In the stories “The Moustache” and “Jan’s Story”, Mike and Barry go through a traumatic experience of losing a loved one because of the disease. They had to be a caregiver for the person who had lost their memory and as a result, they experienced changes in their own lives.…
1.There are multiple mental illnesses portrayed in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as the setting for the story is a mental institution. The narrator is a large Native American who feigns deaf and dumbness. This character is an excellent study in the evolution of a mentally ill individual along the path of finding a semblance of normalcy, although the phenomenon is the result of interactions with a decidedly psychopathic or sociopathic man, McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson. Nicholson connives to be placed in a mental institution to avoid jail and throughout his antics we are offered an internal view of a form of mental illness more difficult to diagnose - psycho &/or sociopathy. The terms have been used interchangeably and even experts disagree…