Influences of Literature: Mental Health
Mental illness had not been regarded as a real issue until very recently. People seem to hold comfort in thinking that the only illnesses we can contract are the ones that we can see physically and easily investigate. The notion of having an ill brain that somehow hinders one’s ability of “free will” terrifies people. Instead of giving it the respect and care it deserves, people often turn away and call ignorant bliss. While in point of fact, ignorant is NOT bliss in the context where illnesses affect billions of lives on Earth. We cannot just go around and look the other way because this type of attitude won’t will the illnesses to go away. What made me really ponder was the fact that this widely held …show more content…
The story is first originally published in 1892. The author, Gilman, recounted her experiences under her doctor’s treatment. Using the yellow wallpaper as a symbol for constraint, she eloquently described her journey down into what is now known as psychosis. Gilman was a strong advocate for women’s rights and her motives behind writing the story is undoubtedly related to the unfortunate status quo of women during her time. With her mind set on this social movement, Gilman neglected to be inclusive and sensitive about the other topics. While we can certainly say that she did a good job raising the seriousness of mental health, she disregarded her impact as an author and her ability to reinforce deleterious stereotypes that have detrimental effects on the progression of mental health …show more content…
The characters are not entirely reliable due to their actions. These are the commonly reported of a mentally ill individual. All of these characters are engaged in some kind of violence that is so terrifying and horrible that readers don’t feel sympathetic to them. If we take a look at the reader response theory and apply it to all of these stories, you can see that the influence the characters of these stories have on us is extremely high. We end up with strong opinions about the characters. While we formulate these opinions about the characters, we unconsciously relate their traits (gender, age, and mental state) to these negative opinions, and then apply these opinions to anyone presenting those same traits. Another thing we need to keep in mind is the fact that these stories are written at different times. The notion of perpetuation is something that is reinforcing repeatedly. Through the application of the social reader response theory, which states that our individual subjective responses are actually the products of the interpretive community we identify in, we can see that these works reinforce the idea that mentally ill individuals are violent by being repeatedly introduced in our most influential political institution — education and schooling. This is a classical example of “the single story” except, this time it is not about race but about health. These are all the same story
Mental illness had not been regarded as a real issue until very recently. People seem to hold comfort in thinking that the only illnesses we can contract are the ones that we can see physically and easily investigate. The notion of having an ill brain that somehow hinders one’s ability of “free will” terrifies people. Instead of giving it the respect and care it deserves, people often turn away and call ignorant bliss. While in point of fact, ignorant is NOT bliss in the context where illnesses affect billions of lives on Earth. We cannot just go around and look the other way because this type of attitude won’t will the illnesses to go away. What made me really ponder was the fact that this widely held …show more content…
The story is first originally published in 1892. The author, Gilman, recounted her experiences under her doctor’s treatment. Using the yellow wallpaper as a symbol for constraint, she eloquently described her journey down into what is now known as psychosis. Gilman was a strong advocate for women’s rights and her motives behind writing the story is undoubtedly related to the unfortunate status quo of women during her time. With her mind set on this social movement, Gilman neglected to be inclusive and sensitive about the other topics. While we can certainly say that she did a good job raising the seriousness of mental health, she disregarded her impact as an author and her ability to reinforce deleterious stereotypes that have detrimental effects on the progression of mental health …show more content…
The characters are not entirely reliable due to their actions. These are the commonly reported of a mentally ill individual. All of these characters are engaged in some kind of violence that is so terrifying and horrible that readers don’t feel sympathetic to them. If we take a look at the reader response theory and apply it to all of these stories, you can see that the influence the characters of these stories have on us is extremely high. We end up with strong opinions about the characters. While we formulate these opinions about the characters, we unconsciously relate their traits (gender, age, and mental state) to these negative opinions, and then apply these opinions to anyone presenting those same traits. Another thing we need to keep in mind is the fact that these stories are written at different times. The notion of perpetuation is something that is reinforcing repeatedly. Through the application of the social reader response theory, which states that our individual subjective responses are actually the products of the interpretive community we identify in, we can see that these works reinforce the idea that mentally ill individuals are violent by being repeatedly introduced in our most influential political institution — education and schooling. This is a classical example of “the single story” except, this time it is not about race but about health. These are all the same story