Ken Steele Character Analysis Essay

Main character Ken Steele starts hearing voices around the age 14. In his house he currently lives in, his grandma who lives in their house is his best friend. Ken from the age of 14 has demanding voices in his head constantly telling him to kill himself. Ken is classified with the disorder Schizophrenia. The voices tell him instructions on how to commit suicide and constantly tell Ken he is not worthy. At the age of 18, Ken’s parents kick him out of the house because of his mental disorder and he flies off to New York. Ken throughout his entire life is on his own, other than the friends he has made in different housings and hospitals he has been at. Ken during times of deep struggle would become a male prostitute to make money or sleep with guys so he would have a place to sleep at. At one of the hospitals he was at it was so poorly operated that during night, a few boys raped Ken. Other times, Ken ended up in the alley of buildings homeless and made up a life story about himself that was not true and even changed his own name. Ken traveled to many different …show more content…
“Why, then, should we who are mentally ill remain politically silent when there 's so much at stake that could affect the quality of our lives? (Claire, 195) ” This struck me because it emphasized diagnostic labels. People knowing that one is mentally ill makes them have a mindset that they can not do certain things and that they are insane. This emphasized Rosenhan 's experiment. His experiment was that 8 normal people complained of hearing voices. When they went to doctor and told them this, they were classified as having Schizophrenia. The people watching them said they have the symptoms of schizophrenia, when in reality they did not. This shows how when one thinks someone has a disorder they jump to conclusions and find information that supports they have the disorder (confirmation