Schizophrenia In Melody Carlson's Finding Alice

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Schizophrenia is a mental disorder which leads the patients to delusion and a faulty perception, may also be the result of emotional suffering and depression. Schizophrenia is difficult to overcome and affects people’s esteem, confidence, or the development of negative emotions which impacts on accomplishing simple tasks on daily life. In the novel Finding Alice, by Melody Carlson, describes the adventures and the tragedies that a teenage girl suffering from schizophrenia goes through. Alice after growing up in a strict religious environment with severe parents and teachers and after going through a breakup shows the first signs of schizophrenia. Alice believes that God talks to her and gives her prophecies which she then writes …show more content…
Alice develops a negative perspective of life as a result of people who are part of her environment, pose a conflict with her ideals and shape her character.
Alice’s experiences in a draconian environment during her childhood and teenage years contributed to developing feelings of depression and mental disorders. To begin, the violent home setting where Alice grew up affected her on developing schizophrenia. “I remember my father being controlling and mean-head of the household, and he wanted everyone to know it. He demanded our respect and punished us, even Mom, when we refused to give it. It is hard to feel too sorry for this man now.” (257) This quotation confirms the physical abuse that Alice and other members of her family had to go through. Studies have shown that people who have endured any type of abuse have 77.6% greater chance of developing some form of mental disorder. This is the case of Alice, being exposed daily to an abusive home where she had very little freedom to express herself and live a life as the other kids of her age. This kind of control and pressure diffidently affected her negatively and was an important stress factor in her life. Another contributing factor is the very strict group think
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Pastor John’s try to change Alice’s believes about psychosis, influences her on believing that she is demonized and needs the help of the church instead of professional medical help. “’ Mental illness’… ‘is nothing more than a New Age word for demonization, Alice.” (354) This reference validates that Alice has been through a lot of judgement by her old thinking church. The fact that Alice is refused to take medical help has a lot of bad consequences and aggravates her conditions. Also, the exorcism that Pastor John pursued on her left her traumatized and detached which discouraged Alice from seeking for help from her relatives. In addition, Alice’s mother influenced her on being vulnerable and not standing up for herself for things that she thought were wrong. “He demanded our respect and punished us, even Mom, when we refused to give it. It is hard to feel too sorry for this man now.” (257) Although Alice’s mother is a very kind and great mother, the fear that was oppressed by her husband and the church intimidated her for standing up for the things that were wrong and that fear was transmitted to Alice too. She knew that she would be abused for things that were forbidden by her church and family. Alice grew up exposed to a lot of sexism. She was taught that she must obey the men of her family, and that she does

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