The Influence Of Depression In America By E. R. Frank

Depression is the most common mental illness and the reason why many people commit suicide. It is commonly found when people fail to cope effectively with stress or experience painful, disturbing or traumatic events that overwhelm them. Suicide has become the main cause of death between young adults in Canada, leaving only tragic incidents behind; around 4000 Canadians die every year by committing suicide. America, by E.R. Frank, is about a young child, who goes through a lot of emotional and physical pain due to the people around him. When he is older, America hesitates to tell anyone about the traumatic events that he had gone through. America’s emotional state is damaged by his mother, Browning, and the whole system. In general, these people …show more content…
However, Browning is the exact opposite; he emotionally and sexually hurts America. First, Browning is responsible for causing America to feel terrified about himself and makes every effort to demolish America’s relationship with Mrs. Harper. For example: trying to influence America that Mrs. Harper does not care about him nor she is interested in what America does in his life. In this quote, where Browning is explaining to America, “’ we can’t really talk too much with her… its better if leave her be… It’s better if you don’t wear her out, by talking so much”’ (85). This quotation shows Browning’s hypocrisy towards America, where on one hand, he is influencing America to be an independent person, while on the other hand, forces him to back away his relationship with Mrs. Harper. As a result, America starts to be very quiet and hardly responds when Mrs. Harper is talking to him. For this reason, he does not share anything with Mrs. Harper and even starts to conceal the issues occurring in his life. Second, Browning forcefully makes America have sex with him and threatens him to not tell anyone about it. This is shown in the novel, when Browning is peeling off some carrots and telling America to imagine if was someone’s fingers. Browning describes, “’we have a lot of carrots to scrape tonight… Imagine...if this was someone’s fingers”’ (108). This quotation shows the real …show more content…
First, the social services are very careless with the responsibility they are given towards America. In other words, they force America to visit his mother in New York, even though, they knew that she is a drug addict and they do not have a proper address of where America is going exactly in New York. For example, when they finally find America, they do not inform him of what had occurred - how he got lost in the system, but rather, they simply take him to Mrs. Harper. America narrates, “I got lost in the system…my case man got fired and her boss had to go to court, but I was still lost” (62). This quotation shows that just because of the irresponsibility of the social services and lack of concern towards America, they are solely responsible for the negative changes that America inherits, particularly the way; he talks, behaves and thinks which have been all changed by the presence of his brothers. These circumstances forced America to believe that even the social services do not care about him and that is the main reason he was sent to New York. Second, the police are to blame for putting America into the R and D jail for years with no sort of evidence and crime against him. In the novel, even the judge is furious to why America is here, he asks America’s lawyer: “’ is the boy wanted for a crime in Nyack or not...he is not your honor, the lawyer