Challenger Deep
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman is a novel about a school aged boy named Caden who becomes afflicted by mental illness. Caden is a smart kid and a very good student when he suddenly begins to do poorly on tests, becomes distant, and starts making odd comments. Instead of perceiving normal reality, he sees life in a metaphorical dream world where he is on a ship with many strange characters. His parents get him help in a mental hospital where he struggles but eventually recovers from his illness. The author uses Caden’s story and literary devices such as rhyming, metaphors, and personification to communicate what it is like to struggle through mental illness. Going through mental illness is like going through a parallel but
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Caden is in the hospital being treated with medicine for his illness when he notices his meal of jello has little chunks of fruit in it. He thinks to himself, “You can relate to their plight. Especially when the meds kick in. There are times when the world is gelatinous around you, and it takes such a gathering of will power just to move the slightest bit, it hardly seems worth the effort.” (Shusterman 151) This quote uses personification.The jello represents the drugs Caden has been put on and the fruit represents Caden. The jello may keep everything together, but the fruit has no way to move around and is subject to a very dull life with little room to do what they want. The author’s use of personification here is a powerful way to depict how someone being treated for mental illness feels with drug treatment. Caden has just gotten to the crow’s nest of the ship and is confused as to what is happening. He meets a pale man who offers him a cocktail, “Everyone must find their cocktail or they will be whipped soundly and sent off to bed. That’s how all nursery rhymes end here. Even the ones that don’t rhyme.” (Shusterman 25) This quote uses allusion. The cocktail represents the pills he must take in the real world to keep him from going even more crazy
The short story “Virgo” in Jess Walter’s book We Live in Water is set in modern times which gives it a familiarity for the audience. For something that maybe unfamiliar is that he creates the protagonist to have a psychological problem. The author uses mental illness as an important part in his story, because the story is about the protagonists failing psychological health. This was caused from his parent’s lack of knowledge about mental disorders and his school’s fault for not educating him or his parents about mental illnesses. The protagonist has issues with his social skills, which are caused by the lack of treatment that he has never received from his schools and parents, then as a result attempts to commit suicide at the end of the story.
...ors to describe her life and situation. This comes primarily from the fact that in her therapy sessions that is how she is taught to deal with everything. For example, one metaphor she talks about is “… she comes up with the idea of lighting candles to symbolize my past, present, and future…I’ve noticed my past melting… my present candle has stayed pretty much the same,” (D 266). She explains them as her past is become less controlling, her present is her and concrete ideas and her future is bright and untouched. These metaphors show how much she has grown and allow the things she is learning to have more meaning. All of these combine to make the piece very effective and insightful. They help to get her point across and call people to action to help against these crimes.
Throughout the poem "Two Hangovers" many vivid and descriptive images are given by the author. The images the reader gets are cold, lonely, and dark as some think winter to be; however, in the second part the reader receives an image of bright colors which could be interpreted as a time of renewal, spring, or a time when things are looking up. Imagery and metaphors are used to show the reader the feeling and life depiction of the person in the poem while portraying the image that reflects this. In "Two Hangovers," James Wright uses imagery and metaphors to illustrate a harsh winter changing into spring, and how he feels and acts during these seasons.
The two texts emphasized in this essay include Elyn R. Saks’ The Center Cannot Hold : My Journey Through Madness and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. “There were many days when I believed I was nothing more than the Lady of Charts - a crazy woman who’d faked her way into a teaching job and would soon be discovered for what she really was and put where she really belonged - in a mental hospital” (Saks 263). Saks entire life was a struggle because of the mental illness she had since a young age, schizophrenia. Most of her younger years were lived being misunderstood by her parents and peers alike. She turned to options like substance abuse and self harm to cope with her deteriorating situation in life. There came a point where she realized that she was better than her illness and was able to overcome it with the help and guidance of a few mentors. Now, Saks is a very successful assistant dean, as well as a professor of law, psychology, psychiatry, and behavioral sciences at the University of Southern California Gould Law School. Saks also went on to receive the award for MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and write her book. Joseph Campbell was also very successful in the same way because he wrote a book that is very complex and still relevant in this day and age. Campbell made the mold and Saks’ life fits it
In Shusterman’s book, Challenger Deep, the author introduces an insight and taps into the core of what it’s like to struggle with a mental illness. After going through the results of being a father of a child with schizophrenia, Neal Shusterman established Challenger Deep, in attempt to honor his son and provide a vision of life with schizophrenia to his readers. When Shusterman’s son was in high school he began showing signs of mental illness, when his son was in a better place Neal was determined to turn his son’s dark time in life into something positive in venture to help others. Shusterman strived to help his son and “involve him in any way” that he could in the book (hbook.com). In honor of his son, Shusterman wrote the story dedicated
Not only the words, but the figures of speech and other such elements are important to analyzing the poem. Alliteration is seen throughout the entire poem, as in lines one through four, and seven through eight. The alliteration in one through four (whisky, waltzing, was) flows nicely, contrasting to the negativity of the first stanza, while seven through eight (countenance, could) sound unpleasing to the ear, emphasizing the mother’s disapproval. The imagery of the father beating time on the child’s head with his palm sounds harmful, as well as the image of the father’s bruised hands holding the child’s wrists. It portrays the dad as having an ultimate power over the child, instead of holding his hands, he grabs his wrists.
In Galway Kinnell’s poem, “Blackberry Eating,” assonance, alliteration, and refrain are used in reinforcing the poem’s meaning that just like the speaker’s interest for “ripest” blackberries as described throughout the poem, words are also rich and intense, thus one is eating straight from the tree of knowledge.
The themes of family relationships and alcoholism intertwined in this song and related to each of the main characters personally. Checker and Chess’s father drifted farther apart from them because of alcoholism. Thomas’s relationship with his father was also weakened since his dad is constantly drunk and missing. Junior and Victor lacked a family who cared for them for most of their lives. When they faced setbacks, they had no one to comfort them, thus they turned themselves to the bottle for solace. The themes of family relationships and alcoholism which connected to each character personally was introduced in the beginning chapter. The opening songs provided more context on the themes and how they relate to each of the
Personification is presented by the author as the only explanation for the narrator’s consumption. “The Blue Estuaries” begins to stir the narrator’s own poems (line 24) until she bores down on the page once more, coming back into what is perceived by the reader as a much more clear state of mind. Then, the narrator claims to have “lost her doubts” for a moment (line 34). This was a turning point in the narrator’s tone- signalling a shift in her thoughts, and was a strikingly out of place claim- especially coming from somebody so preoccupied- making the reader wonder what she had thought about for a moment. The narrator then begins to read once more (Line
Take for example, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. There is no doubt in my mind that the mental institution that comprises the primary setting of the narrative is intended as a metaphor of societal oppression. This symbolic novel relays the story of an inmate standing up against the powerful forces that operate a psychiatric hospital, but it represents much more than just a classic case of “man versus the establishment”. The questions raised by Kesey are almost as chilling as his descriptive tales of inmate abuse. Kesey compelled me to ponder just how thin the line is that separates insanity from sanity, and treatment from control. Representing a heroic struggle of personality against an institution of mindless conformity, I found “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to be one powerful piece of literature.
Your main character is a caring 29 year-old man. The story begins in a hospital. Someone is diagnosed with a mental illness. It's a story about a journey. Your character takes on the role of protector.
Alcohol is a commonly used symbol in Poe’s literature and it has a very unfortunate effect on his characters. When Montresor leads Fortunato to the river’s bed, he decides to further inebriate Fortunato. Before continuing he “broke and reached him a flagon of De Grâve. [Fortunato] emptied it at a breath. His eyes flashed with a fierce light.” This exemplifies how alcohol can be misused because Montresor takes advantage ...
Literature is the vehicle of society. Since the dawn of language, the written word has been humanity’s greatest tool, and its greatest weapon. Throughout history, the greatest literary minds are those capable of eliciting emotion and asking the questions that demand answers. When scholars think of works with ‘literary merit,’ they call upon the stories that have stood the test of time. These works challenge the widely accepted norms of their respective time periods in a way that sets them apart from their contemporaries. In this way, The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick is a novel deserving of solid literary recognition. Quick’s story tackles the pervasive issue of mental illness in America, and challenges the reader to look through the lens of a victim of a serious medical condition. Rarely does a novel effectively refute commonly accepted stereotypes and assumptions as The Silver Linings Playbook does. The story, and subsequent message of hope from Pat Peoples, the main character, is one that transcends social and literary boundaries. Clever rhetorical techniques and devices only exemplify the central theme of optimism, while also creating a perspective that forces the reader to think differently. Not all stories have the endings we may expect or wish for ourselves. However, this novel calls us to seek something greater than ourselves and face our problems head on. This advice is universal and applicable in any era or situation. By the traditional definition, The Silver Linings Playbook has enough literary excellence and emotional value to warrant considerable literary merit.
The poet uses examples of imagery in this poem. The poet uses a simile in the first line of the first stanza to start off the poem. The simile she uses is ''the skin cracks like a pod''. The opening of the poem gives a clear message that something is severely wrong. A pod cracks with barely any resistance so the comparison to the skin is a unreserved statement outlining how easily the skin is. There is obviously a drought or a vast undersupply of water. The opening surprises the reader and gives an indication of what is to come. The poet uses a short and abrupt line which is effective
In William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, Charlotte Gilman 's “The Yellow Wallpaper”, and Ken Kesey 's One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest, the poor treatment of primary characters labeled insane by secondary characters results in the deterioration of the primary characters mental state. All three of these works take place in a time where mental instability is frowned upon. The way in which society views those with mental instabilities influences the view and treatment of the mentally unstable by the people around them.