To Educate or to Advocate? When I first set out to propose a project, I wasn’t sure what topic I wanted to conquer. Therefore, I quickly jumped when the professor suggested reading the memoir, “Darkness Visible” by William Styron. I have enjoyed all the class readings so far, I even did my last project on another memoir, and thought that reading a fresh perspective regarding mental illness would be engaging and inspiring. Unfortunately, I began reading “Darkness Visible” with preconceived notions and wrongly assumed that this memoir, like “The Last Time I Wore a Dress” by Daphne Scholinski, would be filled with charismatic descriptions of life in a mental hospital and the activities (or lack there of) surrounding day-to-day life. Upon finishing the memoir, I found several differences that certainly distinguish the two from one another, and I will discuss them below to the best of my ability. My first thought was to dissect the differences between the memoirs by answering the question: Why is it that these two authors tell their stories so differently? With such a common thread, why do the parallel paths not intersect? The conclusions I have drawn surround two words; educate and advocate. I feel it is the purpose and goal behind each of these memoirs that forces the writers to delve into such different styles. Likewise, they hold different opinions about depression, the illness they both suffer from. With dissimilar convictions and beliefs, how could I assume their stories would be the same while their roots are so different? That being said, I believe that Scholinski has one goal. Her goal is to advocate. She aims to advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves; to tell the trauma she experienced in hopes of help... ... middle of paper ... ...been treated for the illness she actually had, that being depression, instead of Gender Identity Disorder (GID). Unfortunately, that was not the case, and Scholinski’s wounds from her hospital experiences remain open. As the greatest asset, it is the goals behind each work that stands out as the biggest difference. They dictate and create the structure and rhetoric ultimately necessary for success. Educating and advocating are crucial for sustaining our society; therefore memoirs like “Darkness Visible” by William Styron and “The Last Time I Wore a Dress” by Daphne Scholinski should be highly praised, well respected, and read by all. --Aderkatch 13:39, 6 November 2008 (EST) Works Cited: Scholinski, Daphne. The Last Time I Wore A Dress. New York, NY: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1997. Styron, William. Darkness Visible. New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 1992.
Darryl’s life is worth fighting for. “You can’t buy what I’ve got.” ‘The Castle’ directed by Rob Sitch, about one man, his family and neighbours on the verge of being homeless. Darryl Kerrigan, the “backbone of the family” won’t stand for that. Of course no one can buy what he has. He’s spent almost his entire lifetime building what he has, why should he give it up? Darryl’s way of life is simple yet filled with family values. 3 Highview Crescent is the home to Darryl, his wife Sal and their 3 children: Wayne, Steve, Tracy and Dale. (Wayne currently being in jail.) The house is made up of love, and simple family values. Darryl’s also added bits and pieces to it. He’s added on so much to the house, his own personal touch. His neighbours, also in the same bout are almost family to the Kerrigans. Jack and Farouk are another reason why Darryl’s ready to take matters into his own hands.
The climax of the story is when Miles is shot by the Bonewoman. The reader comes to realize that Miles’ choice to live life on the safe side was a mistake:
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, is one of the most famous historical fiction books ever written. This 352 paged book has inspired many teens to acknowledge the Genocide of Baltic people. Ruta Sepetys was inspired to write a fiction book instead of a non-fiction book based on the stories she heard from survivors of the genocide during a visit to her relatives in Lithuania. She interviewed dozens of people during her stay. Between Shades of Gray was her first novel that she had written. This book was interpreted well enough by the readers to become a New York Times Bestseller.
Divided Minds provided me to look at mental illness as a whole, looking at the individual who is significantly affected by it, discovering/establishing their main perspectives, viewpoints, and challenges but also their social, and environmental dynamics. However another book which also captivated my interest within the mental health field consisted of the novel entitled, The Beast, allowing a new discovery of the underlying problems people may face with
David W. Blight's book Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory and the American Civil War, is an intriguing look back into the Civil War era which is very heavily studied but misunderstood according to Blight. Blight focuses on how memory shapes history Blight feels, while the Civil War accomplished it goal of abolishing slavery, it fell short of its ultimate potential to pave the way for equality. Blight attempts to prove that the Civil War does little to bring equality to blacks. This book is a composite of twelve essays which are spilt into three parts. The Preludes describe blacks during the era before the Civil War and their struggle to over come slavery and describes the causes, course and consequences of the war. Problems in Civil War memory describes black history and deals with how during and after the war Americans seemed to forget the true meaning of the war which was race. And the postludes describes some for the leaders of black society and how they are attempting to keep the memory and the real meaning of the Civil War alive and explains the purpose of studying historical memory.
Night is a memoir written by Elie Wiesel, a young Jewish boy, who tells of his experiences during the Holocaust. Elie is a deeply religious boy whose favorite activities are studying the Talmud and spending time at the Temple with his spiritual mentor, Moshe the Beadle. At an early age, Elie has a naive, yet strong faith in God. But this faith is tested when the Nazi's moves him from his small town.
The Last Time I Wore A Dress written by Daphne Scholinski. This is a touching story about a girl who was taken the wrong way. During the course of her childhood and young adulthood, Daphne fought with recognizing her feelings. Daphne was continually searching for an answer to why she felt fought. Daphne wanted to “blend in” but she knew she was unconventional. The various labels she was given through out her psychiatric break stuck with her and left serious damage of how she was once observed. Daphne had extremely low self-confidence through out her childhood. For the reason, that her parents overlooked her and gave her little affection. “She didn’t even notice when I walked out of her apartment, ran down the stairs,” (Scholinski 4). Her self-esteem was worse at her dad’s house than her moms, however, her relationship with Frank made her very uncomfortable when she would travel into Chicago because she didn’t want to see him. While visiting her mother in Chicago, Daphne kept company with gang members and a much older, lewd hit man. The hit man gave her drugs, money and took her out to dinner with the intent of sexual favors. Daphne desired to be tough; when she was out in the streets with her crew “gang”. She wanted everyone around her to see her toughness. Her gang observed that she was strong in side and out; which made them respect her. The respect given by the gang is why Daphne attempts to act tough at every new place she goes. Daphne wants to earn esteem from them. Daphne knows her appearances favor a boy but the tough character given off by this makes Daphne accept it. The people around Daphne treat her like a boy. “I landed a punch on Louis’ shoulder and he was dead serious looking at me, trying to figure out how to come b...
Symbolism is the element that plays the starring role in this production, coyly divulging the clues necessary to illuminate the reality of her psychosis. The physical triggers of said psychosis belong solely to the room she and her husband slept in; now a playroom, it had obviously gone through many other transformations as had this woman, who despised it (nursery, gym, playroom). More importantly, it is the wallpaper that has caught and held her mind's eye.
This is an Interview that I conducted when checking the historical accuracy of the story. Not only was this a helpful source to that but also explained how she saw the Holocaust in her eyes of a young girl that was only a year older than Sarah. Though she was young and at times it was hard for her to talk about or even remember, there were not many gender defining roles that she
The Day the Voices Stopped is a “Memoir of Madness and Hope,” written by Ken Steele (Steele & Berman, 2001, p. 1). As a reader, my experience of this book was like a rollercoaster and I found myself very emotionally invested. When terrible things happened to Ken, I truly felt sick to my stomach while reading them; but when good things happened, I also felt like there was still hope left. Ken Steele’s memoir described how stigma is extremely prevalent in mental illness and individuals are forced to overcome massive obstacles in their lives.
How could one dieny that the mass murder of six million jews never happened? These revisionist, or deniers, like to believe that it never did. Even with the witnesses, photos, buildings and other artifacts left behind, they still believe that the Holocaust is a hoax. The Holocaust deniers are wrong because there are people who have survived that wrote books, there is proof that Jews were being killed, and other evidence and artifacts have been found.
Ann Rinaldi has written many books for young teenagers, she is an Award winning author who writes stories of American history and makes them become real to the readers. She has written many other books such as A Break with Charity, A Ride into Morning, and Cast two Shadows, etc. She was born in New York City on August 27, 1934. In 1979, at the age of 45, she finished her first book.
In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.
Women in pictorial history have often been used as objects; figures that passively exist for visual consumption or as catalyst for male protagonists. Anne Hollander in her book Fabric of Vision takes the idea of women as objects to a new level in her chapter “Women as Dress”. Hollander presents the reader with an argument that beginning in the mid 19th century artists created women that ceased to exist outside of their elegantly dressed state. These women, Hollander argues, have no body, only dress. This concept, while persuasive, is lacking footing which I will attempt to provide in the following essay. In order to do this, the work of James Tissot (b. 1836 d. 1902) will further cement the idea of “women as dress” while the work of Berthe
What if the night sky was as bright as day? It may never be that bright, but in the future it may be close. In Paul Bogard’s “Let There be Dark,” he talks about how important the night is to the ecosystem. He also discusses how important it is to reduce light pollution in cities. Every year, the night sky gets brighter, and Paul wishes to end this. Paul’s argument is very persuasive, and he uses a variety of techniques to convince the reader.