Analysis Of Jim Stevens's Schizophrenia

“Schizophrenia is not a terribly common disease, but it can be a serious and chronic one. Worldwide about 1 percent of the population is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and approximately 1.2% of Americans (3.2 million) have the disorder” (Mentalhelp.net). The majority of society does not recognize what schizophrenia does to an individual and to their family. Using this context, in the poem Schizophrenia, the author, Jim Stevens utilizes the literary devices of imagery, symbolism, and personification to show how schizophrenia can rip a family apart; and can even go as far as to modify the atmosphere that the family lives in.
In poems, imagery is used to help get the writers’ message across in a language that is extremely visual. The poet wants

Schizophrenia can change the entire environment in the household as shown in the poem, “then lines were drawn, boarders established, / some rooms declared their loyalties, / keeping to themselves, keeping out the other” (12-14). A home is not one where you keep others out, you want your family around you. Schizophrenia will turn a home into a house. “Slamming doors, angry feet scuffing the carpets” (2). Jim Stevens uses imagery to explain the change in atmosphere that the people are going through, but uses the house to explain it, “Seeing cracked paint, broken windows, / the front door banging in the wind, / the roof tiles flying off, one by one, / the neighbors said it was a madhouse” (16-19). Not only do the people in the house and the atmosphere of the house feel the mental disorder, but the neighbors can feel the depth of schizophrenia too. Imagery helps the reader understand what Jim Stevens wants for them to comprehend, there are many other literary deceives that help the reader understand as

Writers also use personification to attach the reader with the object being describes and well as give the poem or paper a mood. The literary device that stands out the most in the poem Schizophrenia, is personification. Jim Stevens uses personification to create layers of meaning as well as display that the house is another person being affected by the mental disease of schizophrenia. Previously, the house was explained as the atmosphere, but when he displays personification Jim Stevens shows that house has feelings just like a person. The house is going through what everyone else in the family is going though, so Jim Stevens wants the reader to comprehend how the family is feeling through the house, “It was the house that suffered most” (20). Another quote that the house was personified in is, “The house divided against itself” (15). In the sense that the house was another person being affected, shows that if the house had schizophrenia, it would turn against itself. In the relationship between the wife and husband, the wife was going against herself by turning away from her husband, although it was apparent that he was trying to help her with her mental illness. One last way the house was personified was from the quote stating, “The house came to miss the shouting voices / the threats, the half apologies, noisy / reconciliations, the