In her award winning novel The Running Dream, Wendelin Van Draanen’s extensive research paid off tremendously. Draanen accurately depicts the life of a teenage girl who is learning how to function accordingly with the new disabilities that took her by storm. She captures the main character, Jessica, struggling to overcome both her physical and mental obstacles. Jessica’s running career comes to an abrupt halt as the bus she and the school track team are riding in, is struck by a large truck at high speed. Throughout her recovery journey, Jessica exhibits many psychological characteristics. Battling with isolation, reaction formation and projection, Jessica nevertheless powers through all of her struggles and ultimately becomes the person she …show more content…
Jessica exhibits this trait by reacting in an odd way as she faces the shocking news about her leg. The day after the accident, she wakes up in the hospital not knowing why she is there or what day it even is. As she opens her eyes, she sees her mother with red puffy eyes and the doctors tell her the horrific news. As she learns that she has no right foot, ankle or shin, Jessica sits on the hospital bed and is in complete and utter shock. Her mother breaks down, letting out a rallying cry while her teenage daughter does not react in the slightest way possible. The main character is simply at a loss of words and has no time to process what has just been told to her. Consequently, Jessica lacks major emotional response while she is told the news about her loss and all of the barriers she must conquer. In another section of the novel, Jessica returns back to school and is trying her hardest to obtain her original routine. As she walks into the school, she is bombarded with numerous questions and condolences. Jessica feels as if she is in both the spotlight and invisible nevertheless she also feels as if people do not know how to react to her. Jessica's depression is …show more content…
The psychological definition of reaction formation is asserting opposite from the truth. The protagonist claims that she feels splendid, upbeat and she acts as if nothing is wrong, however, in reality she is struggling with major depression and thoughts of worthlessness. The teen feels this as a result that she believes running is something that she may never be able to experience again. Analyzing her situation, overcomes this problem by getting a special prosthetic leg made custom for running that her track coach raised money for. While surpassing her reaction formation phase, Jessica overcomes this problem due to she is now able to run again with her dog Sherlock. It may not be the same as before, but sure-enough, she feels as if she is running just like old times. Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology kept in touch with over 800 adolescents for approximately two years. According to the studies, researchers found that physically active children had less symptoms of depression in comparison to the children who had done no psychical activity (McGinn). Running is the activity that Jessica seeks happiness in, pertaining to the study, the protagonist is a part of the section of children that has less symptoms of depression. As her ability to run escapes, depression creeps in and takes the place of happiness. Ecstatic
It is never told exactly what has caused Lisa Shilling to slip into this state of depression, which helps to make the atmosphere of the novel very mysterious. Just when it appears that Lisa is getting better, another episode occurs. The story is disturbing, being set around Lisa’s school and home. With other characters in the story, such as Lisa’s parents, causing conflicts with Lisa receiving proper treatment, the story is given a disturbing yet realistic feel.
While reading the short story, the author demonstrates that Pauline, the protagonist is having a hard time. At first, Anne Carter uses the main character to show us that her transformation helps her from reaching her dream. Also, the author employs contrasting characters to mention the current state of Pauline’s safety and ambition. At last, Laurel uses settings to show us that the protagonist is ready to sacrifice her safety to attain her dream. Finally, Anne’s point is aimed at everyone, not only people who have a difficult body condition, but also the people that desperately want to achieve their dream. To read a story that deals with this theme makes us realize that it is not everyone that can accomplish what they really want in their
Throughout Jessica’s journey of losing her leg, she acquires an enormous level of support and comfort from her family while she is finding her way. Losing a leg is something that nobody ever wants to happen, but Jessica doesn’t get this choice. Along the way of the process
The girl writing the diary is very concerned with her weight, her crush Roger and has a hard time fitting in in school. She is very relieved at first when she hears that her family is going to move to a new town, due to her father’s new job as a professor at a different college.
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)
In "Living the Dream" the author discusses his events and steps in the attempt to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder. The author mainly showed the reader the effects PTSD had on his life. Michael Jernigan explained that he had reoccurring nightmares of events that had happened to him in Iraq. Through the help of a disabled veteran and his wife, he began to view his dreams in positive manner. This helped the author create a more positive outlook on
Internal conflict is something that happens in all of our lives almost every day, and we don’t even think about it. The definition of internal conflict is when the problem is happening to the main character and his or her self. The book The Running Dream, by Wendelin Van Draanen, has a lot of internal conflict as well as a lot of external conflict which is when the problem is happening to the main character, and some type of outside force. In this book, the main character, Jess, loves running, and on her way to one of her track meets she got into a car accident. She was taken to the hospital, and the doctors had to amputate her leg below her right knee because it was mangled beyond any chance of possible repair. In this book there are many different conflicts, an example of an internal conflict is when Jess
tragedies that befell her. She is an example of a melancholic character that is not able to let go of her loss and therefore lets it t...
Being smart is a trait that you need in life and in Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting, Andrew has a lot of that trait.One reason to support this claim is he does not get caught while he lives in the airport. Another reason is Andrew saves money.A final reason is they all work together in the airport to get money and not get caught.
After getting her leg amputated she did not like the fact that it was a very long recovery. During her recovery she became very sad and lost hope knowing she would never be able to move like she used to. She visited a prosthetist named Hank who guided her through her recovery and created her prosthetic legs. Once Jessica was well enough to go back to school, her best friend Fiona brought her back and had the whole track team welcome her with a party during lunch. After figuring out how much all the medical bills and prosthetic legs cost, the track team decided to put out several news stories and have lots of fundraisers to raise money. Since Jessica was in a wheelchair on her first day back, she had to sit in the back of the classroom with a girl named Rosa who was in a power wheelchair and had cerebral palsy. After passing notes and talking to Rosa, Jessica found how to look past her disability and found out what kind of person Rosa was. When passing notes, Rosa asked Jessica why she likes to run and what it feels like. She also says that she sees Jessica and her dog run past her house everyday. They became really good friends and Rosa ended up being Jessica’s tutor in math. Jessica and Fiona would go to room 402
In the late nineteenth century people obtained more freedom. The American rags to riches story struck a chord with many people and they tried to change their social class. For some, even with new opportunities in life, it would be hard for them to climb the class ladder. Many people live lives full of hardship and obstacles, such as Maggie Johnson from Stephen Crane's Maggie a Girl of the Streets, who grows up in the slums of New York City. Edna Pontellier from Kate Chopin's The Awakening lives a life of extravagance and wealth but still ends up dying a sad and lonely death because she makes poor decisions. Maggie also dies in a tragic death, but not because of bad choices, but because of the situation she finds herself in throughout her life. Maggie's situation turns her into a victim and facilitates her tragic death while Edna makes herself into a victim and causes her own death.
One of the cases found in the novel by Cynthia Crosson-Tower dealt with a little girl by the name of Jessica Barton. Although still a small child, her foster family had an issue trying to raise her in which she gave them behavioral issues and she would not react to them and was hard to ...
The struggle to battle with the persistent grief of self-blame and lack of identity is a constant reminder to the barriers in relationships. Leroy grieves over the fact that he has lost his identity as a father and husband. Although he often thinks of Randy, the memories of him have faded. As a result, he latches on to Norma Jean but she doesn’t respond back. This causes him to feel like a failure of a husband. Norma Jean is grieving over the emptiness in her life. It was not the life she thought she would have. Her deceased son symbolizes her emptiness because of his death. She also feels emptiness towards her husband. For example, she feels very uncomfortable around him and always tries to find something for him to do. When Leroy arrives back home from his accident Mason implies, “he thinks she’s seems a little disappointed” (Mason 220), displaying Norma Jean frustrated with his lying around doing nothing but watching television and smoking pot. In addition, Norma Jean feels emptiness towards her mother, which is presented in the way her mother criticizes her. When tragedies occur in a family and self-confidence fades it can take over your life a...
Suicide is a very dark topic that is covered very thoroughly in this book. Hannah Baker is not able to save herself in the end, but hopefully this book can shine a light on and spread awareness to the issue of suicide, and help people know that every life is precious an every life matters substantially, and that there is hope along with people who truly care. In this journal, I predicted that Clay would help Skye, questioned why Justin and Hannah didn’t say anything, and connected Hannah Baker to Taylor
Their similar slow progressions into mental breakdowns have already been established. However, another strong similarity between the two works is their titles. The yellow wallpaper in Gilman’s essay creates symbolizes the narrator’s feelings of being trapped by her overbearing husband and the idealized the stay at home wife stereotype. Further, the image of a bell jar, as both the title of the novel and an important metaphor used by Esther herself, symbolizes the feeling of being cut-off from the world, protected from the outside due to one’s innocence. Another important connection is the author’s use of their works to critique psychiatric medicine, a field historically dominated by men. John has complete authority over his wife’s medical care and recovery. From his professional diagnosis as a doctor, he declares, “there is really nothing the matter with her but temporary nervous depression” and she is “absolutely forbidden to write” until she gets better. He confines her to the room and discourages her from writing or talking about her condition by waving it off as a basic depression. Esther encounters something similar with her male doctors. Dr. Gordon, a psychiatrist, displays the same lack of empathy as John when seeing Esther and she fails to make any progress. John and Dr. Gordon, both doctors, represent the pervasive presence of patriarchy in society, where men dominate the public sphere and women’s voices are silenced. It is not until Esther sees a woman doctor, Dr. Nolan, that her voice is actually heard and the treatment options allow for self-expression and growth. Esther throughout her life had been held back by men. Dr. Gordon would use the shock treatment and would not be able to understand what was thinking.