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Still alice analysis
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Still Alice
José Cotto
Excelsior College Still Alice
Still Alice is a 2009 novel by Lisa Genova that outlines the challenges a woman faces after she is diagnosed with early-onset dementia. The book was adapted into a film of the same name in 2014. Alice Howland is the main character in the book. She is a Harvard cognitive psychology professor and also a world renowned linguistics expert. Her family is successful and comprises of Dr. John Howland who is a leading cancer researcher and three adult children.
The story begins when Alice is out jogging following a path she has used numerous times before. However, she gets lost in the Harvard Square and cannot remember her way back home. This is only one of the memory issues she has been experiencing
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She makes a suicide instruction recording for herself should she become increasingly affected by the condition (Genova, 2009). After her condition progresses, she discovers the recording and is about to go through with the mission. However, her increasing forgetfulness means that she cannot follow all the instructions and her mission fails. Research shows that there are increasing incidences of suicide among the elderly. They feel frustrated at the loss of their independence and as a result, they begin experiencing suicidal thoughts. This is brought about by the increased stress levels. The elderly are also likely to become depressed (García-Alberca et al. 2012).
There is also a theme of denial. The elderly might find it hard to accept that they are losing their way of life (Dougherty, 2015). They may find it hard to accept the mental and physical changes that are happening to their bodies. Alice tries to maintain her schedule by keeping her classes and attending conferences in her capacity as a professor. She does not want anyone to know that she is suffering. She believes she can still manage even when it is clear that she cannot. The elderly sometimes find it hard to accept that they are losing control of their lives due to their age and related
• Alice Walker herself has said: “I believe it is from this period – from my solitary, lonely position, the position of an outcast – that I began really to se people and things, really to notice relationships and to learn to be patient enough to care about how they turned out...”
Who is Alice Walker? Her full name is Alice Malsenior Walker. She was born on February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia. She was the eight and youngest child of Minnie Tallulah Grant Walker and Willie Lee Walker. Her parents were poor sharecroppers. In the summer of 1952 Alice Walker is blinded in her right eye due to a BB gun pellet while she was playing “cowboys and indian” with her brother. When graduating high school in 1961, she was her school’s valedictorian and was the prom queen that year. She went to Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia on scholarship. While in Spelman as a freshman, Alice Walker participated in the civil rights demonstrations. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. invited her to the Youth World Peace Festival in Helsinki, Finland. After attending the conference she started to love traveling around meeting many people and cultures of the world. She traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. She was also there to hear Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. She returned to Spelman College for her junior year. She found out that she has received a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Walker was planning to stay at Spelman, but after her teacher has encouraged her to attend Sarah Lawrence she decide to accept the challenge. In Sarah Lawrence, Walker enjoyed the teaching of poetry by Muriel Ruykeyser and writer Jane Cooper who nurtured her interest and talent in writing.
Critical Essays on Alice Walker. Ed. By Ikenna Dieke. Greenwood Press, Westpoint, Connecticut, London, 1999
Aging and old age for a long time presented as dominated by negative traits and states such as sickness, depression and isolation. The aging process is not simply senescence most people over the age of 65 are not Senile, bedridden, isolated, or suicidal (Aldwin & Levenson, 1994). This change in perspective led the investigation of the other side of the coin. Ageing is seen as health, maturity and personal Royal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generatively, coping and acceptance of age-related constraints (Birren & Fisher, 1995). Psychological und...
Alice Walker was born on February 9th 1944 and was born in Eatonton GA. She is the author of the novel, The Color Purple and was an American author, poet and self-activist. Also Alice Malsenior Walker is still living today and is currently 69 years old. Alice Walker was married to Melvin Leventhal and they were married to each other in 1967 and separated in 1977. Walker was the youngest in her family held with eight children and her parents were Tallulah Grant and Willie Lee Walker, who were sharecroppers. Then in 1961 Alice Walker left Eatonton for Spelman college, a prominent school for black women in Atlanta, on a state scholarship (Biography of Alice Walker). Furthermore she then transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and studied the involvement in civil rights.
Whitted, Qiana. "Alice Walker (b. 1944)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. 26 November 2013. Web. 02 May .
Still Alice is a movie written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland in 2014. The film is about the life of a 50 year old female linguistics professor at Columbia University who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Julianne Moore, plays the role of Dr. Alice Howland, the main character in the film. Alec Baldwin plays the role of her husband, Dr. John Howland and Kristen Steward, Kate Bosworth and Hunter Parrish play the roles of their 3 adult children Lydia, Anna and Tom. In the beginning of the movie, John is portrayed as a loving, supportive and understanding husband, however, as Alice’s illness progresses John becomes unable to cope with the physical, emotional and life style changes. In order to deal with what is happening in his life John accepts a new position at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. This new position takes him away from his wife and in order to compensate for his
The risk of suicide rises sharply as people grow older (Suicide). Globally, there is an estimated 25 suicide attempts for each completed suicide (Suicide). These statistics are too staggering and to drastic to ignore.
Suicide is a very tragic life event for the victim, victim’s friends and family members and to society as a whole. We often hear about suicide deaths that occur in younger and middle-aged adults in the media but rarely is such attention given to elderly suicide (65 and older). In the United States there is a higher rate of suicide amongst the elderly than in any other part of the population. There are many factors to this problem, however depression among the elderly was recorded as the major contributing factor that lead them to suicide. Every elderly that committed suicide was reported to have been depressed. Understanding the contributing factors that lead to depression amongst the elderly might shed light on the issue. Many studies have shown that depression coupled with risk factors increase tendency of suicide ideation among the elderly. Risk factors such as chronic illness, pain, physical and mental disabilities, isolation, loneliness, role change (retirement), lack of financial security and social support, bereavement, alcohol abuse, hopelessness and dependability have been pointed out as major contributing factors for the high number of depression experienced by the elderly. Society has identified depression and suicides among the elderly are a social problem, but little have been done to educate the public.
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland follows the story of young Alice trapped in the world of Wonderland after falling down through a rabbit-hole. The rabbit-hole which is filled with bookshelves, maps, and other objects foreshadows the set of rules, the ones Alice is normally accustomed to, will be defied in Wonderland. This conflict between her world and Wonderland becomes evident shortly after her arrival as evinced by chaos in “Pool of Tears” and Alice brings up the main theme of the book “was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I am not the same, the next question is who am I?” (Carroll 18). After Alice fails to resolve her identity crisis using her friends, Alice says “Who am I, then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here til I’m somebody else” (Carroll 19). Hence in the beginning, Alice is showing her dependency on others to define her identity. Nevertheless when her name is called as a witness in chapter 12, Alice replies “HERE!” without any signs of hesitation (Carroll 103). Close examination of the plot in Alice in Wonderland reveals that experiential learning involving sizes leads Alice to think logically and rationally. Alice then attempts to explore Wonderland analytically and becomes more independent as the outcome. With these qualities, Alice resolves her identity crisis by recognizing Wonderland is nothing but a dream created by her mind.
The writer of this novel, Alice Hoffman, is commonly known for her well developed characterization, her choice and use of language and realistic plot events. Born in New York City on March 16, 1952, Hoffman has become a very distinguished novelist. She attended Adelphi University and later the Stanford University Creative Writin...
The tragedy of old age is not the fact that each of us must grow old and die, but that the process of doing so has been made unnecessarily and at times excruciatingly painful, humiliating, debilitating and isolating through insensitivity, ignorance, and poverty (p. 2-3).
Although the novel is notorious for its satire and parodies, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland main theme is the transition between childhood and adulthood. Moreover, Alice’s adventures illustrate the perplexing struggle between child and adult mentalities as she explores the curious world of development know as Wonderland. From the beginning in the hallway of doors, Alice stands at an awkward disposition. The hallway contains dozens of doors that are all locked. Alice’s pre-adolescent stage parallels with her position in the hallway. Alice’s position in the hallway represents that she is at a stage stuck between being a child and a young woman. She posses a small golden key to ...
Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944. She grew up in Eatonton as the youngest child out of eight. Her parents, Minnie Grant and Willie Walker, were poor sharecroppers. Alice was raised with in a family of poverty and a life of violent racism. Her environment left a permanent impression on her writing (“Alice Walker”). When she was eight, Alice and her brother were playing a game of “Cowboys and Indians” when she was blinded in her right eye. This incident occurred by a BB gun pallet. She was teased by her classmates and misunderstood by her family and became shy. She isolated herself from her classmates, and she explains, “ I no longer felt like the little girl I was. I felt old, and because I felt I was unpleasant to look at, filled with shame.” She had the amazing opportunity to have the cataract removed when she was fourteen. She had it removed, yet her sight in her right eye never returned.
Whitted, Qiana. "Alice Walker (b. 1944)." New Georgia Encyclopedia. N.p., 4 Sept. 2013. Web. 9 Oct. 2013.