Analysis Of Jim Stevens 'Schizophrenia'

Schizophrenia By: Jim Stevens

Jim Stevens poem Schizophrenia depicts the way a schizophrenic person’s brain works. The poem uses two different types of figurative language-allegory, and symbolism.

Allegory is used in the first line of the poem when it says “it was the house that suffered the most. In this instance, Stevens is using a visualization of a house but in my opinion he chose the house as an image that portrays the schizophrenic person, or the, mind of a schizophrenic poem. From the view of a reader I viewed the poem as being about a schizophrenic man rather than about a house having feelings such as suffering. The end of the first line states” the house that suffers the most, this statement takes on multiple meanings. A house

that is in a state of suffering can mean that the family living in that house may be suffering from a family member with cancer, disease, going through a divorce, or a family member participating in drugs. When a family undergoes divorce, it tends to make a lasting effect on the family, especially the children. In my opinion children are effected the most in this case because when a husband and wife separate the children are also separates and their lives become completely different. This is the same thing for a house that has a family member that has medical issues, such as cancer or disease. Both cancer and disease effect each individual living in the house both physically and emotionally. From an emotional standpoint when a family member is diagnosed with cancer/disease the whole family experiences heartache and sadness even though they themselves are not going through the sickness. Throughout this poem, the reader is introduced with things that are taking place within the house. For instance, in the third stanza it says, “certain doors were locked at night, / feet stood for hours outside them, / dished were left unwashed, the cloth/ disappeared under a hardened crust “(lines 5-9). Line 5 “certain doors were locked at night brings to light one side effect of Schizophrenia, Paranoia. Paranoia is mental condition characterized by delusions or persecution or grandeur usually without hallucinations (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). By understanding that Paranoia is a common condition in a Schizophrenic person, it makes since that the Schizophrenic person in this poem decided to lock all the doors to ensure that no one was watching him/her or trying to enter the “house”. Stanzas four and five focus on the mental state of the individual and tell the reader that in this instance the Schizophrenic person’s mental state of being is so far gone that there is no way he will ever be “normal” again. The very last line in stanza number five is very important because it states that “the house itself is divided”. This is important because it goes back to the person with Schizophrenia. When you have the mental disease, schizophrenia it causes you to have a split mind,
In the poem, several things describing the house can be used as a symbol.

The house itself can be used as a symbol to describe a family and how they go about living their life. Locking the doors before they go to bed, shouting at each other when they get into a fight, saying that they are sorry, having a divided house because of an issue, taking sides etc. In the sixth stanza when it says “seeing cracking 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”, can symbolize that the house was slowly starting to crumble due to neglect. It also could symbolize that this house might have been abandoned when the schizophrenic person decided to

leave.
I believe the intention of the poem Schizophrenia is to describe what it is like to be a person with Schizophrenia. Before reading this poem, I had a very little background information of what the life of Schizophrenic was however, I knew a person that had Schizophrenia was in a since “crazy”. This poem can help the reader be grateful that they live a healthy free-disease live and that they don’t have a mental disease like the person in the poem.
The very last line of the poem is a repeat of the first line “the house that suffered the most”.

By repeating this line, it shows that even though things in the house seemed to have settled down the trauma of Schizophrenia remained. I can relate this back to my life in a form of a car accident. A couple of years ago, I got into a bad car accident on the high way. During this car accident, I went across four lanes of traffic twice, spinning around in my car finally to stop in the median. The worst thing about it was it was a hit in and run. Even though this was several years ago, I still have a constant reminder of my accident every time I drive by the location of the accident. This just goes to show that trauma can make a lasting effect on a person especially a person with

Schizophrenia.
After reading this poem I feel for the person that has Schizophrenia. This poem was not just about the house that suffered the most it was about the man that was broken inside of his own mind and how the family in a since gave up on the person due to their mental disease. This should teach us a lesson, we should not treat a person different just because of their illness.

Works Cited
Stevens, Jim. “ Schizophrenia”.The COMPACT Bedford Introduction to Literature. Edited by: Edwin Hill. Eleventh Edition.Bedford/St.Martins,2017 Boston, MA pp.638.
Merrium Webster Dictionary.Defintion of paranoia.Merrium Webster Dictionary. 2017 https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paranoia. Mar.2017.