There are many things beyond the human eye that remain unseen. If people cannot physically see something, they tend to believe it doesn’t exist. Among these things, mental health issues are portrayed as just being silly or insane rather than an actual illness that needs to be treated. Some people even claim these illnesses do not exist because they cannot be seen. However, they are just like any other illness, it is important to correctly diagnose and treat people with mental health problems. In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Nana is one of the characters who was judged and misinterpreted due to the lack of knowledge and mistreatment of her mental illness. Nana is the character who plays the role of Mariam's mother. Based on the novel, one can say Nana spent most of her life being occupied with domestic duties like cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry. She lived the typical lifestyle of a woman from Afghanistan. Women in …show more content…
Afghanistan were expected to cater and do everything in the households for their husbands and families. Living this way not only caused a lot of suffering for Nana but it also did not help her mental illness. Nana suffered from epilepsy and did not receive the appropriate treatment. All the misfortunes in Nana's life caused her to become a bitter woman.
She was rejected at a young age over the illness she had no fault or control over. The pain of not marrying the father of her daughter and possibly the love of her life not only hurt Nana emotionally, but mentally as well. Along with the responsibility of having to raise a child by herself and being shamed for doing so. These were all factors that had a major negative effect on her epilepsy. Nana seemed to have resentment towards everything and everyone around her. Nana never had the chance to heal. Even though she loved her daughter Mariam, she never failed to shatter Mariam's hopes and dreams about life and sometimes mistreat her. "You are a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything I've endured. An heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harami." (Hosseini 4). This quote is an example of the hurtful words Nana would say to Mariam due to her illness and lack of patience. She took out most of the anger she had with life on her
daughter. Based on her past rough experiences, Nana expected for Mariam to grow up and live the same lifestyle in the future. She thought Mariam to expect nothing but suffering from life and men. As a little girl, Mariam always saw her father Jalil as some type of God and Nana did not approve of this. Nana believed Jalil didn’t love his daughter as much as Nana did because he never married her nor did he take his daughter to stay with him for a few days. As Nana says in this quote, "What a stupid girl you are! You think you matter to him, that you're wanted into his house? You think you're a daughter to him? That he's going to take you in? Let me tell you something. A man's heart is a wretched, wretched thing, Mariam. I'm the only one who loves you." (Hosseini 27). At this point Nana feels that Mariam needs to realize that if Jalil really cared for Mariam, he would take her to his house. Mariam decided to disobey her mother and try to go live with her father, Jalil. Nana had already warned her that if she left with him, Nana would kill herself. Any person in the right state of mind wouldn’t say this to their child. In her mind, Nana thought she was nothing without Mariam by her side. This was somewhat true because Mariam was there to help her with the duties of the household and she was the only relative she had left. Jalil should have taken the time to become informed about Nana's illness to know exactly what she had and how to treat it.
In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini, the characters Mariam and Nana, though very different, are similar in that they are both victims, illustrating how people can be considered victims for many different reasons.
In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by the author Khaled Hosseini presents the tragedy that Mariam went through. Mariam the unwanted child for her father because he was not married to Mariam’s mother when she get pregnant from him. She lived in a village with her only family member, her mother. One day she left her mother and went to the city that her father lived in. Her mother felt abandoned and committed suicide because Mariam is all she had. After the death of her mother, Mariam moved with her father to Kabul. She was a burden to her father so after some weeks she was forced to marry a forty-five year old man when she was only fifteen year old. She moved to another city with her husband where she had to live with a man that she never
Forcing someone to take medication or be hospitalized against their will seems contrary to an individual’s right to refuse medical treatment, however, the issue becomes complicated when it involves individuals suffering from a mental illness. What should be done when a person has lost their grasp on reality, or if they are at a risk of harming themselves or others? Would that justify denying individuals the right to refuse treatment and issuing involuntary treatment? Numerous books and articles have been written which debates this issue and presents the recommendations of assorted experts.
Mariam’s strength is immediately tested from birth and throughout her whole childhood. She has been through a lot more than other children of her age, and one of those challenges is the hope for acceptance. She is looked at as an illegitimate child by her parents, and they say there’s no need to attend school. We learn right away what the word “harami” means when Nana uses that to describe her own daughter. She says, “You are a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything I’ve endured. An heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harami” (Hosseini 4). Nana especially pushed Mariam away from pursuing her goals. She said there was no need for education and men always find a way to blame it on a woman. This pushed Mariam away from her mom and closer to Jalil, but he refuses to acknowledge her and his wives look at her with cold stares of disgust. Mariam only feels loved by Jalil through all of this, mainly because he brings her things and shows her some love. She asks him to do something with her outside of the kolboa and he first agrees, but never brings her because of his fear with his wives and the structures of Afghan culture that frown upon it. He starts to act as if she was a burden to him and Mariam’s hope for acceptance is crushed. She realizes the truth, especially once she reaches adulthood. In Afghanistan, marriage is not all about love for eachother, it is about traditional role...
“When Dad went crazy, we all had our own ways of shutting down and closing off…” (Walls 115).In Jeannette Walls memoir, The Glass Castle, Walls enlightens the reader on what it’s like to grow up with a parent who is dependent on alcohol, Rex Walls, Jeannette’s father, was an alcoholic. Psychologically, having a parent who abuses alcohol is the worst thing for a child. The psychological state of these children can get of poorer quality as they grow up. Leaving the child with psychiatric disorders in the future and or being an alcoholic as well.
“HE’S GOT THE WORLD ON TWO STRINGS”(pg21). Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers go through a lot since Steve met Nathaniel a homeless man whole plays the violin in downtown Los Angeles. Nathaniel is a homeless man who has paranoid schizophrenia travels downtown Los Angeles pushing his cart with his violin in it. Steve is a writer works for the Los Angeles Times and is always looking for a story for he can write for his column. Both Nathaniel and Steve create a friendship even though with all the challenges but in the book The Soloist it shows how they created a friendship. Even though in The Soloist they talk about how mental illness is a choice, force medication to treat the illness, and the way people treat you.
In the movie, Silver Linings Playbook, it all started with a man named Pat Solitano who had a mental disorder. He was recently released from a psychiatric hospital and now resides with his parents. He had lost his wife and his job and life just was not happening in his favor. His aim was to win back his wife, which happened to be quite difficult in his case. That is until he met this widowed woman named Tiffany Maxwell, who promised to help him reach out to his wife if he returned a favor and danced with her in a competition. Pat wrote letters to his wife and in turn Tiffany delivered them. We later find out that Tiffany was the one all along writing back to Pat and that she had fallen in love with him. Directly following the dance competition,
In the 1950’s, it was common so see people with frightened, uneasy, rejecting, and even arrogant attitudes towards people with mental illnesses. They considered those who were mentally ill as psychotic, violent and frightening. In the today, people are more accepting and understanding when it comes to mental illness, but some people are still ignorant with their responses, just like back then. In the 1950’s mental health treatment was typically provided in large state hospitals and other intuitions. Back then, topics like mental health were kept hush hush; people much rather putting those who were mentally in away in a state facility where someone else could monitor them. Today, people are more understanding.
Mental illness is more common than one would like to believe. In reality, one in five Americans will suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. Though that ratio is about equivalent to more than fifty-four million people, mental illness still remains a shameful and stigmatized topic (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). The taboo of mental illness has an extensive and exhausting history, dating back to the beginning of American colonization. It has not been an easy road, to say the least.
While watching the movie A Beautiful mind, I couldn’t help but feel glad the movie got the accolades that it did because everyone involved in the making of this endearing portrayal of schizophrenia truly warranted. Also, I understand the book to be wonderful, my aunt has it and I will be borrowing it soon. It pleases me to see a movie that gives a glimpse into how perplexing the world can be from the onset of schizophrenia and across its lifespan, plus I really got drawn into the characters (real and not real) making it easy to identify with them and be able to empathize with their triumphs along with their struggles. The movie touched me on a personal level especially when he said to her he believed in the value we decide to put on things when she gave him the handkerchief on their first date (which he kept with him throughout the movie for “luck”).
In the story of "Silver Water "by Amy Bloom, it tells a story of a family with a child named Rose who has a mental illness and how her sister, mother, and father react and treat her as she has this illness. The narrator Violet has a witty tone and clever attitude as she tells everyone the story of her sister and how she remembers Rose as her strong defender against troubles in her household. In the beginning of the story, Violet tells the story of her first psychotic break. Violet speaks on how her mother Galen, who is a musician thinks that maybe Rose needs a heart to heart talk but her father David, who is a psychiatrist believes she's going insane and needs a hospital. Rose's condition got worse and she was in hospitals small and big for the next ten years. They take her to many therapists some who often don't like Rose and don't treat rose like she even there. During all this time as Rose is treated, she soon gets to go home and she's trying her best to be normal. Rose stop herself from acting out and her mental illness from affecting her but she cannot stop it. Violet and her parents David and Galen try
Schizophrenia is a disease that plagues many individuals today and though medications can help alleviate the symptoms there is no known cure for the illness. There are a multitude of representations of schizophrenia in the media. This paper will focus on A Beautiful Mind; a film that focuses on John Forbes Nash Jr. Nash was a mentally gifted individual. He attended Princeton and his mathematical work has changed society greatly. In the movie, Russell Crowe played John Nash in A Beautiful Mind. Throughout the movie Crowe did an amazing job depicting the multiple symptoms of schizophrenia. Within this paper I will focus on the positive symptoms, negative symptoms, positive hallucinations, effects of medication, and the time frame of the illness represented in the film.
In the play Ruined, Mama Nadi symbolizes tough love, as seen through her encounters with the characters Christian, Sophie, and Salima. Mama Nadi puts up a tough persona, but she also has a soft spot for several characters. A playful love-hate relationship is introduced in the opening scenes between Mama Nadi and Christian. Furthermore, Christian introduces Mama Nadi to Samlia and Sophie and there is an automatic sense of bitterness from Mama Nadi towards the two girls. This bitterness later evolves into compassion and tough love, because Mama Nadi feels a connection and a sense of responsibility towards the girls after finding out that they are no different from her. Although it may seem like at times Mama Nadi is only acting for her own selfish reasons, it is later revealed in the play that she does these things to protect others. There are several instances in the play that may indicate that Mama Nadi is a selfish woman,
Mental health is “a state of well-being in which every individual realises his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.” (World Health Organisation, 2014). It is often used as a substitute for mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and many others.
In the novel, Mariam has to be patient in order to endure. Right when Rasheed and Mariam think their marriage is going good, she miscarries. Rasheed’s attitude completely changes. After four years of marriagebetween Mariam and Rasheed, she miscarries six more times. Rasheed takes it personally and believes that Mariam is a completely useless nineteen year- old. He beats Mariam after that, continously. Most women in other parts of the world would leave. She could have also committed suicide but she stays and does not because Nana taught her to be