Mental Life In Amy Bloom's 'Silver Water'

Mental health can be taken for granted, until people realize that the world is full of humans with mental issues. It puts a strain on how relationships are formed and how others are portrayed/judged. The story Silver Water is of a girl (Rose) who develops a serious mental issue in her teenage years. It shows the effects her mental break has on her surroundings, but mainly her family, who suffer severely as well. Amy Bloom writes,¨She (Rose) had her first psychotic break when she was 15.¨ Prior to this mental break, Violet thought of Rose as a talented and beautiful sister; she begins to feel distant towards her in the midst of Roseś crisis but she always is willing to help in any way she can. After Rose being diagnosed, Violets feels the need to protect her sister from the very people who were supposed to be protecting her. Amy Bloom, author of Silver Water, uses Violetś beautiful family bond to portray how families unite in the most troubling of times; family is there for each other when all else fails. But, even this strong love isn 't enough to cure a mentally ill person. Early on in the story, Rose is in a very bad mental state and despite her therapists trying to help her and her family come to a better place, she doesn 't seem to want or accept aid of any kind. The family comes together to accept this and make a sort of humor out of it. The author writes, ¨Rose burped then we all laughed. This was the seventh family therapist we had seen, and none of