Mass hysteria cases have been reported many times throughout history and have continued to occur even in the modern world. In “Mass Hysteria in Upstate New York” by Ruth Graham, the author states that many cases of Tourette’s-like symptoms that had occurred in LeRoy Junior-Senior High School was not as a result of the “derailment that dumped cyanide… in LeRoy in 1970” (1). Instead, Graham specifically accuses mass hysteria for the origination of the symptoms similar to those of Tourette’s. The incident at LeRoy Junior-Senior High School provided many parallels to mass hysteria. The author claims that the victims of mass hysteria “are overwhelmingly female” (2).
Mary Pipher is a psychologist who focuses her studies on how mental health can be caused by influences in culture and writing. In her chapter, “Writing to Connect,” Pipher shows that writing, in particular, can “share our stories, connect with each other, and influence some aspect of our world” (436). The reader can see her field of study throughout “Writing to Connect” and understand the concepts she introduces. Pipher’s directs her writing to “community groups, schools, and health care professionals” (436). This audience is the majority of recipients of her work she travels to speak about.
In his essay “You Can’t Kill the Rooster,” David Sedaris described his delinquent younger brother named Paul. Based on David’s description, Paul was very unruly in his behavior and speech, particularly when he habitually cussed at his family, especially at his father. Before Paul was born, the Sedaris family moved from New York State to Raleigh, North Carolina. The parents forbade David and his sisters from succumbing to the Carolinians’ traditions and behaviors; Paul, however, ended up doing just that after he was born, having become influenced by such activities as listening to hard-core rap music (61). He did things opposite to what his parents told David and his sisters not to do, like addressing elders as “sir” or “ma’am” (60, 63), drinking
One of the most important aspects of “grit lit” is the violence that occurs in almost every novel. The violence that reoccurs throughout all of the “grit lit” novels allows for a more exciting plot and character conflict throughout the novel. One of the most influential and famous southern writers is Harry Crews. Crews is responsible for many different novels, short stories, and autobiographies, and almost all of his works include some type of violence. The main reason for violence in southern literature is due to the unordinary, low-life characters that the author includes to allow for a violent plot.
In relation to David Sedaris’s life in The Ship Shape, I am able to relate to his uncertainty with his parents. When I was younger, my mother married a man who fell into that category of false hope, everything he said would echo into a strange abyss and never come back. He would constantly spend our family’s money on himself and his friends. No matter what, In the end he was a nobody and no-one could make him a better person. In my time living as a kid in California, I experienced the betrayal and false hope, just as David Sedaris in The Ship Shape.
Many psychological disorders go unnoticed and uncared for: many people do not even know that is what they are struggling with. In one such instance, written by David Sedaris, he recollects his childhood dealing with an obsessive compulsive disorder in the narrative essay, “A Plague of Tics”. He argues that no matter what he did he could not control the actions his brain transmitted him to do. Sedaris uses emotional appeals,such as ethos and logos. He also utilizes descriptive language to support his credibility, describing personal facts and experiences.
Treichler starts off her article by grabbing the attention of the reader adequately by presenting the controversial ideas of improper diagnosis by a domineering husband taking advantage of the time periods stereotype of hysterical women. She then persuasively depicts the setting of the story and adds some sympathy for the narrator who is being forced to accept her diagnosis. The introduction she gives is excellent because it provides the background information to the story and adequately prepares the points that she wants to get across to the
The poet successfully illustrates the magnitude with which this disease can change its victim’s perspective about things and situations once familiar to
In 1997, David Sedaris first published “A Plague of Tics” in his autobiography “Naked”. Sedaris published his autobiography to show people what his life was like up to the point of writing this piece of nonfiction. Sedaris had this urge to write about his life because he felt he had a story worth telling, and that warranted a book. An autobiography is perfect in this scenario for the audience because no one other than Sedaris should be sharing this fascinating adventure. The specific adventure that I’ll be referring to his his essay in “Naked” titled “A Plague of Tics”.
After a few of David Sedaris’ humorous essays, I had thought that I had finally grasped his tone as a writer, but after only a page or two of “You Can’t Kill the Rooster,” I had found myself not only wrong, but also in the midst of complete hysterics. The way Sedaris describes his brother, Paul, plastered a smirk on my face that would later transition into a full-body convulsive fit of laughter. Because of Paul’s vulgarity in his choice of words, at first I was hesitant from writing about it, but honestly it was just too darn funny not to. Sedaris’ tone while recalling his brother’s most vulgar comments was in my opinion, pure comedic gold. One of my personal favorite of Paul’s sayings is “if she’s old enough to bleed, she’s old enough to breed,” which might I add, is true.
“A Journal of a Plague Year” is a disturbing look at London society in 1665, and shows how our own society has improved since then. London life in the 17th century was full of death and despair due to the plague. Defoe describes that “tears and lamentations were seen almost in every house” due to the fact that nearly every house knew someone who died. The massive numbers of corpses could not be buried in regular graves, so the gravediggers dug large pits, and “Into these pits they out perhaps fifty or sixty bodies each.” The casual tone in which Defoe talks about how the people viewed the bodies is shown, when the speaker decides to go and “see some of them thrown in.”
The articles The Myth of Mental Illness and Road Rage: Recognizing a Psychological Disorder addressed the issue of mental illness in two completely different contexts. Both authors agreed that societal context plays a large role in classifying what is “mental illness”. In The Myth of Mental Illness, Thomas S. Szasz was critical and sceptical of the definition of mental illness. Mental illness was defined as a deviation in behaviour from psychological, ethical or legal norms. He then proceeded to ask the reader, “Who defines the norms and hence the deviation?”
This combination of many mind and life altering diagnoses leads to an interesting point of view, and a deeper look into the lives of people living with the
When writing her personal essay “In Bed”, author Joan Didion intended it for an audience very familiar with migraines, however, it has the potential to be written for an audience of people just beginning to experience migraines. Didion’s use of personal anecdotes, factual information, and inspiring acceptance are all points that can be altered for this new audience. Didion begins her essay with personal accounts of her experiences with migraines, setting the stage for an introduction that relates to newcomers. She describes the suffering in which she endures during her migrains, composed of imagery that brings the reader into her situation. Where she begins with stating that she “spend[s] the day in bed with a migraine”, she could instead present this as a question to the reader.
Today there has been an increase in the awareness of mental health. In the sense that society has begun to take notice of how mental health effects each individual differently. The media has begun to incorporate a variety of illnesses to entertain to their audience. However, many have questioned if the media is accurately portraying these mental disorders. I chose to compare two popular movies Frankie & Alice and the 2007 version film Sybil.