Essay Darkness Visible by William Styron

Everyone has a different way to deal with overwhelming situations. It can be more difficult for people with mental illness to cope with the hardships of life. For instance, in “Horses of the Night,” the character of Chris has dissociative symptoms that can be linked to his depression. Margaret Laurence’s short story tells the story of Chris, a young teenager who moves to from a small farm to the town of Manawaka in order to go to high school. The story is told by his younger cousin, Vanessa. As she grows up, she learns that Chris is depressed. The author uses the theme of fantasy to show that he does not cope well with reality. The horses, Shallow Creek, and the children are symbols that show us the fantasy that Chris lives in.

On days I was unable to pull myself out of bed, I would read Furiously Happy while under my covers, staring at the ceiling and dealing with the many voices that kept clawing and breaking each layer down that built a fortress of self-doubt and underwater volcanos of self-loathing. Many people do not understand these feelings that blossomed inside, and therefore bring their own selective perspectives about mental illness devaluing my human in brain experiences. Explaining to them proved to be harder.

Writer, Paul Bogard, in his article, “Let There Be Dark”, argues that natural darkness should be preserved. He supports this claim by first stating that the dark is beneficial for our health, he then goes on to explain that animals also depend on darkness, and finally, he claims that our nights are growing brighter due to light pollution. Bogard’s purpose is to inform and argue in order to explain why the dark is important to society. He establishes an informative tone so that everyone understands why the dark is a necessary part of life. Bogard begins by first reasoning that the dark is good for everyone’s health because it produces melatonin.

The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness is an insightful book which revolves around Lori Schiller, who at age 17 started her downward spiral into psychosis induced by schizophrenia, and subsequently recovering enough by her early thirties to regain control over her life. The book is a culmination of Lori’s experiences and those close to her during her treatment. In her note to the reader, Lori explains that the variation of ‘voices’ in the book is to give an accurate recollection of her life since her illness and subsequent treatment distorted her memories. Lori and her family’s experiences progress in a mostly linear progression from before the schizophrenia appeared with her slowly loosing independence as the schizophrenia began to reign out of control. The experiences in the book revolve around mental hospitals, healthcare workers, as well as societal stigmas from both her family and acquaintances that Lori and her family encountered about mental illnesses.

She is able to show the reader the effects of her father’s artificial behavior on her upbringing and her life after his death. Bechdel is able to convey the toxicity of gender roles and stereotypes within her life, and how they effect the way she was (or in this case, was not) received after she came out as a lesbian. This memoir is highly effective in bringing these issues to light in a digestible way, enhancing the reader experience. On the contrary, because of her emotional bias, Bechdel also creates an atmosphere of ambiguity surrounding the experiences of her life, forcing the reader to examine these encounters without knowing whether or not to accept them as fact. In conclusion, Bechdel’s skillful use of a comic-book style memoir successfully recreates the experiences of an upbringing in an emotionally abusive household, conveys the toxicity of gender roles and gender stereotypes, and tackles the role of point of view as an unreliable

The main character in Susanna Kaysen’s, “Girl, Interrupted” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper” are similar in the fact that they both were suppressed by male dominants. Be it therapist or physicians who either aided in their mental deformities or created them. They are similar in the sense that they are both restricted to confinement and must endure life under the watchful eye of overseers. However similar their situations may be, their responses are different.

“It was hard to surprise me in those years. It was hard to even get my attention,” says Joan Didion. People experience psychological issues differently, whether it would be depression or anxiety. Many lose their identity in the process where they do not who they are anymore. As this is seen as a serious issue, unaware people take the concept lightly, assuming that mentally ill people are asking for attention. Two authors argue that claim, giving their point of view for being mentally ill and showing how it affects them as a person overall. In the personal narrative, “The White Album,” written by Joan Didion, she provides different problematic events that had happen between 1968-1971, where these events have been the cause of her psychological

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” she explores the world of madness, torture, and imprisonment. In the story, the narrator is suppressed by her husband and his ‘‘superior wisdom,’’ leading to the loss of her sanity. Although it seems as though her husband is trying to help her, in actuality, his methods of healing her are detrimental to her health, both emotionally and mentally. The destruction of her sanity in relation to his attempt to help her are strategically illustrated by Gilman throughout the story.

This quote by Dwight Lyman Moody can be interpreted in a couple different ways. Some could say it means how you act when no one is around to see, meaning your personality and actions when you are alone. Another way this could be explained is how you act in certain situations, wether it's how you handle something or how you take different information. One other way could be what you are like when you are scared, this would explain what Moody means by, "in the dark". When people are in fear they tend to act out and become a different person. Someone who might usually be calm and collected can turn into a person who panics and is irrational.

William Styron, in his poignant literary work “Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness” writes from a very personal viewpoint of the symptoms and the impact of depression, particularly on his own life. Not only his life in general, but how it impacted his social and emotional relationships with others and even the effect on his own self-image. In a way, Mr. Styron ‘normalizes’ the various reactions and symptoms individuals may have when suffering from depression. He EVEN begins the book acknowledging a moment in his life where it was expected of him to behave and react in a certain manner, yet it appears that he was unable to do so due to his depressive symptoms that

Depression has presented itself in society well before the scientists of today were able to begin research and truly try to understand this disease. Depression in its earliest form was known as “melancholia”. The earliest accounts of melancholia appeared in ancient Mesopotamian texts in the second millennium B.C. ("Mental Help Historical Understandings of Depression Comments", 2007). Mental illness back during these times were thought to be of demonic possessions and/or punishments from the almighty God. Society at this time did not believe that there was a problem that was taking place in the brain and changing the behaviors of individuals affected by the diagnosis. Darkness Visible by William Styron is vulnerable account of his own stretch

Identification and Analysis of Mood Disorder with Depressive Tendencies Within A Month in the Country.

Depression is the leading mental illness worldwide, affecting millions of people every day. As one of the most common mental illnesses, it can occur to anyone, at any age, and to people of any race or ethnic group. With his book Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness, William Styron became of the first people to publicly acknowledge his struggling battle with depression. Darkness Visible is an intense and haunting account of Styron’s own suicidal depression in which he reminds us of the toll that this dreadful illness can have on an individual. As Styron describes his own descent into depression, he tells about the place that he was in, “the despair beyond despair” as he describes it to be. Since its publication, his memoir has been appreciated throughout the world and become a helping hand for people around the world who are suffering from depression. Styron’s description of his experiences resonates with people in a deep and profound way, turning his work into an advocate for the movement for the awareness for depression

“What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, more unashamed conversation“ said by Close in an interview. Yes, this topic is the darkest field in the world. Only when there are literature and arts, it gains lights. It is a responsibility of a writer to describe the hidden sides of the world, but it requires courage.

Laurell K. Hamilton spoke in great words that, “there are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.” Hamilton embodied a central state of mind of a person who is mentally ill. The wounds mentioned are those caused, and worsened, by traumatic events and public perception of a person with a mental illness. The women in the short stories that have been read embody an internal injury caused by an outward force. In “Story of an Hour”, “Rose for Emily”, and “Yellow Wallpaper” it is impactfully shown how traumatic life experiences can lead to and worsen mental illnesses.