Mental Illness In Silver Water

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“It won’t happen to you, honey. Some people go crazy and some never do. You never will,”(1). “Silver Water” is a short story about a girl with a mental illness that was written by Amy Bloom. The story is told from Violet’s, Rose’s sister, point of view about Rose and what she goes through. Rose has a mental illness and this story tells of the in and outs of not only Rose’s but her family’s struggle with her having a mental illness. Through this, we see how people with mental illnesses are treated and how the people around them react. Amy Bloom’s use of diverse characters in “Silver Water” show how people in our society do not take mental illnesses as serious as physical ailments; this is shown throughout Rose’s journey of living with a mental …show more content…

This gives many wonderful examples of how the world sees and treats those who have mental illnesses and lets one reflect on how a person with a physical illness would be treated completely differently. Within the story, Rose endures the first “step” of learning about her mental illness; she loses control of herself. Her mother is the one who immediately wants to step in and get her help, but her father is the exact opposite, he doesn’t believe that it is serious enough to get her help. When Rose actually ends up getting help, she is mistreated to the point where even her family notices; her family steps in to defend her, and the therapist decides that the session is over, which shows how he didn’t take them or her serious. After that event, she endures loss, which makes her breakdown; she is kicked out of the halfway house and gets sent home without medication. The insurance that is given to her doesn’t start for 45 days, and she can't get help, or it will be voided. All of these examples that are shown in the short story demonstrate just how indecorous and unjust that people with mental illnesses are treated by society and what kind of toll it can take on the person. A person with a mental illness is still a person, and deserves to be treated as