She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb - Research Paper Example

? She’s Come Undone College Part I: Wally Lamb a renowned of many books such as She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True, is one of the greatest creative writers. In one particular novel of, She’s Come Undone, Wally Lamb describes the misfortunes of a young girl Dolores Price. The novel takes into account the disastrous and scandalous life experiences of Dolores Price such as weight issues, rape, proper parental guidance and bullying. In this novel, Dolores Price narrates vividly her ordeals and gives the reader thoughts to contemplate, thus the novel, written in a first person, is narrated by Dolores herself. In the novel, Dolores begins with the memories of her happy moments in life with respect to her family. She describes her family that consisted of her mother and father, Bernice and Tony of whom she enjoyed their company at an early age of as early as at the age of four. However, this was not the case at all times. The happy moments faded as time went by. Situations changed and life took many different directions with bitter memories. She narrates that the environment within which her parent brought her up was not an Ideal environment for a young child. That environment later became a factor in her decision-making and the way she handled problems in her teenage and adult life. In the novel, her mother gets a stillbirth, which changes their life completely. This stillbirth becomes the beginning of their ordeal and problems in their later life. Her mother goes into depression after the loss of the child, which constantly found her going for treatment and visiting psychiatrist. Dolores describes that her family fell apart. Her father having seen the loss of the child and their mother’s condition, he decided to abandon them for another woman, beside the one he had even in the presence of their mother Mrs. Masicotte. Dolores in the novel describes Mrs. Masicotte as a rich old woman who had contracted their father. Just before their father left his children, to be alone with his depressed wife, he spent much time with Dolores putting up a pool, in which he taught her swimming, and he kept on reminding her that he Loves’ her as her daughter. After their father left, Dolores had to live with her grandmother Thelma Holland, since her mother was also not in a stable condition to support her. These changes in Dolores life made her reluctant to attend middle school. Her two friends at school and at home Pysyk sisters, Rosalie and Stacia are constantly bothering her. Thus, she adopts’ a new kind of life where she ends’ up gaining weight as she learnt the art of eating her problems to herself. On the return of her mother from hospital, they constantly are in confrontation on different issues and privacy matters. Jack and Rita speight, a young couple who is in their early 20’s move in as their neighbor and take the house above them. Unfortunately, the newly wedded couple’s bedroom gets to be right above Dolores room. She gets to hear all the noises that come out of the couple’s room, be it sex or a typical conversation. Dolores life takes a different turn as she begins fantasying with Jack spreight. Subsequently Jack begins to develop interest on Dolores, he begins to offer his services to Dolores such as driving her to school every day for a long period, and cuts his interest on his wife. Jack persuades Dolores until eventually she adopts new habits from Jack such as smoking cigarette. Dolores appetite had dramatically grown, since it was the only way she knew how to release her frustration. Through her eating habits, she gained weight and got heavier to about 220 pounds. This affected her social life that she ended up confiding to herself as communication with even her own mother became unachievable. In fact, her mother dies, and the only memory Dolores has, as their last conversation is the one she tells her mother to get out of room. Her mother got better and got a job as a booth manager. She died in a tragic accident in one of the nights she was on duty. Her mothers’ desire just like for all parents for their children, she wanted Dolores to go to college. In fact, before she died she had made several applications on behalf of Dolores to colleges, and made sure she had at least one acceptance letter for Dolores. Merton Community College in Wayland, Pennsylvania accepted Dolores as their student. Dolores in her new college makes friends with her potential housemates, Katherine Strednicki, nicknamed Kippy. Their friendship develops and they begin to exchange friendly letters, of which Dolores learn that her friend Kippy has an aggressive boyfriend Dante, who wants nothing less than sex. Dolores leaves for school early that is a week early before other students. With her, she goes with some money given to her by her grandmother who was the only guardian she had, as her mother had died and her father walked away from his family. The janitor (Dottie) welcomes Dolores in spite of her early arrival. Dolores quickly becomes friends with the janitor, as they seem to share a common factor of overweight. Eventually on the opening day, Dolores gets to meet her potential roommate Kippy, weirdly responded to Dolores as if she had stabbed her on the back just for “acting like a normal person” in her letters only to realize that Dolores was not a skinny person but an overweight. Kippy who is quick to make friends, finds a new love called Eric, whom she casually has sex. On realizing, Dolores thinks that kippy has breached their trust, and instead decides to take a step further to justify her thought by going through Kippys’ mails and taking Dante’s letters. Thus she concluded that kippy was the forcing the sex to Dante who was only an innocent young man who was inspiring to be a priest. Dolores, sexually harassed by Eric, responds, knocks Eric’s balls, and runs away during Halloween. Eric gathers himself together and goes after Dolores. He gets into her room and dismantles everything in it including a precious painting by her mother, which done during her days in hospital. The janitor, feels compassion for Dolores, and takes her to her room, and instead of being of service to Dolores, she decides to take advantage and exploit her sexual desires. With this encounter, Dolores goes out of school and goes towards the cape, where she witnessed a number of whales dying at the beach. This triggered her emotions and she decided to drawn herself, but on realizing how difficult it is she fights for her life and swims back to the shore. Dolores finds’ herself at the hospital where her mother had been admitted and was receiving psychiatric treatment. At the hospital, she meets a friend Dr. Shaw who completely influences her and she changes her life to a better one. She began by cutting out weight to about 120 pounds being the one good thing in her life. With these positive ideas in her life, she decides to go back after the innocent young man Dante who wanted to be a priest, in the hope that he was hers to be. Fortunately, her quest for Dante turns out to be realistic, as Dante never became a priest but a high school teacher. Dolores and Dante fall in love but Dolores tricks her man to having a baby only to realize that Dante did not share in the same dream of parenthood. Instead, he urges her into abortion but Dolores collected herself and stood firm. Her nightmare became worse when she discovered that her man was cheating on her with a younger girl who was her student. Dolores takes another chance with another man Thayer, as Dante had already walked away from her. Dolores, witness anew freedom of life just the same a whale would come up to breath and catch that air of freedom, as this was witnessed by Dolores at the shore as the novel comes to an end. Part III: Anxiety disorder has different form of category. However, the distinct category is the Post-traumatic stress. Every human being experiences anxiety at one point in their lives, but the differentiating factor for it to be a mental disorder depends on how people handle and manage their anxiety. A Traumatizing event in a persons’ life is as bad as a life and death matter. Warlord and war veterans are the most common victims of the post-traumatic stress disorder, since they experience many bad things in their lives such as the massacre of people and their friends. In 1980s’ the disease (PTSD) officially came into existence. Doctors used it to describe the changes in character and behavior especially those that underwent through stress in their lives (Kelly 1985). With the introduction, of PTSD, the whole concept of anxiety disorder changed and tribute given to factors such as trauma. Nevertheless, it was surprising to see that some people had the potential to contend their stress effectively, than others who the disorder took a tall in them to a point of psychiatric treatment (Dayton 2011). This ability of variations of people to contend their stress became as varying with where people had their child hood. For example, people who had difficult child hood are able to contain their stress much better than people from luxurious homes. Every human being is unique and has different emotional reactions to stress, as before PTSD pronounced traumatic, it must undergo through different stages. Multiple tests of DMS were the original diagnosis of PTSD. Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, & International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. (1988) describes that about 7-8% of the American population is usually diagnosed with PTSD in different stages in their lives which is very alarming and about 5.2 million people in America have the disorder PTSD. Many factors contribute to the development of PTSD in human beings life. For instance The most vulnerable people are the unskilled with an alcoholic character as compared to the skilled that have a program for lives and only have leisure of drinking at the expense of their friends. Most people suffer from PTSD especially when they are undergoing tough moments or experiences in their lives. Women are said to be the most vulnerable as they show signs of depression as soon as they are under stress as compared to men take it out on drugs, which enhances the disorder (Krockel 2011). For one to have the disorder they must undergo through a series of interrogation by the doctors and once declared to have positive outcome of symptoms, a therapist is assigned to a patient, and structured measures are taken into account. One such structured measure is the use of structured interviews, which are a clinical means of administering the PTSD scale (CAPS) and structured clinical interviews for DSM (SCID). CAPS invented by the National Center for PTSD are the most common interview used to determine the disorder. Tremendous progress in the treatment of PTSD since 1980 when it came to existence is evident. Patients are educated first and given insights on the disorder and are encouraged that they will get better. Decentralization, which is a consistent reminder of the trauma, which leads to the patient having a progress in getting over the disorder, as they are able to understand the trauma. It is the most common technique used in treating the disorder. It subjects the patient to the thing that they fear most, thus giving them the mental strength they need to overcome the disorder. Cognitive- behavioral therapy (CBT) usually given alongside the counseling, which offers some form of healing to patients. The therapy synchronizes the feelings and the thoughts that led to the trauma, thus leading to greater progress in the treatment of the disorder. Stress inoculation usually given to patience’s, with PTSD, is a form of training that allows patients to cope with the disorder. Such training include, breathing techniques, muscles relaxation techniques and role-playing. (Goulston 2008) describe group therapy as another very important technique. He emphasizes that in grouping patients are able to share their trauma thus reduce their stress level, and as the saying goes, a problem shared is a problem solved. According to (Kloet,Oitz and Vermetten 2008) this technique works effectively especially when people who have suffered the same trauma are grouped together as they can rely on the strength of others to pull themselves up despite the magnitude of the trauma. In addition, pharmacological approach treatment is common where patients are given medication such Prozac, Zoloft and Luyox. This medication administered to reduce the effect of PTSD and the symptoms that come along with the disorder. Alongside the treatment, patients are also encouraged that once suffering from PTSD, they can help themselves if they positively acknowledge that anxiety is natural and come to a person when experiencing tragic or stressful events in life. PTSD is such disorder that literary affects all people in the society as it does not select only those suffering from it but include the whole society. Thus, it becomes imperative for affected families to have a positive thinking towards the disorder, despite the stigma attached to the disorder. Sympathetic feeling towards the affected is extremely dangerous, and should be discouraged as it may trigger the patient to be violent and aggressive if they realize (Kelly 1985). Families affected are encouraged to learn more about the disorder since proper knowledge of the disorder will guarantee a healthier support for the patient. Family will understand, the disorder is only temporary and will fade away with proper treatment and support. Some families tend to avoid their victims with fear of either sympathizing with them or they just do not want anything to do with them, this might worsen the situation and in some cases even lead to death of the victim. Thus, knowledge of the PTSD is important to the affected families’ as it will help treat and handle the affected appropriately. Part IV: In Dolores encounters, she typically practiced Regression, which is a form of re-tracking at once experiences to deal the current situation. For instance, Dolores mother had made a habit of giving her daughter (Dolores), food every time she was in distress. Thus, Dolores adopted this character and every time she was under stress she would remember her mother and could look for food be, it a junk or good food only to cure her stress. Hence, solutions to her problem became food, which led to the increase in her weight. In addition, she also took out frustration to her mom when she got home as a means to release her stress. This mechanism of letting out on people, your distress is, Displacement as it is common among the patients with the disorder. According to (post 2011) Dolores would lash out at her grandmother, disrespecting her old age and instead, feared pysyk sister, as she did not know what she was capable of doing. Part V: Human being is a free being who have the right to make their own free choices and live according to their own will, and are only obstacles to themselves as they themselves can limit themselves from reaching their greatest potential. Thus, human beings are responsible for their own doings. According to the novel She's Come Undone, Dolores gets above her limits when she tries to commit suicide at the cape, only to figure out that she herself is hindering herself from achieving whatever she wants. Instead, she fought her experience that would decide her destiny and chose a different path for herself that gave her the freedom she wanted. At the psychiatrist, she realizes that there is more to life than her distress and begins to see the bigger picture of life, such as love and her health, which she puts as her major priorities, thus discovers the innocent young man Dante, who is to be for her. Enabling her to chase after her dream man, this made Dolores lead her dream life of being a mom, and a wife, thus, making her exploit her potentials. The societal cultural perspective, grounds a persons character to the social background they come from and the support they get from the society. According to the novel, Dolores faced her distress by herself since at the time of her need none of her parents was available. By then her mother was in hospital and was undergoing psychiatric treatment while her father who should have been her pillar had remarried another woman, leaving her grandmother to be the only source of support for her. Dolores handled and swallowed her own distress and problems by herself, making the disorder, to grow to full potential, as she was still young and naive to life. If she could have had a good support, she could have developed to a resourceful woman, who was responsible. Thus, the maladaptive behavior could never have exhibited itself producing bad behavior and emotions that tempted her to commit suicide or move away from her parents Part VI: Dr. Shawn provided the treatment to Dolores, which took years of treatment of therapy and counseling at the Tracewood Institute where she finally was treated. She became a resourceful and productive woman of whom he reviewed her life and described her as an image of her mother. Thus, Dr. Shawn becomes her pillar in times of need and allows her to grow to her full potential. Work Cited Kelly, W. E., & Neuropsychiatric Institute (U.S.). (1985). Post-traumatic stress disorder and the war veteran patient. New York: Brunner/Mazel. Colloquium on Stress Hormones and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Basic Studies and Clinical Perspectives, Kloet, E. R., Oitzl, M. S., & Vermetten, E. (2008). Stress hormones and post traumatic stress disorder: Basic studies and clinical perspectives. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Goulston, M. (2008). Post traumatic stress disorder for dummies. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Krockel, C. (2011). War trauma and English modernism: T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Society for Traumatic Stress Studies., & International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. (1988). Journal of traumatic stress. New York, N.Y: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. Dayton, Tian, Ph.D. (2011). Relationship Trauma Recovery Journal: Healing from the Post Traumatic Stress of Relationship Trauma. Unrivaled Books. Read More