Summary of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg - Essay Example

I Never Promised You A Rose Garden. Summary Joanne Greenberg has written the novel, I never Promised You a Rose Garden, published in the year 1964. The era of storey revolves around 1940s to 1960s. Theme of the novel is depressed and the main character struggles throughout to adjust in life. The disability focused in the novel is mental illness commonly known as schizophrenia. Prime character is a female teen ager who is a Jew by religion and discriminated on the basis of religion in the school. The novel has been written in the setting of a US environment. The novel unfolds in the first person in most of the chapters. It was written at the time when administration of psychiatric drugs to patients was not very common and patients were treated using much kind of therapies. In that era surgery and restraint were mainly used to cure patients. Joanne Greenberg like all of his other writings has effectively highlighted a social problem of abuse on the basis of religion and physical disability. The writer has touched upon subjects like depression, mental illness, discrimination, life in American mental hospitals, role of psychiatrists and most importantly therapeutic recreation. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden1 is a touching story of Deborah Blau who unfortunately passes through a trauma of surgery and subsequent mental illness in early stages of life. At the age of sixteen, she undergoes a surgery of urinary tract which she and her parents consider inappropriate to share. Her parents named Esther and Jacob are shy of disclosing nature of this surgery to the society and relatives. The trauma of surgery has a profound effect on the life of the girl. Firstly she bears great pain and grief on this account. Secondly she plunges into a mental disease associated with deep depression and anxiety called schizophrenia and makes an attempt to commit suicide. The novel gives a detailed account of experiences encountered by this patient of schizophrenia as well as others in the hospital. The novel narrates behavior of psychological patients amongst each other, with the hospital staff and towards the outside world. The novel also highlights many physical and mental difficulties faced by parents of patient, Jacob and Esther Blau in this regard. Deborah remains in the hospital for three years under treatment of a very kind and competent doctor named Clara Fried. Before reaching the doctor the girl is hopeless about life and attempts suicide, however remains unsuccessful. The financial and emotional cost of three years treatment in the hospital is enormous for the family and the patient. During the course of her stay at the hospital Deborah feels insecure, bitter and frightened initially. She is afraid of real world as well as people and personalities living in it. She had bad experiences in school where she had been treated badly on account of being a Jewish child. She is also frightened to see the hospital staff beating the patients. She withdraws into herself and reaches an altogether new world in her imagination. She had created this place in her childhood imaginations and names this fake world as Yr. She had earlier experienced that Yr had been a safe heaven for her in difficult times. However during the hospital era, she feels that even Yr is not able to give her refuge. The Gods in Yr also start abusing and teasing her. In this mental state, she keeps switching between real and imaginary worlds unable to decide where to live permanently. Here the help of Dr Clara Fried emerges who treats her with benevolence and professional competence. The doctor helps her on many occasions and gives her freedom to make own choices in life. The writer has given much attention to developing characters in the novel. The novel primarily revolves around the character of Deborah which is very close to reality. The reader feels that novel is narrating a real life story. Although in day to day life people do not come across issues related to mentally ill people, the novel suddenly brings out the issue as a real and present one. The character of Dr Fried who is the psychiatrist dealing with Deborah is very considerate, professional and passionate. The novel effectively highlights the bond developed between the doctor and the patient, various stages of trust building, communication on various issues and the effective therapy conducted by the doctor. In the end the efforts of doctor are successful and the patient becomes willing to lead a normal life in the real world. Due to motivation given by the doctor, the patient attempts and passes GED exam which is a great achievement for the patient as well as the doctor. The author has developed the character of Deborah very well and made the novel interesting by narrating small events in day to day life, emotional variation and dialogues. After reading the novel a reader feels attachment with the character of Deborah. The character of Dr Fried is also very impressive and gives insight in the life of a doctor dealing with difficult patients. The book also amply highlights emotions of Deborah’s sister Suzy who is disturbed to see the disease of her sister. Carla is a friend made by Deborah in the hospital who helps in confidence building of Deborah. On one occasion both of the friends run away from the hospital to take a break and enjoy freedom. Although Deborah gets offensive with Carla in some events but she always remains calm and friendly towards Deborah. Staff at hospital especially women remain helpful throughout the novel except one occasion. One of the staff members McPherson plays an important role during the treatment. Overall the novel is termed a semi autobiography which is in some ways related to the personal life of the author. The author wrote this novel to negate a common thinking and romanticism prevailing at her time, that, creativity is somehow linked with a state of madness. On the other hand a second school of thought considered mental illness an extreme disability and weakness in the personality. The author tried to negate both the extreme ideas. Therapeutic Recreation . Therapeutic recreation is the main theme of the novel. Therapeutic recreation uses indirect approach for healing psychological patients like recreation, sports, therapy, and education etc. Throughout the novel “therapeutic recreation” way of treatment has been demonstrated well how ever recreation cannot be taken here in classic sense of gaming or outing related activity. There are many places where relationship of doctor and patient undergoes friction; however ultimately situation is controlled by the doctor professionally. The doctor convinces the patient that during her child hood she did not attempt to kill her sister which is a fear the patient has lived on for years. Once this fear is eradicated Deborah is altogether a new person which is a milestone for the therapeutic way of treatment being administered by the doctor. The author has tried in the novel to explore the treatment of Deborah through indirect method of therapy while avoiding electroshocks and high potency medicine doses. This novel can be taken as a classic case of therapeutic recreation administered to a patient with mental disability. When the novel unfolds the reader comes to know that Dr. Clara Fried is slowly winning over the trust of Deborah. During a consistent struggle of three years at the hospital, she inculcates the courage in the patient through counseling, love, motivation and discussion of “real world issues” versus “Yr world issues”. Dr Clara makes an endeavor to train the patient in making own choices towards life. She educates the patient in confidence building and gathering courage. Dr Clara guides the patient to know the realities of Earth and accept them despite faults, flaws and imperfection. She educates and convinces the patient that phantoms of Yr world are inferior to realities of real world. Due to motivation induced by Dr. Clara Fried, Deborah gains the strength to establish friendship with other hospital patients. Although other Doctors like Oster, Adams, Craig and Dowben work in the hospital and treat the patients, impact created on life of Deborah by Dr. Clara Fried is more profound due to method of therapy she adopts. The novel shows that method of direct or indirect therapeutic recreation gave very positive results for the patient in the end and she was even able to pass GED exam. After treatment at the hospital she made up her mind to go back to real world life. The novel shows that although Dr. Clara Fried had been very busy before taking case of Deborah she decides to do so because of her commitment and belief in curing patients through Therapy instead of intense medication. She tries to discover logic and sense from mentally ill people through interaction at a deeper level. She projects an opinion that some times the world outside the hospital behaves more insane than the mentally ill people. The doctor convinces the patient that she is only sick mentally and not physically, she convinces her through therapy and engagement that her problem is curable. Due to experiences of Dr Clara in Nazi Germany she is able to establish a better and long lasting relationship with Deborah. The novel highlights that in addition to clinical education it is very important for a psychiatrist to pass through experiences in life. Case of Deborah is a complex one and the doctor realizes at the outset of treatment that she has to break many barriers before the patient could be treated. As soon as Deborah realizes presence of real world her and feels it at a deeper level she is attracted towards it. She starts getting aware that the fantasy of Yr world is no more existent and valid therefore not dependable. The novel tells us that traits hidden deep inside the personality of Deborah are found out by Dr. Clara through consistent therapy, devotion, kindness and love. The artistic talent of Deborah can be noticed by reader in many conversational dialogues through out the novel. Overall the novel is appealing for a restricted class of readers interested in reading about psychological issues. The novel cannot be referred to a wide audience for reading although the impact created by it is profound and sensational. Works Cited Joanne Greenberg, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, (USA: Reprint Henry Holt and Co 2009) Read More