Cultural Exploration Text Set
by Andrea Phillips
INFO 237 - School Library Media Materials
San Jose State University
Fall 2017
Purpose
Students will explicate the theme of mental illness in society by examining texts that explore the topic while also depicting how society responds and reacts to people with mental illness. Essential questions will guide student’s reading of the texts in this collection.
Audience
11th - 12th grade English students
Essential Question
How do people with mental illness interact with the world? How does society respond to people with mental illness?
Students will explicate the theme of mental illness in society by examining texts that explore the topic while also depicting how society responds and reacts to people with mental illness. Essential questions will guide student’s reading of the texts in this collection.
Audience
11th - 12th grade English students
Essential Question
How do people with mental illness interact with the world? How does society respond to people with mental illness?
ANCHOR TEXT - Novel
Turtles All the Way Down - John Green In Turtles All the Way Down, John Green explores life as a teenager dealing with mental illness. Aza is a junior in high school, but she suffers from severe anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. She does the best she can to be a good daughter, friend, and student, but sometimes her thought spirals take over and she can think of nothing else but the bacteria in her gut, obsessing over the idea that she might be infected with Clostridium difficile. Aza gets caught up in her best friend Daisy’s scheme to find missing billionaire Russell Pickett. Not only does Aza know Pickett’s son Davis, there is a $100,000 reward for information about Pickett’s whereabouts. Soon, Aza gets caught up in her own thought spirals, unable to escape the confines of her own mind. Green depicts the struggles of living with anxiety disorder and OCD as Aza contemplates her mental illness, constantly questioning whether she is in control of her life or if her thoughts control her. Aza’s interactions with her mom, her doctor, and her friends reveal different reactions to teenage mental illness, all the while maintaining a hopeful tone for those who may also be suffering. |
SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT - TEDTalk
Toward a New Understanding of Mental Illness - Thomas Insel Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, argues that research and early detection has drastically changed the outcome for many very serious diseases. He posits that the same could be done for mental disorders if society takes the time to understand them, allowing for early detection and intervention. In order for this to happen, Insel recommends a reframing of mental illness to one of brain disorders. In doing so, the focus shifts to functions of the brain, an organ that can be studied and researched. By shifting this view of brain disorders, researchers can begin to look for early interventions rather than waiting for behaviors to manifest before people can seek treatment. Insel presents a compelling argument as to why society should shift the way it looks at and researches mental illness and brain disorders. |
SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT - Short Story
The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the unnamed narrator writes in her journal. She and her family are staying in a large house for their summer holiday. She complains that her husband John, who is a doctor, belittles her and her condition. The narrator suffers from an illness, and her treatment requires that she gets a lot of rest. She spends most of her time in a room that she finds kind of disturbing; she is particularly agitated by the yellow wallpaper. As the summer goes on, the narrator continues to ponder the wallpaper, eventually seeing the shadow of a woman trying to escape from the yellow pattern. It is clear that the narrator’s mental state is beginning to deteriorate as she becomes increasingly obsessed with the wallpaper. Eventually, she decides to get rid of it all together. She goes into a frenzy tearing and biting at the wallpaper in an attempt to free the woman she sees stuck behind the pattern. The narrator has a mental break, ultimately seeing herself surrounded by many trapped women, believing that even she has been trapped in the yellow wallpaper. |
SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT - Podcast
John Green Fall Victim to Some Bad Fiction While Writing His New Book - The Hilarious World of Depression with John Moe In this interview with podcast host John Moe, John Green discusses the pressure he felt to write another novel after his mega-success The Fault in Our Stars. Green has been a long-time sufferer of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and anxiety. He went off his medication for OCD hoping it would help him creatively. In this episode of The Hilarious World of Depression, Green explains how he used that experience to bring attention to mental illness and its effects in his newest novel Turtles All the Way Down. |
SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT - Poem
To Be or Not To Be Soliloquy (Hamlet Act III Scene I) - William Shakespeare Probably one of the most famous Shakespearean soliloquies, Hamlet contemplates his own suicide. Suffering from depression over his father’s murder and his mother’s quick marriage to his uncle, Hamlet considers if dying would be a relief from life or if he should be more afraid of the unknown afterlife. Considering suicide to escape the pain and suffering life offers is often a signal of depression. Hamlet’s soliloquy offers insight into the mind of one struggling with mental illness. |
SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT - Magazine Article
The Stigma of Mental Illness is Making Us Sicker - Michael Friedman In his article from Psychology Today, Friedman points to research that indicates mental illness carries the largest economic burden of any health issue in the world; however, a majority of sufferers do not receive care. This largely has to do with the stigma associated with mental illness, making it a lower priority in terms of public resources and healthcare in general. Friedman discusses the social implications of continuing to stigmatize mental illness, ultimately arguing that increased awareness as well as government legislation could make the biggest difference in making the treatment of mental illness a global public priority. |
SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT - Website
Mental Health - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website about mental health is a comprehensive overview with the mission to advance the field of mental health and provide the public with important information. The site includes mental health basics that review definitions, topics related to mental illness, and information about the burden and stigma of mental illness. They also provide access to data and statistics, mental health resources, and publications related to topics of mental health. |
SUPPLEMENTARY TEXT - Art
The Scream - Edvard Munch Perhaps one of the most recognizable paintings in western culture, Munch’s The Scream can be interpreted as a depiction of one suffering mental illness. Munch himself was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and depression. The screaming figure, isolated from the other figures in the image, is perhaps responding to what feels like a mad world. The wavy sky seems chaotic and uncontrolled. The hunched figure in the background evokes a sense of hopelessness, and yet he too is isolated. The individual experience of depression and even madness can be explored in Munch’s iconic work. |