This article about a mental ward in Pakistan; the photographer was warned that the patients were going to be violent but rather he found that they were actually sweet, kind people. Furthermore, Aun Raza (the photographer/ journalist) said that some of the patients seemed saner to him then other people he met outside of the world. Mental patients are still much very outcasts in society, much like the patients in the Ward. This article allows readers to see what it's like to be inside a mental ward in 2015- which although there are some differences from the ward in the book there are still many similarities. For example many of these patients are there for life because their families cannot afford the meds they would need to live outside the mental hospital. (It even mentions the book!)
I think that there is a negative assumption that all mentally disabled people are violent and/or out to got you. Mental disabilities come in way too many forms to be able to stereotypes, especially violent ones. Very few of those people look legitimately threatening (and much less so to grown people). It's so sad that these people are locked away like that! I don't know how harmless the patients in the ward are, but I feel like some of the Chronics are in similar places as these people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Apara, the assumption that everyone in mental hospitals are violent and dangerous is simply false. There are plenty of people who are threats to society and need to be placed in these hospitals; however, most people are harmless to society and are there because their families think that they need reforming. I think that this also carries over into the novel. Overall, the majority of the patients on the ward do nothing to harm anyone in the ward or others.
ReplyDeleteIn this article one line really stuck out to me: Raza said, "the outer world discards anyone who's emotionally too sensitive or too fragile." This reminded me of the combine, which is clearly a threat to real people in mental hospitals, though the idea of the combine in society may not be as clear or poignant to most mental patients as it is to the Chief. Still, the theme of not being able to survive in the 'machine' of the outside world is very prominent in this story and the lives of many mental patients, as well as in the novel.
ReplyDeleteIn this article one line really stuck out to me: Raza said, "the outer world discards anyone who's emotionally too sensitive or too fragile." This reminded me of the combine, which is clearly a threat to real people in mental hospitals, though the idea of the combine in society may not be as clear or poignant to most mental patients as it is to the Chief. Still, the theme of not being able to survive in the 'machine' of the outside world is very prominent in this story and the lives of many mental patients, as well as in the novel.
ReplyDelete