A Sorrowful Woman By Gail Godwin

In pop culture Bipolar Disorder is described as someone quickly switching emotions. The term gets flown around easily without evidence of the alleged diagnosis. This publication changed my perspective on mental illness due to always hearing society's opinion on the phrase. Kay’s experience shows an individual who suffered tremendously behind doors that no one else could relate to, having episodes last days to months not switching every minute like society's stereotypes. It is obvious that there is not control and while medication helps, there is a significant consequence when missing treatment. Additionally, material learned within this book can help fundamentally determine someone suffering this illness. For example, if someone has manic highs and lows that force them to change their daily lifestyle for a period of time and developes changing impulsive decisions there could be an underlying illness. Even though there are few details that can fall into the category of Bipolar, it is still rare and unless diagnosed by a doctor one should never jump to conclusions about another

1. FIRST RESPONSE. How did you respond to the excerpt from A SECRET SORROW and to “A Sorrowful Woman”? Do you like one more than the other? Is one of the women – Faye or Godwin’s unnamed wife – more likable than the other? Why do you think you respond the way you do to the characters and the stories – is your response intellectual, emotional, a result of authorial intent, a mix of these, or something else entirely?

In a world usually depicted as a “man’s world,” a woman’s role is not considered as significant and thus can be repressed. It is why a feminist perspective or criticism comes into place, especially in literature. By definition, a feminist criticism consist of scrutinizing “the ways in which literature reinforces the economic, political, social, and psychological oppression of women.” (Tyson) In Gail Godwins’s A Sorrowful Woman, the leading female character is concentrated in her efforts in distancing from her structured lifestyle. A feminist would critic Godwins story by as the female character is in pursuit of peace and happiness and wants to escape from the role she has been implanted. The critic would concentrate on the experience woman

Bipolar disorder is a mental abnormality involving an intense mood change from mania to a depressive mood in a matter of seconds. This used to be called manic-depressive disorder. During the manic phase, your will be very energetic, happy, talkative, have an increased sex drive, and even aggression. You could also end up spending a mass amount of money in which you didn’t intend to do. But during the depressive phase, you are very depressed, hopeless, anxious, sleepy, guilty, and sometimes even suicidal. People with bipolar disorder, often struggle with psychosis as well. Psychosis is the hallucinations and hearing voices.

The common symptoms for a manic depressive episode consist of elated, expansive, irritable or hyperactive mood. Their speech becomes hard to understand, they have ideas racing through their head, they have incredibly high self esteem, they rarely feel tired and they are often involved in activities that could possibly harm them. “Rarest symptoms were periods of loss of all interest and retardation or agitation” (Weisman, 1991). As the National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association (MDMDA) has demonstrated, bipolar disorder can participate in developmental delays, marital and family problems, loss of jobs and an inability to keep a steady income.

Monday Mourning by Kathy Reichs is a crime fiction book, where, a forensic anthropologist, Temperance Brennan tries to unveil the identity of three skeletons that were found in the basement of a pizza parlor in Montreal, Canada. Brennan works with homicide detectives Luc Claudel and his partner, Michel Charbonneau, and Andrew Ryan, who is also her lover. Throughout the book, both Brennan and Claudel doubted each other’s competence to solve the case. According to Brennan institution, she believes that the three skeletons might be recent, however, Claudel speculates it to be century old due to findings of three antique buttons near their bodies. As a result, Claudel puts very little effort in this case, whereas, Brennan is determined to identify the year of death so to validate her inspection and to drew attention of Claudel and her other colleagues to this case. In the process of solving this investigation, she finds herself dragged to other homicides that were affiliated with the three skeleton remains.

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness characterized by drastic mood swings ranging from immense euphoria to extreme depression. People with bipolar disorder are likely to experience a lack of energy, participation in normal social activities, and the ability to complete daily routines. This can cause interpersonal relationships and work-life to suffer. They may also have strong thoughts of death or suicide, or suicide as a result of bipolar disorder. The cause of bipolar disorder is still undetermined, but its tendency to run in families shows that it is likely due to an inherited genetic malfunction.

Gail Godwin's short story "A Sorrowful Woman" rotates around a spouse and mother who progresses toward becoming overpowered with her better half and tyke and pulls back from them, step by step abandoning them entirely out of her life. Unsatisfied with her duty as devoted mother and housewife, she tries on different roles, however, finds that none of them fulfill her either. She is acclimated to a particular part and has a hard time adapting when a more broad cluster of decisions are presented to her.

Currently effecting between 2-4% of the overall population and as one of the leading causes of homelessness, suicide, and hospitalization, bipolar disorder is yet, still one of the most perplexing, as well as the most misunderstood mental disorders out there. With this particular disorder, the complexity arises given one’s predisposition, diversity, and non-specific range of hazards for said disorder; thusly, making a cure, or at best, prevention, difficult, if not impossible, if not for appropriate early intervention. Bipolar not only puts a strain on the economic condition of our country, but on the individual, as well as society as a whole; given, its propensity to bring about financial difficulties, employment difficulties, and poor self-esteem and this is simply three examples, out of quite possible a largely finite numeral of disparities realized within the afflicted, as well as the overall populace. Nothing left of what we deem normal will be left untainted, and with limited governmental funding and a lack of knowledge, mankind’s naïve, uncaring nature will only bring about less than desirable responses to treatment, medicinally or otherwise; given, the disorder is far more difficult to treat later in life. With the proximal factors of which occur within one 's own environment, such as acute

“According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 2.6 percent of Americans age eighteen or older (5.7 million Americans) have [this] disorder” (Atkins, 2007, p. 4). This statistic of course does not include children or teens, or the millions of other individuals suffering from it but not knowing it has a name. What disorder might this be? It is called bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive disorder, and many people to this day still confuse it with “normal” feelings people go through in life. In this report I will be discussing what bipolar disorder is and its

Before I truly understood Bipolar disorder, it was still a fairly common word in my vocabulary. Anytime I thought someone was being moody or fluctuating between emotions, I joked by claiming that person to be bipolar. Several incidents of this involved one of my roommates who seemed to be happy one day, and quite the polar opposite the next. However, it was not until my clinical experience on the psychiatric unit that I realized what true bipolar disorder was, and that she did not fit the criteria. Even though I always thought my roommate was bipolar, I quickly found after being exposed to a diagnosed bipolar patient that my roommate was instead just moody. I decided to write this paper on bipolar disorder, not because I have struggle with it or know a friend or family member with this disease, but because I had several misconceptions about what it entailed.

Bipolar disorder, or manic depressive disorder, is a disorder characterized by extreme mood changes. People with this disorder undergo unusual shifts in his or her mood, activity levels, energy and the ability to carry out daily activities (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). A person can go from being very outgoing and energetic to feeling irritated and worthless over a period of a few days, months, or even years. People with bipolar disorder experience “mood episodes”, represented by a drastic change in a person’s unusual mood or behavior (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). A manic episode he or she may experience is overexcited and overly joyful; however, someone in a

The story that is A Sorrowful Woman seems to be a story told from the point of view of a narrator who focuses only slightly on the inner conflict of one of the main charters in the story. The character of which I am speaking is never referred to by name, instead is called she, the woman, mommy, and wife throughout the entire story which lends credence to the conclusion of the viewpoint as being told from the outside. The first indication that the focus of the story will be not of a warm and loving nature is the line “The sight of them made her so sad and sick she did not want to see them again”(1). This is where a hypothesis can begin to be formed as to who the antagonist of the story is, bearing the statement above in