Out Of The Blue Book Review

There are very few books that cover the topic of depression that are hysterical while triggering my hypothalamus emotion center. Her self-awareness is what really drew me into her writing. One of the most profound moments was when she spoke about the silent war that those suffering from mental illness face on a daily basis and the silent victory that no one knows about. The hidden nature of mental illness is what creates a barrier. You cannot judge from mere appearance how loud and loaded their brains truly

Many people deal with post-traumatic depression and it can have a huge impact on one’s life. In the short story by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the main character, as well as the narrator, is an unnamed woman dealing with post-traumatic depression. The exceptionally imaginative protagonist’s metamorphosis is due to her isolated confinement in a room with “yellow wallpaper” in order for her to recover from depression. This type of treatment is prescribed by her physician and husband, John, whose controlling personality demands the main character to get bed rest in a secluded room and forbid her to participate in any creative

Forney’s suffering arises not just from the symptoms of her bipolar disorder, but from the self-isolation that results from her fear of losing her creativity. After her diagnosis, Forney characterizes herself as a “rock star” cheerfully eating an energy bar and casually tossing Klonopin into her mouth (28). With the same carelessness, she begins reading Kay Jamison’s memoir, a story by a psychologist who suffers from the same disorder as she. Here, Forney’s face shows a dismissive skepticism, betraying her adamant refusal to let her disorder “dictate everything in [her] life” (27-28). Her reasons for this refusal become readily apparent when we

Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half (2013) is a compilation of short personal occurrences that Brosh experienced in her life. This book takes on a unique format in that rather than just text, it is composed of short sentences and paragraphs combined with little drawings of the scenes described. Her frank language and juvenile drawing style allows all different types of readers access to the genuine heart that is portrayed during each snippet of time. While an enjoyable read solely for the depictions and sometimes-comic storytelling, the book also addresses very serious subjects such as depression and identity. Having been published in 2013, this book appeals to contemporary readers and it is necessary to analyze it in its historical context in order to understand its true significance. For many people, it is difficult to address serious concerns regarding mental health and this book makes it available in a form that is both casual and real. As opposed to medical journals or psychologists who will provide a scientific explanation, this publication provides people with a relatable experience that promotes comprehension rather than correct terminology. Ultimately, Hyperbole and a Half tells the story of a woman trying to cope with the difficulties and conundrums of everyday life, but its real significance cannot be understood without insight into the twenty-first century person struggling to understand and confront their own or another’s mental illness.

On the 15th of January 2015, an interview was conducted with Larry Cole, who is the education and research officer in office of the fairness commissioner. This office was created to provide services to those whose credentials are not recognized in Ontario. Larry was interviewed to get an insight of how office of the fairness commissioner response and address issues related to the non-recognition of foreign credentials in Toronto. Non recognition of foreign credentials is a social issue that is generally believed to be affecting many immigrants in Canada and is considered a cause of poverty. In my previous paper, I discussed that non recognition of foreign credential is one of the causes of poverty amongst women of color in Toronto. I am going to examine the response of this issue by office of the fairness commissioner and the impact it has on the community.

Even today racism still exists in Canada, whether it is at the mall or somewhere else, the effects

The purpose of this project is to explore the topic of mental health and wellness and ways to approach deconstructing negative stereotypes and convictions. The goal of this project is to research ways of improving the negative connotations of mental health and becoming informed on different mental disorders within society. Our lens for looking at different mental illnesses is through the main characters of the show entitled Winnie the Pooh. By contrasting favorite characters through a psychology perspective, we will highlight the significance of mental health, as well as the oftentimes unrecognized commonality of the illnesses in society. To further the conversation, this presentation will include a brief activity involving the placement pre-printed

Studies that have been conducted to examine the level of access and employment inequity experienced by minority groups show that with equivocal levels of education and work experience, job applicants who have an English sounding name are requested for an interview up to forty percent more than their competing job applicants who have a Indian, Pakistani, or Chinese sounding name (TIEDI, 2011). Furthermore, the dismissal of the African-Canadian woman discussed earlier is not as surprising when one takes into account that in Toronto, arguably Canada’s most multicultural city; those of African-American descent reported one of the highest amounts of discrimination in relation to those of other visible minorities (TIEDI, 2011). The deduction that can be made then is that there still persists to be a belief that there is a correlation between one’s racial background and their perceived ability to do a job as effectively as that of their Caucasian or other dominant racial counterparts. Such a belief greatly hinders Canada’s workplace as it fails to utilize the skill-sets, knowledge, and qualifications of visible minority individuals that would otherwise benefit the community, and it largely damages one’s ability to integrate into Canadian society as a functioning member treated with equal regard,

To manage mental illness, the women all asserted that as writers, writing on different media outlets was their way of managing mental illness in addition to having a positive and supportive community. Zeba Blay claimed that she felt that her “illness is a burden, and … on some level, isn’t black” (Blay, 2016). Blay feels as if she has to work harder to manage her illness in order to perform “normally”.

Brosh’s first post on depression, “Adventures in Depression”, describes the grueling progression into apathy she experienced. She makes reference to the obscurity in cause of her depression by saying “Some people have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me. I just woke up one day feeling sad and helpless for absolutely no reason.” Brosh goes on to counteract this, stating “It’s disappointing to feel sad for no reason. Sadness can be almost pleasantly indulgent when you have a way to justify it – you can listen to sad music and imagine yourself as the protagonist in a dramatic movie.” The oscillation Brosh presents by sharing her nonsensical depression and contrasting it with more typical sadness demonstrates how grave her situation is while presenting the audience with a humorous observation to laugh at. Brosh has no source to try and end the depression she is feeling, since there is no particularly valid reason she began to feel it. This predicament leaves Brosh rather powerless, causing her struggle to be arduous and long. She describes her attempts to snap herself out of depression by being self-deprecating, a process that backfires. Brosh claims “The self-loathing and shame had ceased to be even slightly productive, but it was too late to go back at that point, so I just kept going. I followed myself around like a bully, narrating my thoughts and actions with a constant stream of abuse.” Despite the harshness of this behavior, Brosh creates humor in the way

For example, racialized nurses in Canada may experience multiple forms of everyday racism in their working lives, including instances of tokenism, bullying or invisibility, excessive monitoring, lack of recognition, and verbal put-downs because of race and ethnicity (Das Gupta 2009; Estachio and Saidy-Khan 2014). The micro-racism in the nursing workplace also intersects other negative identity markers such as race, gender, class, and ability to amplify the exclusions or invalidations. Clearly, then, a contradiction is in play: Individuals may be equal before the law in terms of equal opportunities, yet still be slighted or excluded if their identities and realities are misrecognized or discredited through the racialized tone of everyday rhetoric (see Levey 2013). Formal citizenship rights may be real, but they must be exercised in everyday contexts neither constructed to reflect minority realities nor designed to Canadian Ethnic Studies/Études ethniques au Canada advance their interests (Fleras

A few years ago in Smalltown, CA a burning cross was placed in the lawn of a visible minority family. Although the media seemed shocked at this explicit racial attack and portrayed the attackers as a group of abnormal, twisted deviants, I was not surprised. As an Asian student who is writing her Sociology honours thesis on visible minorities in Canada, I know on a personal and academic level that racism in Canada does exist. Although explicit racial incidents are not a common occurrence, they do happen. Here at school, a visible minority student left the school when a car sped past her, while the young men inside shouted racial slurs. Two weeks ago The school paper published an article about a group of

Laurell K. Hamilton spoke in great words that, “there are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.” Hamilton embodied a central state of mind of a person who is mentally ill. The wounds mentioned are those caused, and worsened, by traumatic events and public perception of a person with a mental illness. The women in the short stories that have been read embody an internal injury caused by an outward force. In “Story of an Hour”, “Rose for Emily”, and “Yellow Wallpaper” it is impactfully shown how traumatic life experiences can lead to and worsen mental illnesses.

The Difficulty of Being Good by Gurcharan Das is an attempt to study and analyse the Mahabharata and the relevance it holds in todays’ world. The author realises that the great warriors in Mahabharata were

Animal Farm, written by George Orwell, is a novel presenting a fictional world where animals can communicate with each other and act like humans. Animal farm is a book concerned about the politics of leadership and the rise of fall of great leaders; also the events surrounding the Animal Farm are mirrored to the events that took place during the Russian Revolution. There is also a relevance and resemblance of the occurrences in the book with the operations of a business and business communication.