Literary Analysis Essay on Similarities Between Brain on Fire and Ten Days in a Madhouse

Introduction

In those shifting ironies of moments, what seemed natural is now the shocker. Often, the shifting shock comes with changes in race and gender relations and even the way mental health is approached. The two stories, Brain on fire by Susannah Cahalan (2013) and Ten days in a madhouse by Nellie Bly (2007) are stories which bring an indication on those changes and their way of writing are worth a glance. The two stories are experienced by two girls who both are journalists at the New York City and both have a common identity as they both undergo through a period of illness. By looking at both stories, the paper aims to explore the similarities between the experiences of the two characters.

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In both stories, the two characters undergo through a period of illness. In Brain on fire, a 24-year old girl, Susannah Cahalan suddenly gets infected with a disease of anti-NMDA receptor autoimmune encephalitis which temporarily changes her from a passionate and strong-willed person to a paranoid, angry and a mean person (Murphy 98). Also, it changes her from being an independent person to a dependent person who entirely relies on her caregivers, family, and her fiance. Due to her condition which severely affects her body and brain, she chafes when she realizes that her friends and family won't be able to see her again as she was before. At first, she experiences psychotic symptoms which start with her being paranoid about bedbugs and about her boyfriend, Stephen whom she thinks might be cheating on her. Suddenly, she becomes delusional with intense mood swings that worsen by aural and visual hallucinations making her a completely different person. Despite some notable changes, Susannah recovers at the end and return to a version that closely resembles that of her former driven self.

On the other hand, Nellie Bly's story, Ten days in Madhouse accounts on a 23-year old girl, Nellie Bly who feigns insanity so she would be sent to an asylum and go undercover into Blackwell Island Insane Asylum for women and see how it was like. At first, she goes to a rooming house where at night she stares at the wall that ends up scaring not only her roommate but also the homeowner. The next day, she fixated on her lost trunk and persisted on looking for it and in the process; she continually talks about many foreigners. This made her not to work and it became strange to her working place people that she was rooming with. Consequently, she landed before the judge and into the madhouse where she undergoes the capricious and vindictive rule of the nurse. Nonetheless, towards the end of ten days, a lawyer appears and secures her release.

Both stories symbolize the real truth and biased record of what takes place in the mental health hospital. In Brain on Fire (2013), Susannah is wrongly diagnosed by many doctors who describe her condition as that of bipolar disorder, other as schizophrenia, mono, epilepsy, and others as either a physical or mental condition. Due to the wrong diagnosis, her condition worsens making her be hospitalized at the NYU medical facility. In the process, she loses her memory and can't remember anything making her depend on medical records and from her family. Hundreds of tests are done on her with no satisfactory diagnosis and it is this time that she starts figuring out on what could be wrong on her brain. When she pairs up with Dr. Najjar, that's when she discovers the cause of her episodes. When asked by Dr. Najjar to draw a clock, she only puts the numbers on the right side of the clock and this makes the doctor know that her brain is inflamed on the right side. Later, she was taken on a brain biopsy test which showed that she had Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis meaning that her antibodies were attacking her brain. Although the recovery took longer, she was correctly diagnosed and was able to return to work after seven months. It was now in the New York Post that she was able to write an article which she saw could help hundreds of people suffering from the same condition.

Similarly, in the book Ten days in a Madhouse (2007), we see the uncertainty of the commitment and cruelty of the nurses that are diagnosing women who are trapped in the asylum. There is no escape for those women and no way can they demonstrate their sanity. Some are just suffering a bout of depression after a traumatic experience and others are suffering from nervous breakdown. According to Bly, most women in there are not supposed to be there by modern standards and through this, she sees asylum as another version of Kafka's Trial (Barrett, 167). To Bly, the place is more of a concentration camp with an enveloped air of helplessness and hopelessness and not an established healthcare. Women in there go through cold baths, forced starvation, beatings, hovering threat of sexual assault and almost all of them are treated as mindless automata unworthy of dignity. The place reveals how cruelty humans can be especially when they assume their authority positions and minuscule over the less fortunate. It is behind the thick walls and bars of the asylum that Bly exposes the institutional corruption, abuse, and murder that take place in the asylum. Through this, she leads to successful shutdown of Blackwells Asylum and ends up saving lots of women.

Both stories use Hindsight method to illustrate their events. In Cahalan's story, almost everything relies on her capability in looking at past events through a new lens. In fact, she is constantly collecting information to assist her in re-interpreting her past. This painstaking process of reflection is what assist her in better explaining where she comes from and in extending herself grace for past mistakes which may have been beyond her control. Also, it is through this hindsight method that she and her doctor are able to create a theory about her condition. In a similar manner, Bly's story uses hindsight method to go to more sensational exploits and dig deeper on what happens in the insane asylum (67). In there, she gathers information which helps her write a serious investigative front page news story. The annoying reflection helps her to better explain the deplorable conditions that women in the asylum undergo through, hence looking for hopeful solutions to fix those problems. Through the extraordinary measures that Bly took, ensured that changes were instituted for the better treatment of the poor and the disadvantaged.

Both stories use a sad and devastated tone as well as an empathy mood. For instance in Nellie Bly's stories when she thought if there was "one that could weep and plead for the release of such people" (18). Here, one can't help but feel bad for these less fortunate poor souls that were subjected to this kind of treatment. Although at first, she was proud and perfectly fine with her acting skills, she became devastated and sympathetic on discovering the true horrors of the poor souls in the asylum. Also in Susannah's stories, "So why was everything in such upheaval for me" (110). This is sad for Susannah who finds herself in a mystery of illness and frightened about her job professional.

Both stories were based on a off of a remembered event and they were built on a purpose. In Bly's story, it states that "On the 22nd of September, I was asked by the World if I could have myself committed to one of the asylums for the insane in New York" (7). By reading through her work, one can tell that this is a remembered event with a purpose of exposing the true inter-workings of the Mental Institution of the Blackwell's Island. In a similar manner in Brain on Fire, Cahalan recounts her gripping story of suddenly and inexplicably going mad. She tries to remember things that took place at her months of madness so as she can piece together. She reflects on her illness and recalls how angry and terrified she was which helped her write the article. Purposely, the book brings information on how identity is entangled with health and the body. To her, identity is not something fixed or something separate from one's body, rather she sees identity as something formed chemically in the brain which dangerously can be the unreliable host. Also, though writing her book, she aimed to reach out on people who get misdiagnosed in a psychiatric ward as a consequence of lesser-known neurological illness.

Imagery has applied well in both stories. The image of the brain of Cahalan being on fire creates an image of burning and a feeling that is out of control which destroys it all and this is what Cahalan feels inside her brain. On Bly's story, an example of imagery used was when the author states that "I looked out toward the window and hailed with joy the slight shimmer of dawn" (117). This is a descriptive nature of the author and it tries to give an insight into what the rest of the story will be like.

Brain on Fire and Ten Days in a Madhouse are well worth reading books in their entirely which in the essay, clearly brought out some similarities between them. The two books walk the line between heart-warming personal story and medical thriller and reflect on how many people suffer the same with no immediate help. Brain on Fire helps many people in the psychiatric and whose condition gets undiagnosed due to lesser known neurological illness. Bly in Ten days in a Madhouse tries to expose the deplorable condition of the asylum and aim to call for attention to all injustice taking place so as to effect change that will lead to increased care and resources given to patients. Therefore, the two books in their similarity brings out a dynamic shift of change to the society.

Work Cited

Barrett, Lisa Feldman. Ten Days in a Madhouse by Nellie Bly- A Review. By the Firelight, 2009.

Bly, Nellie. Ten Days in a Mad-house. Vol. 21162. Lulu. com, 2007.

Cahalan, Susannah. Brain on fire: my month of madness. Simon and Schuster, 2013.

Murphy, Samantha. Mind Reviews: Brain on Fire. Scientific American Mind, 2013. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/mind-reviews-brain-on-fire/