That was six months ago. I visit Dr.
Speakie every Saturday. It is very sad. He is in the McLean Area, which is the
Violent Ward, and every time he sees me he screams and foams. But I do not take
it personally. One should never take mental ill health personally. When the
Therapy is perfected he will be completely rehabilitated. Meanwhile, I just
hold on here. Bill keeps the floors clean, and I run the World Government. It
really isn’t as difficult as you might think. (80).
I
really enjoyed this paragraph. I think that Ursula Le Guin simply ended the
story in this one paragraph. I found it very interesting how this story is
written in first person point of view. As readers, we are only seeing this
world from Mary Ann’s eyes and from her summary of the world it appears that it
is deteriorating before her our eyes but she is too brainwashed to notice.
Everyone
in this story is a dynamic character. As the story progresses, we find that
more people are in these Asylums than outside in the real world. Several of
those who score below a 50 and are deemed mentally stable volunteer to work in
the asylums to be with loved ones who scored over 50. When we start the story,
there are far less people who are “mentally ill” then when the story is over.
The world (including Dr. Speakie) changes throughout this time because if you
were a logical person and all of your family and friends were being deemed
“insane”, then you would probably end up going crazy too. The dynamic character
who stands out the most to me is Dr. Speakie. In the beginning of the story,
Mary Ann describes Dr. Speakie the day she met him, “He looked so kind. You
could tell that the weight of his responsibilities was always on his mind, but
he looked so healthy and positive, and there was a bounce in his step – I used
to think it was as if he had rubber balls in the toes of his shoes” (70). This
is obviously a different character than the Dr. Speakie who Mary Ann says tries
to “bite through my jugular vein” (80) and “screams and foams” (80) every time
he sees her.
The only static characters I found
in this story are Mary Ann and Bill the janitor. I found this very interesting.
For example it was said that most of the Australian Evaluators of the test
themselves scored over 50 (77). It’s interesting that these people who are
supposed to be working with this test became “ill”. Why do Mary Ann and Bill
seem to go untouched and unchanged by this test? While reading this I began to
think to myself that maybe Mary Ann is a sociopath and has no feelings, that could
explain her low score always in-between 10 and 14. But does this test detect
disorders such as that? Or does the SQ test only detect depression and anxiety?
Bill and Mary Ann have simple jobs. Bill is the janitor and regularly scores a
32. Mary Ann is a secretary and always had Dr. Speakie to keep her calm and
relaxed. As long as these two don’t have too high of a stress level perhaps
they will be all right.
I think the causation for Dr.
Speakie scoring a 92 score and random outburst are a direct result of his
guilt. Dr. Speakie realized that no one was benefitting from his tests, the
world is getting worse. He threw 3.1 billions “inmates”, (77) including his own
wife into these asylums that are collecting innocent people. Mary Ann said,
“most of Manhattan was closed”, he was putting the population in asylums. Dr.
Speakie continuously thinking that he could cure mental illness and fix the
world made himself go insane.
This is an excellent analysis. What do you think the story ultimately means?
ReplyDeleteI think that ultimately Ursula Le Guin tries to show us multiple meaning for SQ. I think she could have written this story to present to us a terrifying thought that could people reality (I know we are very far from the SQ world, just bare with me). This was written in 1982, when the medical world was first beginning to recognize mental health. We all know that depression for example is not like an infection where you can take medicine and be cleared in a week. I think the ultimate idea Ursula Le Guin tries to convey to her audience is to point out that mental illness is not like regular illnesses at all. If someone has bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, then they cannot be cured. It is a process of taking medications and going to a doctor or psychiatrist to make sure their conditions are stabilized and not threatening to them. As well as depression or anxiety, there is no cure. There are however medications and multiple options of therapy that patients to turn to. These patients however take medication everyday and continue to go to therapy, it is something that is worked on over time. I think that Guin tries to show us that mental illness cannot be cured which is why I found it significant that that was Dr. Speakie’s main goal. It only drives Guin’s point farther. Guin shows what happens when you try to treat mental illness like it is a regular illness and as we saw in SQ, it is non-conclusive and chaotic.
ReplyDeleteI also think that Guin wants us to take away something from Mary Ann’s character. While reading, I honestly hated Mary Ann. I really didn’t like how she still seemed to function perfectly fine even with her friends and coworkers being locked away all around her. After thinking about it more I thought that Guin created Mary Ann’s character to show us that even in a self-destructing world, Mary Ann can function and I found something about that inspiring. Guin writes, “….and every time he sees me he screams and foams. But I don’t take it personally. One should never take mental illness personally” (Guin 80). I think that through all this madness going on around her, it should be seen as inspiring that Mary Ann keeps her calm. With technology and social media, our world is definitely more stressful than it was in 1982, however no matter what decade they are from people will always experience stress. I really like how Guin made significance out of her story involving mental illness and the world that we live in.