November 20, 2016 - 19:10
I agree with Penguin18 in that the therapist represented a figure who proposed denial was a good way for Kranti, or for humans in general, to live happily. Denial is an evident theme represented in characters like Bananabelle, the President, and even the animals.
However, in a way, the therapist had a point. While it was over-exaggerated, the therapist had a point in some of his comments he made about Kranti. While Kranti was being realistic about the dangers of global warming and about other issues that were very relevant and important, the way she approached therapy in the first place caused the appointment to be destined to fail. While she attended the appointment for Bananabelle, she clearly did not want to try to gain anything from the therapy. If one believes that therapy will not work and is unwilling to try, the only result will be failure. I believe this is another message that one can gain from the therapy session.
Branching off of that, one of the things that I want to discuss is the representation of various of mental disorders in the book. If we look at Kranti during her appointment, one can see that her passion about global warming and other issues was less of a passion and more of an obsession. It was something that kept her awake at night and caused her to be unable to function normally in society.
In addition to Kranti, other characters also represented other disorders. Such an example could be seen through the interactions between boy and the crow. While at first glance it seemed normal, as animals have been shown to be able to talk in the book, if you take a closer look you could see some parts had disturbing undertones. The were parts of this interaction that implied that the boy was not actually talking to the crow, but the conversations were actually a hallucination/ a figment of his imagination. Even more unsettling was how there were aspects of the interaction that implied that the boy was depressed/suicidal. This included how in the first interaction there was a strong theme of death and in the second interaction the crow blatantly told the boy that without the crow, the boy would die.
Even in the opposing side, with the president and the corporations, there was a strong theme of addition. The President was almost always seen downing either alcohol or some sort of prescription drugs. Additionally, almost all members of the government had an addition to power and money.
In all I believe that its important that we discuss how both sides are shown to be less than perfect in terms of mental health. In the activist side, its shown how reality either drives you to depression or how depression can cause people to embrace activism as an outlet and distraction. On the flip side, we see an unhealthy addition to various substances, power, and money. I think it would be interesting to discuss why Jensen and McMillian decided to include these aspects in their book.