How David Wallace Evokes Empathy in the Reader in His Novel Depressed Person

In the Wallace short story “Depressed person”, it is eminent the patient does not have the channel of sharing the emotional pain experienced which intensified horror (Wallace). The depressed has a great expression of self-pity, which undermines her interaction with close friends, especially those she grew with. In addition, the perception of the parents that the case of the depressed adult was a matter of principle happened to be a major impediment that posed a legal ambiguity in addressing the matter. Further, the depression is aggravated by the fact that, the parents had divorced, and none of the parents was willing to take responsibility for the depressed.

In Simpson’s “It takes an ocean not to break”, depression is expressed in a different manner. In this text, the depressed unlike in Wallace’s text is trying to commit suicide while in the former, the depressed is seeking therapy from friends and relatives. The depressed are facing family disintegration just the same situation as with Wallace’s story. The Simpson’s depressed is also different from the Wallace’s in that, Simpson’s depressed person acquired the situation from bad choices he made in the past, unlike Wallace’s depressed person who had no direct contribution to the situation.

It is also noted that the depressed in Wallace’s text, find ways of peacekeeping with others, and find joy where possible, however, the Simpson’s depressed person struggles to do good, and live with others who really need him. This can be noted in the phrase, “….. I wasn’t in therapy to take therapy-lady’s advice. At least not all of it, I was there because I didn’t want to fuck up my kids. That is not true. I was there so I didn’t commit suicide” (Vowel). It is also noted that the depressed person in the Simpson’s, has a specialist to help him recover, the therapy-lady who is committed to helping the depressed to knit experiences to his fabric, however, this is professional assistance is not eminent in the Wallace’s.

The depressed in the Wallace’s got personal issues being given a legal address and not professional therapist is availed to help her recover. The depressed persons in the two texts differ in several ways. For example, in Wallace’s text, the depressed person is unable to express the pain she goes through each day, unlike the depressed person in the Simpson’s text, where he narrates, apologize again and again to an extent of irritating the therapy-lady. Further, it is imminent that, the depressed person in Wallace’s text, has most of the people around her uncaring, such as the parents. This is unlike the situation with the Simpson’s text, where the people around the depressed person are all caring and concerned about his wellbeing.

In the Simpson’s text, the depressed, got into the situation as results of drug abuse, among other bad behaviors. This can be supported by the script, “Lucy says I made a critical mistake on my first day of therapy.” you have to lay all of your Indian shit on the first day, drug abuse, suicide attempts, all the times you got beat up…..”.” (Simpson). Further, it is noted that Simpson’s and Wallace’s choices differ in that, while Simpson’s depressed is never left alone or lonely, the Wallace’s depressed is often left alone and lonely where the therapist could not help. This undermined the kind of pain and healing the respective depressed persons underwent.

Further readings greatly help in understanding the depressed problems and solutions. For example, the Chelsea Vowel’s “Monster: The Residential -School Legacy denotes that, some of the sources of trauma and depression are the cumulative intergenerational wounds commonly referred to as the historic trauma transmission. This source is deemed the worst since very little can be done to alleviate the people from it.

A good example is the residential schools during the old times, which were built to devour the native children, but ended having over 6000 children dying while in the system. The other critical text studied in enhancing the depressed and trauma is the Jeff Barnaby’s Rhymes for Young Ghouls; Arthur Manuel’s “From dispossession to dependency” (Manuel). In this text, it is found that colonialism brought about dispossession, dependence as well as oppression.

The consequences of these aspects brought about by the colonialist affects the lives of the people each day of their lives. For example, taking away of the land, left people with nowhere to farm, a place to settle and hungry. Many died in the course of getting the community land back from the whites. The trauma and depression are imminent with the actions of colonialists. This can be noted in the statement, “It began with dispossession: our lands were stolen out from underneath us. The next step was to ensure that we are made entirely dependent on the interlopers so they can control every aspect of our lives and ensure we are not able to rise up to seize back our lands. To do this, they strip us of our ability to provide for ourselves. “(Vowel). People really suffered from the very acts of the land dispossession.

From the study on pain, depression and anxiety, it was interesting to find out that, some of the pain we face today, has been transmitted to us historically. It was also valuable to determine that, close learned friends can be great assets in times of trouble, however, dealing with them can also be a source of embarrassment where they are unable to help. In conclusion, depression and anxiety can be sourced from within one’s actions, and decisions, or be acquired externally and one has no much control over.