- Joined
- Aug 28, 2019
- Messages
- 601
- Purraise
- 17
Ben was insane. That is a simple statement of fact. He was suffering from major depressive disorder and might well have fit the DSM criteria for schizophrenia. I'm not a psychiatrist so I can't diagnose exactly which mental illness he had.Did no one else think Ben had a screw loose? I am glad there was a happy ending. And I hope Ashley and Ben find happiness.
I do know that our society would never let a homeless walk around loose on the street talking to his dead wife for years; we have police officers and mental hospitals and psychiatric medications for that. We wouldn't let waiters or maids or janitors walk around like that either because nobody wants to look at that (expletive deleted) so anyone could just say that they were afraid the mental health was a danger to itself or others and the police would clean up the mess.
But Ben had the funds and social capital to pay his bills, go to work, do his job, and buy property. He had a certain amount of respect to make people look the other way and not forceably incarcerate and drug him against his will, but was he really better off than regular people?
Ben was alone with his pain. His intelligence and all of his hard work in getting through medical school was still of value to a world that didn't care about his grief or the mountain between himself and the rest of his species.
This was all very understated and may well have been unconscious or unintended on the author's part. I don't think the book was written to be political, but it did take place in the 21st century United States and the author made this setting believable and relevant for future generations.