Depression In All The Bright Places By Jennifer Niven
503 Words3 Pages
The novel All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven closely relates to the sorrowful effects on the lives of those who are depressed. Richard Harrington writes in his article “Depression, suicide and deliberate self-harm in adolescence” that, “There is rarely a linear relationship between causes and outcomes [of depression]. Rather, the cause is usually a combination of predisposing constitutional factors” (Harrington). Depression and suicidal intentions amongst adolescents are not always brought forth by a single factor. Because of the “combination of predisposing constitutional factors,” adolescents struggle to coherently articulate the many causes of their emotional distress. This can be seen through the speech of Theodore Finch, a character…show more content… Theodore, later, admitted, to himself, the possible reasons of why he decided to go on the perilous ledge when he said, “The truth is, there are a lot of reasons, most of which change daily, like the thirteen fourth graders killed earlier this week[...], or the girl two years behind me who just died of cancer, or the man I saw outside the Mall Cinema kicking his dog, or my father” (Niven 12). As mentioned in the article adolescents, such as Theodore, have multiple reasons as to why they are depressed. Theodore’s uncertainty leads him to suppressing his true intentions of standing on the ledge of the bell tower. In truth, Theodore was standing there, considering putting an end to his life, but was unable to say so because of he had “a lot of reasons” why. Additionally, Harrington states, “young adolescents [with depression] do not find it easy to describe how they are feeling” (Harrington). This is likely due to the fact that symptoms of depression are difficult to distinguish and elucidate to others. Because of this, adolescents find themselves struggling to “describe how they are feeling” to