Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly - book review
Rating 2/5
Genre: Investigative journalism, First hand reporting
I thought this is a mediocre tale. I am not sure if I can call it a tale, it is more like a collection of different stories of women who are locked away in a mental asylum. The tone of the narrative was matter of fact and I would have liked it to have some emotional depth and a visceral quality. It felt like she was hurling the stories at the reader one after the other before there was enough time to process them.
A journalist,Nellie Bly,pretending to be insane gains entry into a mental asylum on Blackwell's Island. She stays there for ten days and experiences the horrors of the place like the rest of inmates. After coming out, she publishes her report of what she saw and experienced. It causes quite a stir in the society. As a result of her efforts, the government increases funding to the asylum by a significant amount.
The island houses around 1600 women suffering in different stages of insanity. Some of them are not insane at all. One woman whose acquaintance Nellie makes is sent there for becoming sick and forgetful. Another is put away by her husband for her attraction towards other men. There are others with similar stories. These women try to talk with the guards and tell them that they are sane and should be released but their pleas fall on deaf ears. They are told to accept their situation and be glad for what they are given. I am shocked to learn how easy it was for someone to feign insanity or be vulnerable enough to be locked away in a hapless place like the Blackwell's Island. And once they are confirmed to be mad by some authority figure, there is no going back. There is no way of convincing even the doctors of their sanity. It's like their fate is ordained to suffer for the rest of their lives and that was so scary.
The food they are provided with is cold, uncooked and bland. They are forced to bathe once a week in freezing cold water and are scrubbed like an utensil. Their clothes are inadequate to sustain in the cold and damp beds they are made to sleep in. They are forcibly drugged, beaten, locked away in closets and taunted with name calling and provocation. I did anticipate most of this from knowing what the content of the book is going to be. I think that since the book was written and published, there have been many movies and series made, books written shedding light on these and more grislier issues that I didn't feel like walking on an uncharted territory. My brain must have become numb to the pain of these women due to the familiarity of their suffering.
Genre: Investigative journalism, First hand reportingI thought this is a mediocre tale. I am not sure if I can call it a tale, it is more like a collection of different stories of women who are locked away in a mental asylum. The tone of the narrative was matter of fact and I would have liked it to have some emotional depth and a visceral quality. It felt like she was hurling the stories at the reader one after the other before there was enough time to process them.
A journalist,Nellie Bly,pretending to be insane gains entry into a mental asylum on Blackwell's Island. She stays there for ten days and experiences the horrors of the place like the rest of inmates. After coming out, she publishes her report of what she saw and experienced. It causes quite a stir in the society. As a result of her efforts, the government increases funding to the asylum by a significant amount.
The island houses around 1600 women suffering in different stages of insanity. Some of them are not insane at all. One woman whose acquaintance Nellie makes is sent there for becoming sick and forgetful. Another is put away by her husband for her attraction towards other men. There are others with similar stories. These women try to talk with the guards and tell them that they are sane and should be released but their pleas fall on deaf ears. They are told to accept their situation and be glad for what they are given. I am shocked to learn how easy it was for someone to feign insanity or be vulnerable enough to be locked away in a hapless place like the Blackwell's Island. And once they are confirmed to be mad by some authority figure, there is no going back. There is no way of convincing even the doctors of their sanity. It's like their fate is ordained to suffer for the rest of their lives and that was so scary.
The food they are provided with is cold, uncooked and bland. They are forced to bathe once a week in freezing cold water and are scrubbed like an utensil. Their clothes are inadequate to sustain in the cold and damp beds they are made to sleep in. They are forcibly drugged, beaten, locked away in closets and taunted with name calling and provocation. I did anticipate most of this from knowing what the content of the book is going to be. I think that since the book was written and published, there have been many movies and series made, books written shedding light on these and more grislier issues that I didn't feel like walking on an uncharted territory. My brain must have become numb to the pain of these women due to the familiarity of their suffering.
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