As you may have already noticed, one of the required sources this semester is Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad-House.
For those of you who do not know, Nellie Bly was an American journalist who committed herself to Blackwell’s Island Asylum for the Insane to witness asylum life and treatment first-hand.
You know that saying, “Not all heroes wear capes?” In my personal opinion, the statement applies to Nellie Bly.
Here is are my reasons as to why this author is unique and interesting to me;
#1: She does not sugarcoat or glorify anything. In her book, Bly directly describes her experiences inside Blackwell’s Island for the insane. Short, sweet, right to the point. Exactly how it should be.
#2: She is probably the only author in which we have read so far who feels some sort of sympathy for the patients. From the very beginning, we see that Bly is enormously concerned with how the patients are treated. In fact, in her introduction, she states how happy she was when, shortly after her visit to the asylum, the city of New York dedicated a total of $1,000,000 to the care of the insane. Compared to what has been done about mental health in the past, that is a BIG DEAL.
#3: She does not focus on the patients for what they have been diagnosed with, but rather the fact that they are human beings; living, breathing creatures that deserve to be taken care of. For the first time since our readings, we finally have someone who has knowledge of the full picture; these are people who need REAL help, and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their condition.
Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly
