Lena Lin

AP English 11
C word in the Hallway response

Have you ever been through one of those psychological crisis where people
would start to think youre crazy but you know youre not? Or even worse, they knew
you need help but they brushed it off, thinking its only a minor issue. Well,
unfortunately, youre not the only one; almost half of the people in the world have
experienced this crisis. And according to Anne Quindlens The C Word in the
Hallway, because of the lack of attention needed to help mental illness victims,
people often neglected the sufficient outcome that should be expected.

Neglect was often situated because of the way the people dismiss the mental
illness in young people as a character flaw instead of trying to find treatments to
cure it. To verify her objective, Quindlen emphasized on paragraph one, the end of
ignorance of mental illness as a statement for audience to realize the neglect victims
are facing. In order to clarify that mental illness is not a personality but a disease,
Quindlen used logical attractions to inform the readers by listing examples of
situations in which the victims have experienced. In paragraph two, Quindlen stated,
So many have already been lost. This statement was especially true to the case of
Manzie and Kinkel. The two victims of mental illness have fallen in to the paths of the
untreated, they have committed expected crimes. This was due to the lack of treatment
and attention they needed when they first got detected of mental illness five to six
years earlier.

This story later appealed to the readers by exemplifying the attitudes of Kinkels
and Sams father toward therapy. As shown in paragraph five in which, Kip
Kinkels father made no secret of his disapproval of therapy, brought out the tone of
the entire paragraph. It was both a tone of seriousness yet in a little mocking way.
Quindlen used this sentence to show the audience her feelings toward this situation- it
was plain sympathy. She also brought out a similar scenario in Sams story in the
same paragraph, Sams father, on the other hand, spent days trying to figure out how
much of the cost of a home for troubled kids his insurance would cover. This
sentence guided the readers to picture the situation of which a poor kid father was
concerned of financial issues over his own sons health. Readers will then have the
same sympathy as the author or guiltiness if they were the parents, too.

Why sympathy? Its a pathetic feeling toward the parents of the victims. They did
not acknowledge the seriousness of mental problem and thus led to deaths by their
kids. This patronizing action was also taken to the court system. According to the last
sentence of paragraph five, a judge lectured Sam from the bench: you know the

difference between whats right and wrong, dont you? This careless court case also
played a role in criminal actions done by the kids. The adults were basically unwilling
to do much work on the issue of mental illness. Quindlen revealed her thoughts
through paragraph two in which she sarcastically stated, excuses, excuses. in order
to lead the readers an insight of the issue. One important method Quindlen used to
emphasis on the ignorance was in paragraph four, using an sardonic tone she quote
out, And theres still plenty of that useless adults what in the world does a 16 year
old have to be depressed about mindset to sleep depresses 16 year old from getting
help. The useless and preventing depressed 16 year old from getting help sets an
realization to the adults of the carelessness they gave to their children. It also sets out
as a urge for the audience to take actions and not just to simply support her objective.

Another important fact provided by Quindlen that made a convincing action to

the readers is by providing specific factual information-the statistical data. In
paragraph six she stated, The Federal Center for Mental Health Services estimates
that at least six million children in this country have some serious emotional
disturbance, and for some of them, right and wrong takes second seat to the voices in
their heads. From this date, Quindlen showed the neglect and helplessness the
victims are suffering, they dont even have a primary say for their problems. Another
number she used was in paragraph seven, Imagine how we would respond if two
third of American babies were not immunized... was to compare the importance of
mental illness versus leukemia, it was equally deadly. The comparison would then
forced the audience to a new point of view- that mental illness is a disease and help
was needed.

Through these evidence and thoughts shown by the author, Quindlen has
successfully persuaded the readers to help the mentally ill children. She informed the
readers that the consequences of neglecting needed help would eventually led victims
to do hopeless actions such as crimes. Furthermore, Quindlen took the readers to
another perspectives of the case- the victims own view through the case of Manzie
and Kinkel. And lastly, she provided a statistical data held by the Federal Mental
Health Center to prove her objective.