Dementia

Dementia

Introduction

Dementia has turn into a key concern of our times. Majority of people will come across with this disease at some point in their life. The increasing incident rate of dementia has earned it the title of 'disease of the century'. It is pervasive across almost all media- novels, magazines, blogs, newspapers, cinema, TV, radio, and even opera (Bitenc, 2012). This focus of this paper is to explore the literary representation of dementia- as is portrayed by Dr. Lisa Genova in 'Still Alice'. This paper closely analyzes the fictional narrative by Lisa Genova, and explores the way this novel improves our comprehension of what it is like to come into contact with this disease or the particular dilemma of the sufferer.

Discussion

Characters, Storyline & Location/time period

'Still Alice' is a gripping debut novel regarding sudden descent of a 50-year-old woman, Alice Howland, into early onset Alzheimer's disease. Alice is a happily married woman and a mother of three grownup children, living in a house on the Cape. She is a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a world-renowned linguistics expert. Living a contented life with her husband John in Cambridge, she was enjoying the height of her career, when she starts noticing that a forgetfulness seeping into her life. Firstly, she fails in finding her Blackberry, and then, in her own town, she becomes despairingly disorientated. As muddiness begins to cloud her thoughts and her memory starts failing, a devastating diagnosis is received by her: early onset Alzheimer's disease. The diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's shocks her as she had a suspection of menopause or a brain tumor, after which her life starts gradually to disentangle. Even as sense of self of Alice is being stripped away, she tries to keep up her routine and live in the moment. Identifying her increasing disorientation and forgetfulness, the diagnosis transforms her career, her family dynamics, and her life. She misses track of rooms in her own house, leaves her job from Harvard and finally becomes unsuccessful in recognizing her own children. The Alzheimers' vicious facts are distressing, and it is difficult not to empathize with Alice and her closed ones. This novel is appealing for those coping with the disease and may prove useful. By means of a fictional descent work into dementia through early onset Alzheimer's, a unique way is offered by the author to empathize with the patients of Alzheimer's disease. Consecutively ...