Lisa Bright & Dark By John Neufeld Essay, Research Paper

John Neufeld is the author of “Lisa Bright

& Dark”. He lives and works in New York City these days. He was educated

at Yale. His style of writing are usually touching stories.

Finding information about John Neufeld

is quite difficult since the Internet nor the book has provided any help

whatsoever.

Lisa Shilling is the main character of

this book. She is just sixteen as she slowly loses her mind. Lisa is quite

an example of teenager with problems which is why she’d be classified as

a very real character. Her dangerous state of mind reflects the realism

that this does happen.

Her moods are forever changing. Lisa’s

motivation as a teenager is to live her live normally.

This is hard to do since she is in need

of help. Many can relate to Lisa and her illness because it is among teenagers

today. Her mother and father snub her off completely overlooking her serious

unstableness. Luckily, she has friends that care enough to help her. The

main conflict of this book is the struggle to convince Lisa’s parents that

she is ill and needs serious help. Her parents did not pay attention in

the beginning when Lisa started to act a little different. This is rather

understandable. Lisa was in school and pricked herself with a needle that

drew blood. Many told Lisa’s stubborn parents that she needed a psychiatrist.

They simply refused to accept the fact that their daughter was in need

of anything. When Lisa even screamed out that she needed help, they simply

wouldn’t understand. She even walked right through a glass window. Her

parents didn’t understand until it was almost too late. The conflict was

finally resolved after they got her the help she was in need of. This is

an example of man verse himself since the conflict deals with Lisa fighting

her illness. This book type is about a social problem. This means that

a dilemma occurred in the social area. In this case it involved Lisa Shilling

and her struggle with society and her illness.

One example of this social problem would

be the fact that society such as Lisa’s classmates were uneducated about

her problem so they didn’t understand her. Another example would be how

Lisa’s parents were too busy with their life to notice their daughter’s

plea for help. Yet another example would be how the teachers and guidance

tried to look around the problem.

Today, the same social problems are still

faced. The book’s them dealt with mental illness and treating it. It was

about Lisa and her problems. This book showed that the perplexing problem

could be treated right just as long as she got the right help. Her friends

were the main people to help her overcome it all. It can be seen that this

situation was very difficult then and now. The moral of this story is based

on the illness of a girl and society’s impact on her. It goes to show that

she was helped and hurt at the same time.

This passage caught my eye. It’s a moment

of shock and surprise caused by Lisa’s illness. This is a sudden outburst

no one was prepared for. They handled it well under those circumstances.

Lisa had shoved Elizabeth toward the dying

fire, and had jumped on her in one movement. She began hitting Elizabeth’s

face, then changed her attack and began punching Elizabeth everywhere she

could – her sides, her stomach, kicking at her legs, grabbing her by he

hair. It was terrifying.

This is the list of ten vocabulary words

that I didn’t know as I read “Lisa Bright & Dark”.

Most of them deal with Lisa’s illness is

some way.

1. schizophrenia : a psychotic disorder

characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration

in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of

personality expressed as disorder of feeling, thought (as in hallucinations

and delusions), and conduct-called also dementia praecox.

2. confidante : CONFIDANT especially :

one who is a woman.

3. conscience : the sense or consciousness

of the moral goodness or blame worthiness of one’s own conduct, intentions,

or character together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good.

4. immobility : the incapability of being

moved.

5. Mountie : a member of the Royal Canadian

Mounted Police.

6. quarry : a diamond-shaped pane of glass,

stone, or tile.

7. aquiline : curving like an eagle’s

beak.

8. analyst : a person who analyzes or

who is skilled in analysis.

9. docilely : easily led or managed :

TRACTABLE.

10. barbiturate : any of various derivatives

of barbituric acid used esp. as sedatives, hypnotics, and antispasmodics.

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