Warm up questions

Answers for the warm up questions

A 1. She wanted to be cared by people around her. Because today's young people also commit suicide with such reasons. She felt alone in the world.

A 2. She could not find any reason to keep living.

A 3. It might be boring. Herself was never related to others possitively.

A 4. We do not know Slovenia well. But it would not be so good country becuaes of the conflict in Yugoslavia.

A 5. If she continue this style of life, she will always seek the way to die. But if she can change her thoughts against death, she will notice how important life is.

Chapter 1(p.1-32)

Answers for the questions

2. Character :
Veronika :
A 1. She planned to commit suicide one night. She took overdose of pills and waited the coming of death ,and finaly her stomach began to churn and lost her consciousness. When she opened her eyes, she was on a bed in a mental hospital, the Villete. She could not understand why she was alive. She was informed by Dr.Igor that she could not live only for five more days. She thought she would not go out the Villete alive. By meeting Zedka she found what kind of people there were ; mad people.

A 2. She could not understand why she was alive, though she commited suicide. Exactly overdose of pills harmed her stomach and she lost her consciousness. But she was alive so that she could not understand the reality. Moreover she was sent to a mental hospital. It puzzled her, too. She was afraid to wait for the coming of death becuaes it was a quite different thing from death with some pills and no consciousness. She was little confused.

Dr. Igor :
A 1. He is a top doctor in the Villete. He thought Veronika would be a good example of Vitriol which he was looking for in his patients. He told her that she had only five days to live. He explained her about what Vitriol was like and made her noticed how short she could live, though what he told were lies.

A 2. He just wanted to be famous in the world of medicine by finding and showing Vitriol in public. Maybe he had been finding a patient as a good example of Vitriol, and he met Veronika. Veronika attempted suicide but she could not. So he thought if he told her that she had no chance to be cured and there would be only five days to live, she would have a chemical, Vitriol, which would be produced inside of him when someone felt confusion.

Zedka :
A 1. She was one of patients in the Villete. When Veronika was moved to ward, she met Zedka. Zedka said herself was mad. She asked Veronika what it means to be mad. She gave a answer to Veronika that people who had their own world and were different from others were mad. Not to be mad, she tried to be normal by doing all things others do in the past. But that was the problem, she have never be depressed, never felt great joy or sadness.

A 2. She knew that even people outside of the Villete would be mad and they thought they were normal. They have their own world and it would be a mad world for somebody. There would not be any difference between patients in the Villete and people outside. By pretending others, she could not feel any hapiness or sadness. She wanted to say to Veronika about attempting suicide was a mad thing for most other people and they could not accept her behavior even if it happened in Veronika's world.


3. Setting :
Villete, the famous mental hospital, had been in experience since 1991, the year of the country's independence. It was the place from which no one had ever escaped. In Villete, there are madmen who were sent there by the courts or by other hospitals. Villete's wall is high, but the watchtowers for the sentries are empty. The garden is surrounded by military-looking buildings, which housed the male and female wards, the administrative offices and employees' room. In Villete, there is the only place that is really guarded is the main gate, where everyone who entered and left have their papers checked by two guards.

Chapter 2 (p.33 -72)

Summary
After entering the mental hospital, Villete, Veronika seeked some way of escaping. Then she met Zedka again, and she knew Zedka's past. While she met mad people, she knew what is mad, and began to think that she was mad. After hearing she would die, she came to feel frightened about her death gradually. One day, she went to the lounge where there was the piano. when she played the piano, another mad peason appeared, Eduard. Dr. Igor analyzed some caces, Veronika's mother appeared at his office to meet Veronika.



Charactor
She was married with a good man, and she had children. Some of her friends envy her. But, when she came the Villete, she was full of depression like a ghost. It was because of love. Many years ago, she had known there was an impossible love. After married, he loved her so much, and she noticed it. But, she cannot forget him. Although she looked for him, she cannot meet him. One day, she did not want to get up, so she layed on the bed for two days. Looking at her, her husband worried about her. Then he called the doctor. Today, she is enough better to leave the Villete, but she decide to stay there.

Chapter 3 (p.73-102)

Answers for the questions

2. Character :
Veronika :
A 1 . She refused to meet her mother not to say goodbye. But suddenly she had a unbearsble pain in her chest. Dr. Igor injected her and let her calm down. She did not know why Dr. Igor helped her nevertheless she would die in a few days. Veronika and Dr. Igor started a conversasion about Eduard; schizophrenic and being poisoned by Bitterness. She went to the lounge and met Mari at the Sufi lecture. She took the Sufi lecture listening Mari's story about real "I" and she found that spending the rest of her life is the best way for her.

A 2 . Actualy she had a idea that she would die soon and she was biased only her coming death. But after meeting with Mari, she began to change her thought toward life. Surrounding people might think a mad person is mad but this mad person just has his own world and his world is not usual so that people around him think he is mad and touched in the mind. People who think themselves as "normal" also have their own world and their world may be thought crazy for somebody else. Then they are also "mad". Mari told Veronika that having own difference is good thing. Veronika noticed that and decided to live until the coming of death.

Dr. Igor :
A 1 . After Veronika fell down because of the pain in the chest, Dr. Igor injected her nevertheless he told her the coming of death. He said to her that she could live to be a hundred. His words puzzled her. He also talked about schizophrenic.

A 3 . He knew he could not lose her because she is his experiment's example and his experiment had not been over. But she thought she would die soon and she must have known the experiment, so that he said an ambiguous thing like "you can live to be a hundred" to Veronika. By talking about schizophrenic he thought that she would have no hope to live and keep thinking only about the coming death.

Mari :
A 1 . She was one of patient in the Villete. She was in the lounge to take the Sufi lecture. Though others left, she remained there and talked to Veronika. She told her that, by being in a mad situation, people could knew real "I" and what is "mad".

A 4 . She also said same thing to Zedka. What Mari said was being in a madness, people can feel like "that is mad" even if they are called mad. Feeling like that showed Veronika to remain her existence in the world.Since Zedka or Mari have been in the Villete longer than Veronika, they could understand the real madness and why they were there.

Chapter 4 (page 102- 149)

A1: Even if it were not a power of love, we can clearly see that Veronika's desire moved Edured. When Veronika was masturbating in front of him, "there was a different light in his eyes, as if he understood."(page 121) At that time, Edured might got a chance to get out from his own world and look at the real world. When Edured met Veronika at first, for him, Veronika was just a person who play the piano. However as time passed, the importance of Veronika was getting arise. As she was already important for Edured, her action to him might influenced him strongly.


A2: Before entering Villete, Mari was a lawer. When she went to the cinema with her husband, she suddenly got an attack. It passed at that time, but later, she got an attack at her office again. She decided to go to Villete and saw Dr. Igor. Although the docter told her to come home, she clamed she did not want to. After entering Villete, her colleague visited her and suggested her retirement. Two days later, another lawer visited her and told her that her husband wanted to divorce from her.

A3: She decided to stay in Villete because she did not have the courage to go out into the street since she did not know when she gets another attack. Also, she considerd her husband. He took care of Mari for months, and she wanted him to be free.

Chapter 5 (p.150-191)

Answer
A1. Because they left Villete and go to the restaurant so they did not have enough money to pay for the finest dishes in Ljubljana. They thought that if they made a noise they would be forced to left without paying money. It succeeded.

A2. Their conversations include author's message for us. In recent society, we lost our characteristic and creativity. We usually tend to be the same as other people do. If someone behaves differently he is regard as being mad. The author wants to say "Do not lost your characteristics".

Relationships of characters

Eduard and Veronika
Since Veronika knew that she would not live more than five or seven days longer, she gradually had the feeling of the fear of death. By having the feeling of fear, she could think about other people. Eduard who was schizophrenia was close to Veronika for listening her piano. When Veronika showed her masterbation to Eduard, he did not do anything. Veronika was also attracted his pureness too. So she had special feeling for him.

Veonika and Dr. Igor
Veronika met Dr. Igor when she woke up on a bed in the Villete. Dr. Igor wanted to experiment with Veronika to find out Vitriol. Though it is not true, by letting Veronika know how nad her physical condition is, he wanted to see how Vitriol would happen, in other words, how Vernonika would act in the fictious limitation of her life. He just wanted leave his name on history of medicine by finding out the symptom of Vitriol in Veronika. However she began to change her mind gradually by meeting many people in the Villete. Dr. Igor also began to notice that change. There were almost no sign of Vitriol poisoning. Dr. Igor felt confused with her unexpected ending. He could not find Vitriol in her.

Veronika and Mari :
Veronika's desire of living changed other patients in VIllete. In Mari’s case, she was able to leave Villete anytime but she did not. After meeting Veronika, her mind has been changed. When she saw Veronika for the first time, for Mari, Veronika was just a mad girl who attempted suicide, but as they built their relationship, Mari started to think about her self. Veronika was only person that wanted to live so bad and leave Villete. She thought,"What about us? What are we doing here?"(page 137) Veronika's action and thought made Mari think about what she had been trying not think about and encouraged her to see the fact. Mari starts to think about leaving Villete.

Theme 1

Answer to the question

Death is an awful thing. Everybody is afraid of death. Today, however, there are people who want to die because of failures in business, bullies or debts. Moreover some of them commit suicide with no specific reason. They think they can be released form their unfilled feelings toward their lives. What make people attempt to commit suicide are outside mental shock or physical attack and personal feelings toward what one cannot accept. These factors do not make people feel that death is fearful, they think, rather, that death let them free from sufferings.

People who want to die with specific reasons often have outside mental shock or physical attack. As written in the book that “I only saw her fight back once, when her husband took a lover. (p 12. Ch.1)”, one shocking happening makes someone think about death. In this book, a wife committed suicide later since she was neither happy nor unhappy despite her husband got rid of his lover. People who tend to think things badly or are fainthearted will be more damaged than normal people when unpleasant things happen to them. Physical attacks like bully would multiple their damage because they get mental shock and physical attack together.

On the other hand, people who die with no specific reason tend to think their lives are boring. As written that “everything in her life was the same and, once her youth was gone, it would be downhill all the way (p 6. Ch.1)”, people cannot feel satisfied with their realities. They think they can get nothing by continuing to live. Thinking like that causes mental suffering in their mind. When their sufferings are highly accumulated, they tend to be willing to erase their sufferings; it means they hope to die.

Some people who die because of mental sufferings are not satisfied with what is happening in the world. As written that “ Everything was wrong, and she had no way of putting things right – that gave her a sense of complete powerlessness. (p 6. Ch.1)”, thinking that they cannot do anything for other people in the world or that the world is opposite to their ideals make them depressed. They think they had better disappear from the abnormal world. They feel lonely against the world and their loneliness causes committing suicide.It is impossible to know who will commit suicide because we cannot know inside of other’s feeling.

People who looked fine today will commit suicide tomorrow. To treat one’s own feeling not to be hurt is difficult because of its fragileness. People who commit suicide tend to brood about everything bad for them so it is difficult for them to deal with it. Additionally some have physical attack form someone else. Therefore they commit suicide because of their mental sufferings and physical attacks.

Theme 2

Today, there are many people with different characters. Some are funny, some are gloomy, and others might be aggressive. After reading Veronika decides to die, we began to think “What is mad?” people in this book especially patients in Villete use the word “mad” when they meet angry or crazy people. Even doctor think patients are mad since they are just different. Again, what is mad? People who are called mad might be different from others. The difference could be difference of thinking or could be that of action.

People sometimes call others who have different way of thinking or view mad. Everybody should have each different character and thought. Why people call those mad? In the book Veronika decides to die, Dr. Igor talks about a man who think a tie as a ridiculous, useless coloured cloth tied in a very complicated way. Although what the man said was true, doctor called this man mad. (Page78) then also we might think the man is mad. This would be because this man had different way of thinking as doctor’s, also it might be because we regard doctor as a specialist, then most of us have same view as this doctor’s. Real mad people, however, do not think they are mad. Here is a story of a king who drunk poisoned water to be mad like his citizens. (Page31) Even if those people act strange, when they get together, they think other people are mad. The king in this story tried to be mad so that he did not have to be called mad. As you can see, the majority calls minority that is different from them mad. After all, most of us who have same thought might be also mad.

People who are called “mad” always do something what they want to do, and they do not care about another things or others when they are doing something. Whenever they do something, anyone cannot stop them. Some of them begin to be shouting or repeating for no reason. For example, “ one said to the other; ‘she was just passing’. The other repeated the remark more loudly this time and soon they were all shouting the same words.”(Page37) as you know, mad people just repeat the same words for no reason. Normal people may not be able to understand what they think and feel fear for them. However, like you they only do what they want to do.

Also, sometimes they laughed at stupid things. For example, “ a bully, shifty-looking male nurse came over, wanting to know what was going on. ‘Nothing’ said one member of the group. ‘She was just passing’ she’s standing right there, but she’s still just passing.’ the whole group fell about laughing.”(Page37) after reading this part, can you understand why they are laughing? Probably, you cannot. However, each of them understood this situation, and felt it funny or interesting, and then they were laughing. Like you, they think about something, then they make action. They are just different from others. For them, it is a normal life.

As mentioned, people who are called “mad” usually think about things in different ways and do what they want to do. Sometimes they call others mad, they suddenly start to laugh at things that we cannot understand, and they even suddenly start to shout. We, who think we are not mad and normal, do not understand them at all and often call them mad. However, if we all think about things in the same way as they do, nobody will call them mad. So, mad people are not “mad” but just different from others.

Theme 3

Do people have the right to commit suicide?

Hove you ever thought about committing suicide or tried to do that? Recently the rate of committing suicide is getting higher. Especially in Japan, people who are suicidal tend to want suicide-friends on the internet. And they die together for example in the car. Why do they easily choose to death? Do people have the right to commit suicide? The answer is definately no because dead people cannot compensate for their death, it goes against the zen morals and the committing suicide make parents sad.

First, let us see about compensation. For example, after someone committed suicide by crashed by a train, the railway company will make you pay the fine for delaying the trains and cleaning and so on. The amount of these things is so huge. If you left such a big amount of money, it is okay but if you do not have enough money, please do not do that because your parents must compensate your death.

Next, committing suicide goes against the zen moral. Zen is the thought that is based on the Japanese religion. Based on this thought, committing suicide is a kind of sin. So it is said that people who committed suicide cannot go to heaven but hell because it is goes against the zen moral. So if you do not go to hell, please think twice.

Third, you should not make your parents sad. If you dead before your parents' death, they will be so sad because this order of death is unnatural. For example, one of my acquaintances committed suicide since his death his parents had been sad. Then they committed suicide too. This is the result of committing suicide. So you should not commit suicide.

In conclusion, we have seen why people do not have the right to commit suicide. First reason is that committing suicide costs so much. The second reason is that committing suicide goes against the zen moral. And the third reason is that your parents feel so sad. From these reasons people do not have the right to commit suicide. If you are suicidal now, please think again and just live. Please do not choose death.

Slovenia

A:Slovenia is actually not really unknown. It is true that about 1.2 million foreign tourists who are enhanced by its nature and locations visit there every year. We might be able to even say Slovenia is well known as a resort.
If some say Slovenia is unknown or mysterious, it would be because Slovenia is kind of a new country. Of course it was recognized as one of Federal Peoples' Republics of Yugoslavia. However, the area of slovenia had been under control of other nations untill they won their indipendence in 1991. Therefore it cannot be helped that it takes people time to recognize the new country Slovenia.

Mental hospital

Why mental hospitals exist?

・ To prevent suicide by patients
・ To attempt to reduce the amount of sensory stimulation that the patients have
・ To provide as normal an environmental as possible

What types of mental diseases are there?

There are two types of mental diseaes.
One is psychotic disease. Examples of psychotic disease are personality disorders, affective disorders, psychotic disorders, avoidant disorders, paranoid disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, hallucination and ADD.
The other is non- psychotic disease. Examples of non- psychotic disease are feelings of depression, sadness and tension, fear phobias, obsessive compulsive disorders and eating disorders.

What is ADD?

ADD means Attention Deficit Disorder. These are symptoms of adults ADD.
・ Difficulty with communication
・ Problems with managing money
・ Forgetfulness
・ Problems keeping track of belongings
・ Difficulty with relationships
・ Forgetting appointments or consistently being late
・ Disliking quiet activities
・ Difficulty holding jobs

What are the positive accepts of ADD?

・ Endless Energy
・ Hyper focus
・ Energy and hyper focus combined
・ Great Imagination
・ Creativity
・ Humor
・ Ahead of "establishment" thinking
・ Creative thinking, problem solving
・ Spontaneity
・ Great passion for interests

What kind of treatment exists?

・ Psychopharmaclogy 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　・ Counseling/ Psychotherapy ・ Cognitive Therapy ・ Behavior Management ・ Social Skills traning ・ Activity Therapy and Art Therapy

　

Suicide

Answer for the question

A 1. Consulting with psychiatrists will be the best way. If you talk to people who have a will to die with no attention, they may hasten their death or even kill you. It is dangerous to be concerned to them with no knowledge about mental illness. Not to make them die, even if dying is their will, you have to ask for help to professionals.

A 2. There is one thing we can do for suicidal people. If we think people around us have elemental sign of suicide, we should talk about suicide directly. This is a very effective method of preventing suicide, because they are not just able to talk what they have thought in inside of them. By talking about suicide their elemental will for suicide may calm down.