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ISBN. 0-03-043725-3. OCLC. 239462. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1964) is a semi-autobiographical novel by Joanne Greenberg, written under the pen name of Hannah Green. It served as the basis for a film in 1977 and a play in 2004.
- Joanne Greenberg
- 1964
- Introduction
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Media Adaptations
- Characters
- Themes
- Style
- Topics For Further Study
- Historical Context
- Compare & Contrast
The autobiographical novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, published in 1964 by Joanne Greenberg using the pseudonym Hannah Green, recounts the experiences of a young girl who suffers from a mental illness. The novel draws from the author's own experiences in this story of Deborah Blau who struggles through childhood, fearful and sometimes even...
Joanne Greenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1932. Her early childhood was marred by the terror a child might well feel when talk of world war looms around her; but World War II turned out to cause some of the lesser fears that she faced. In her attempt to find peace in her personal world, young Joanne created an interior world of her own, o...
Chapters 1-5
Greenberg's I Never Promised You a Rose Gardenopens with the protagonist, Deborah Blau in the backseat as her parents, Esther and Jacob Blau, drive along country roads. Although the setting at first appears idyllic, with Esther even suggesting that the family is on a pleasure trip, there is mention of mounting tensions. The parents are concerned, for example, about leaving their daughter on her own when they stop at a diner for coffee. They are also concerned at night, when they leave their d...
I Never Promised You a Rose Gardenwas adapted as a film by Gavin Lambert and Lewis John Carlino in 1977 and starred Kathleen Quinlan as Deborah and Bibi Andersson as Dr. Fried. It was nominated for...
Miss Coral Allen
Miss Coral is known among the patients and staff for her exceptional strength. She is an elderly woman who is small and rather frail. But when she has a fit of anger, she is capable of tossing beds. She knows a lot, and Deborah is attracted to her for that. Miss Coral teaches Deborah what she can remember of Greek and Latin.
Anterrabae
Anterrabae is the most powerful god who lives in Deborah's imaginary world, the Kingdom of Yr. He often directs her actions, thoughts, and communications.
Deborah Blau
Deborah Blau is the protagonist of this story, a fictional stand-in for the author herself. She is sixteen years old at the opening of the novel and is on her way to a mental hospital after having attempted suicide. She is never sure, as the novel progresses, how long she will have to stay in the hospital, as she watches patients come and go. But she has a feeling she belongs in the hospital. There, she can be honest about her feelings without fearing she will hurt anyone else's. She is fortu...
Fear
Fear is apparent in almost every scene of Greenberg's I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. There are less intense examples, such as with the protagonist's sister, Suzy, who fears the loss of love of her parents, and more intense instances, such as the massive and consuming fear that the protagonist must face in her battle against her illness. Suzy's fears may cause her to feel at times somewhat insecure or maybe jealous of her sister, but these emotions affect her interpretation of her life an...
Mental Illness
Mental illness is often perplexing to mentally well-adjusted people. The science of psychiatry in the 1950s was young in some ways, and patients suffering from mental illnesses were often shut away from the view of healthy people. In focusing on the process of mental illness as well as the journey from illness to mental health, Greenberg sheds light on an otherwise dark subject. She provides a picture of people who exist sometimes behind their illnesses and at other times are so enmeshed by t...
Deceit
An important theme is delivered through Dr. Fried's treatment of Deborah: honesty builds trust in relationships and is essential in treating mental illness. Much of Deborah's confusion lies in the fact that she is intelligent enough to understand what is going on around her, but she often becomes disturbed when what she knows does not match what she is told. Doctors tell her, for instance, that her operation will not hurt, but Deborah experiences a lot of pain. Deborah's mother assures her th...
Chronicled Narration
I Never Promised You a Rose Gardenis based on the author's real experiences. She chose to tell her story as if it were unfolding before the readers' eyes in a chronological order. In the beginning of the story, Deborah is being driven to the mental hospital. The following chapters chronicle her experiences as she adjusts to her new life. Her sessions with Dr. Fried follow a definite pattern, showing how Deborah at first is afraid to open to the doctor and later how she relies on Dr. Fried for...
The protagonist Deborah Blau, in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, receives her G.E.D. certificate in lieu of a high school diploma. Call your local community college and find out where people go...Research the life of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, the doctor who treated Joanne Greenberg and who is portrayed as Dr. Fried in Greenberg's novel. What was so special about her therapy? How did it differ...Study the passages in I Never Promised You a Rose Gardenin which Deborah describes the various gods (or voices) that populate her Kingdom of Yr. From her descriptions, create images, in your choice...Deborah's relationship to her sister Suzy is less than ideal. As a child, Deborah desperately wanted Suzy to disappear. But despite Suzy's feelings of jealousy for all the attention that Deborah re...Schizophrenia
The German doctor Emil Kraepelin (1856–26) classified mental disorders in 1887. What would later be called schizophrenia, Dr. Kraepelin lumped together with several other mental disorders under the term "dementia praecox," which can be translated as "early dementia." In 1911, Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler (1857–1939) further distinguished several forms of schizophrenia and asserted that some were treatable. The word schizophreniacomes from a Greek word and means a split or shattered mind....
Mental Illness and Therapy in the United States
Mental illness is described as a disorder in the brain that causes a dysfunction in the way a person thinks, communicates, and experiences emotion. Although mental illness has been observed and recorded as far back as ancient times, there is still a lot of controversy about its causes and possible cures. The first U.S. Surgeon General's report on mental illness (1997) found that mental illnesses account for more disabilities in the United States than other physical illnesses such as cancer an...
Chestnut Lodge Hospital
Chestnut Lodge Hospital, located in Rockville, Maryland, is the site of Greenberg's story. It was built in 1886 as a hotel but was later turned into a psychiatric facility. The hospital consisted of twenty buildings situated on more than twenty acres of land, which were dotted with 125 chestnut trees. The hospital was run by the Bullard family, three generations of medical doctors, and was considered a pioneering facility in the treatment of long-term, mentally ill patients. In 1994, when Dex...
Early Twentieth Century: Clifford Beers spearheads the founding of the National Committee of Mental Hygiene, which eventually evolves into the National Mental Health Association. Mid-Twentieth Cent...Early Twentieth Century: Hospitals for the mentally ill become overcrowded. Added to the list of patients are soldiers returning home from World War I and, later, people suffering from the psycholo...Early Twentieth Century: Electrical shock that induces convulsions, and lobotomy (a surgical procedure in which nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the thalamus are severed) are common practices...Chronicled Narration. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is based on the author's real experiences. She chose to tell her story as if it were unfolding before the readers' eyes in a chronological ...
Overview. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is a semi-autobiographical novel by Joanne Greenberg that was first published in 1964. The novel tells the story of Deborah Blau, a 16-year-old girl who is committed to a mental institution after suffering a mental breakdown and creates a fantasy world to escape her harsh reality. The novel explores ...
Feb 5, 2023 · Hannah Green, Joanne Greenberg. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is the story of a sixteen-year-old who retreats from reality into the bondage of a lushly imagined but threatening kingdom, and her slow and painful journey back to sanity. Chronicles the three-year battle of a mentally ill, but perceptive, teenage girl against a world of her ...
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Synopsis. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is a semi-autobiographical novel by Joanne Greenberg, written under the pen name of Hannah Green. It was made into a film in 1977 and a play in 2004. Neither the novel nor the film or play should be confused with " Rose Garden", the Joe South song, most famously recorded by Lynn Anderson in 1970. Buy ...
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Previous Next. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is a semi-autobiographical account of a teenage girl's three-year battle with schizophrenia. Deborah Blau, bright and artistically talented, has created a world, the Kingdom of Yr, as a form of defense from a confusing, frightening reality. When Deborah was five, she underwent surgery to remove ...
