I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

c
Dr. Fried is a German woman esteemed in the field of psychology. She works at the
hospital where Deborah is admitted, and she becomes Deborah's doctor. Further into their treatment,

is a story about 16-year-old Deborah Blau and her quest for Deborah nicknames Dr. Fried Furii because of the fiery power of her insight.
mental health. She has been schizophrenic since her early childhood, but it was only when she slit her
wrists that her parents decided to admit her to a mental hospital for treatment. Suzy is Deborah's younger sister. Deborah carries great guilt about her younger sister
because she imagines that she tried to kill Suzy when she was a baby. This false memory is a fantasy
Once Deborah is a patient at the hospital, she beins intense daily therapy to try to sort out the illusions that Deborah created as a five-year-old from the feelings of anger she felt toward the new baby. While
of the Kingdom of Yr, her alternate reality, and the real world. For three years Deborah fights against Deborah's in the hospital, Suzy still feels as if her parents are giving Deborah more attention because
the fear of losing her realm of escape, and she and her therapist, Dr. Fried, try to sort through the they are constantly arguing or worrying about her.
symptoms of Deborah's illness to get at the root of the problem.
Deborah's over-bearing grandfather on her mother's side is an immigrant from
As a child, Deborah was a victim of anti-Semitism at school and at the summer camp to which her Latvia. He came to America to make a fortune and scorn all those who had ever looked down on his
parents sent her. In addition to that, she was traumatized by an early childhood surgery that caused her poverty. Once he became rich, he bought a huge house and created this appearance of gentility and
intense physical and emotional pain despite the doctors' promises that it wouldn't hurt at all. breeding in his daughters. Image and vengeance are important to him, and he sees Deborah, his first
grandchild, as the way to show the entire world the greatness of his family. He dotes on her and refuses
Deborah uses the inner strength that she and Dr. Fried discover among the sickness within her to to believe that she is ill until her parents commit her to the hospital.
combat the anger and fear that she feels toward the world. Despite several setbacks in her treatment
and moments of sheer desperation, Deborah finally realizes that she belongs to the world of reality and
she can live in it happily, if not without some work. She wants to live, and with this new life, she finds
that she has formed friendships in the ward. Anterrabae is one of the gods of Yr, and he is eternally falling through darkness. His hair
and fingertips are fire and as he falls, the flame tips of his hair curl in the wind. Deborah realizes that
Deborah realizes that life is not easy or fair, and that sometimes the only way to know that you're she created this god based on the image of Milton's Satan in an illustration she saw in Paradise Lost.
living is if you are fighting. But she decides that she'd rather be fighting and alive than resigned to a
world that exists only in her mind. ! " He is the black god of Yr who rides a black horse. He is usually the sarcastic voice.
0

The Censor is another part of the reality that Deborah has created for herself. The Censor
began as a way to protect Yr from being revealed to the world, but eventually he became a facet of
acob is Deborah's father. He is a Polish immigrant who works hard as an accountant to both the world and of Yr. The Censor took over control of all that Deborah said and became a dictator.
provide for his family. He has a hard time dealing with Deborah's illness because he thinks it means
that he failed her somehow as a parent. Their relationship is one of surface images. As long as Deborah # The Collect are a group of voices and images that Deborah has amassed from reality over
seems fine on the surface, acob is happy, but Deborah feels that he doesn't understand her at all. He is the years and lumped into one large, critical group that exists in Yr. The Collect taunt Deborah with
quick-tempered and often seems as if he would rather hide from the ugly truth and hope it goes away her own self-critical thoughts, but it isn't until she's been in therapy for three years that she realizes that
instead of dealing with it headon the way that his wife does. the only power they have over her is that which she gives them with her own self-hate and criticism.

Esther is Deborah's mother. Esther loves Deborah and wants her to get well ; it is $
He is an intern on the Disturbed ward; the patients see that he fears them because he knows
because of Esther's firmness in their decision to send Deborah to the hospital that acob doesn't bring that they are not so far removed from his own state of mind. They taunt him and when he kills himself,
Deborah home as he wishes. Esther had known for a while that there was something wrong with they are jealous that he has escaped life while they have not.
Deborah which all her mothering and trying to smooth over the rough spots in Deborah's life couldn't
possibly fix. She is ironically relieved by Deborah's suicide attempt because it proves that Deborah Carla is a patient on the Disturbed ward, and she and Deborah become friends. Carla is crazy
needs help, and so now she can be sent somewhere to get that help and have a chance at recovery. because her mother killed herself and her brother and Carla was wounded, but lived. She and Deborah
bond during their time as patients and they help each other as much as they can through the battles of
Deborah Blau is a 16-year-old ewish girl suffering from extreme mental illness. Her their own insanity.
schizophrenia is the result of years of loneliness and misunderstanding all covered over by the need to
pretend that everything is fine to please everyone else. After three years of intense therapy in a mental
hospital, she begins to come back to the world and decides to give living in reality a try.

%& Doris Rivera was mythical to Deborah because she was a patient who got well enough #"This tumor became the first mark of what Deborah saw as her difference from other people.
to go out into the world. Hearing about Doris terrifies the D ward so much that they either have to be The tumor was in her uterus, and so having an operation in such a personal part of her body at such a
put in cold packs or isolation rooms because the thought of the real world is so frightening. When young age made her feel dirty. The pain of the surgeries to remove the tumor was a very traumatic
Doris returns to the ward, Deborah asks her why she came back and if the world was just too hard. experience for her because the doctors lied to her about the pain. To punish herself for being
deceived,Deborah carried the pain of the tumor with her throughout her life. The phantom tumor

He replaces Hobbs as an attendant on the Disturbed ward after Hobbs commits suicide. The caused her excruciating pain until her therapy showed her that she didn't have to punish herself for
patients see that Ellis is not only afraid of them, but he also is a religious fanatic, and he despises them. being wronged.
They call him Hobbs' Leviathan to torment him until McPherson asks Deb to stop giving the new guy a
hard time. "" " Deborah went to the summer camp for three years before her parents learned how
anti-Semitic it was. Deborah was an outsider there because of her religion, and even the counselors
& Sylvia is a woman on the Disturbed ward who doesn't usually speak. Her biggest connection to went out of their way to make her feel unwelcome. It was at this camp that she first found Yr as a place
Deborah is that they were both left in cold packs in the same room for a whole night, and Sylvia spoke to disappear and find some companionship.
kindly to Deborah until the attendants came to remove them from the packs.

) The Disturbed Ward of the hospital is where the sickest women are sent because

McPherson is one of the few attendants on the Disturbed ward who is unafraid of the they are a threat to themselves or others.
patients. He treats them well and makes them feel like his equals rather than looking down on them for
their illness; therefore, when he asks Deborah to be nice to Ellis, she does it. *The cold pack is a way to subdue the mental patients whenever they're violent or having a
breakdown. The patient is stripped and rolled in wet sheets, then strapped to a bed with restraints.

Miss Coral is an incredibly violent old woman who comes to the D ward. While she's Acold pack is put under the neck and a hot water bottle rests under the feet, and patients are left there
there, she teaches Deborah the fragments of Greek and Latin that she can remember, and in this way, for four hours to help them calm down.
the two become friends.
+ Deborah feels her sickness inside of her as a volcano that is going to erupt. The symptoms of
%
He is the doctor Deborah sees in Dr. Fried's absence. Deborah doesn't like Royson her illness are all ways of hiding the volcano and keeping some semblance of sanity.
because he is too cold and is more worried about being right than about helping her get well.

$ He is a kind doctor who becomes the D ward administrator. Deborah likes him because he
doesn't brush off the patients. uote 1: "From freedom Deborah Blau smashed headlong into the collision of the two worlds. As
always before it was a weirdly silent shattering. In the world where she was most alive, the sun split in
" Carmen is a patient on B ward whose father removes her from the hospital instead of letting the sky, the earth erupted, her body was torn to pieces, her teeth and bones crazed and broken to
her stay and get help. Carmen commits suicide shortly after she leaves, and Deborah is sad because she fragments. In the other place, where the ghosts and shadows lived, a car turned into a side drive and
knows that if Carmen had stayed, she could have gotten better. Seeing what happened to Carmen down a road to where an old red-brick building stood." Part 1, Chapter 1, Pg. 12
makes Deborah grateful that her parents let her stay in the hospital.
uote 2: "anuce" Part 1, Chapter 3, Pg. 20
x
c
uote 3: "one day [she] was walking home from school and Lactamaeon came to her and said, 'Three
'"(This is an alternate reality that Deborah has created for herself so that she can escape changes and Their Mirrors, and then Death.'" Part 1, Chapter 8, Pg. 58
what she views as the anarchy of the world. Deborah used to slip in and out of Yr when she was
younger, but as she grew older, it increasingly became the place where she spent most of her time. This uote 4: "Deborah, watching, saw what would be to her forever after the symbol of the impotence of
is where she goes to remove herself from the threats of the world. all mental patients: the blow again, calm and accurate and merciless, and the spitting back again and
again." Part 2, Chapter 13, Pg. 100
# The Pit is a part of the kingdom of Yr that Deborah created as a punishment. In the Pit there
is no meaning,will or feeling. It is a void, and coming out of the Pit is frightening because Deborah's uote 5: "I never promised you a rose garden. I never promised you perfect justice . . . and I never
need for meaning comes back before the meaning of things itself returns. promised you peace of happiness. My help is so that you can be free to fight for all of those things. The
only reality I offer is challenge, and being well is being free to accept it or not at whatever level you
are capable. I never promise lies, and the rose-garden world of perfection is a lie . . . and a bore, too!" 0
Part 2, Chapter 13, Pg. 103
Deceit 6: Even on the B ward there was some level of pretense about mental health, but on the D ward,
uote 6: "nganon" Part 2, Chapter 17, Pg. 142 Deborah was pleased to find that no one was self-conscious about his insanity.
uote 7: "not sicker. Not sicker at all." Part 3, Chapter 21, Pg. 182 12
Deceit 7: Esther knowingly deceives acob concerning Deborah's condition at the hospital because she
uote 8: "her presence was making them struggle with Maybes. Suddenly she realized that she was a
doesn't want him to worry. She also doesn't want him to take Deborah away from the hospital.
Doris Rivera, a living symbol of hope and failure and the terror they all felt of their own resiliency and
hers, reeling punch-drunk from beating after beating, yet, at the secret bell, up again for more." Part 3,
13
Chapter 29, Pg. 250
Deceit 8: Deborah was expected to be the salvation of the family, and she had always been told that
Ñ Ñ she was some great, special person. This inflated expectation for greatness could never be achieved,
and when other kids mistreated Deborah, it conflicted with what her family had always told her. They
, had created a false self-image for her, and when she couldn't live up to who and what she was
supposed to be, she thought something was wrong with her.
Deceit 1: Deborah's effort to hide Yr from everyone around her is a form of deceit. Much of the deceit
that she mentions throughout the story has been contrived to fool her, but this deception is one that she 1/
created to protect her fantasy world.
Deceit 9: Deborah becomes afraid that Furii will deceive her because Deborah has trusted her with so
Deceit 2: Deborah is relieved that Dr. Fried will acknowledge the sickness that holds Deborah in its much. Deborah is used to being let down by the world, so the idea that Furii, a representative of the
grasp. For years Deborah has had to hear people tell her that there is nothing wrong with her despite world, will keep Deborah's confidence is difficult for Deborah to believe. This fear of deception is part
the fact that she knows that there is a problem. She is expected to lie and pretend that everything is fine of what makes the trust factor so important in a doctor-patient relationship.
and normal when she knows that it's not.
34
-
Deceit 10: The last deceit that Deborah tears away is one that she has created for herself. When she
Deceit 3: Deborah's parents lie to her younger sister about where Deborah is. Little white lies of this realizes that Anterrabae was not her own original creation, she understands that all of Yr was a
sort occur throughout the book, and Esther is usually responsible for them. We don't really see how her compilation of ideas not unique to her own mind. With this admission that it wasn't entirely her world,
white lies affected Deborah, but it is interesting to notice Deborah's hatred for deception and the she was able to let it go and cast off the Earth for good.
frequency with which her mother manipulates the family with her lies.
Topic Tracking: Fear
.
1
Deceit 4: Dr. Fried warns Esther not to deceive Deborah because the mentally ill are especially
sensitive to lies, and Deborah is no exception. Part of the reason that Deborah escapes to Yr is to evade Fear 1: Esther and acob are afraid that they might be making a mistake in leaving Deborah at a mental
the deception of the world. hospital because the idea is so cruel. But they also know that she needs help, and they don't have many
other alternatives. Their fear andDeborah's own fear play a large part in the story.
/
3
Deceit 5: Deborah's doctors lied to her about the painful surgery she underwent to remove a tumor
from her uterus when she was five years old. Deborah carried with her both the pain of the operation Fear 2: Most of the problems that Deborah faces are rooted in her fear of the world. Her fear of
and then lies; she created these lies in the form of pains from the phantom tumor that she was deception, rejection, and loneliness are all parts of the mental illness that she fights. At this point of the
convinced she still carried inside her. story, Deborah is afraid of what will happen if she reveals the secrets of Yr to anyone. Yr is where she
hides from what hurts or scares her, and if she opens that world to anyone else, it may destroy it. What Fear 9: Deborah's fear of the outside world lessens slightly when she realizes that she is going to live.
will happen to her if her refuge is annihilated? She isn't hiding from it anymore. Now she's embracing life and working at her own recovery.
, 3/
Fear 3: Deborah hears the voices of the Collect telling her that she'll be crazy forever and that she'll Fear 10: Deborah is afraid of the love and kindness that her parents have shown her by letting her stay
never be able to leave the hospital. The Collect is the sound of her own fear echoing through her brain. in the hospital where she can get help. The reason that these emotions scare her is because she expects
deception and betrayal from the world; it scares her to find that such wonderful things exist in the same
- world that holds lying doctors and hateful children.
Fear 4: Deborah's own fear isn't all that threatens her recovery. Deborah doesn't want to see acob Topic Tracking: Friendship
because she knows that he is afraid of the hospital. She knows that being there is good for her because
they acknowledge her illness, so she doesn't have to pretend to be well when she's not. But if acob .
sees her, he might not let her stay there anymore, and so she refuses to see him when her mother comes
to visit. Friendship 1: Esther talks about how Deborah had a difficult time making friends as a child, so Esther
would try to butter up the popular girls and get them to like Deborah.
4
/
Fear 5: The entire Disturbed ward is terrified by the story of Doris Rivera, the patient who made it
back out into the real world. The idea that they might one day have to face the world outside of the Friendship 2: Deborah was a lonely child, and that loneliness is what drove her to create an alternate
hospital sends many of them into fits and breakdowns because they are so sick that the thought of life reality to escape the cruel solitude of the world in which she lived.Friendship is a very fragile thing
in reality is terrifying. with Deborah because it's been such a rarity in her life.
11 0
Fear 6: Hobbs' fear of the similarity between himself and the women of the Disturbed ward finally Friendship 3: Lee offers friendship to Deborah when Deborah is moved up to the D ward for the first
drives him to commit suicide. Ellis comes to replace Hobbs, and the same fear is visible in his eyes. time. Deborah admires Lee's courage to be kind to someone she doesn't know, butfriendship is so new
His fear stems from the fact that the only thing that separates him from the women of the ward is the to Deborah that she doesn't even know how to thank Lee for it.
key that he carries to unlock the ward door.
5
15
Friendship 4: It was easy for Deborah to recede into Yr because she felt as if she belonged there,
Fear 7: Deborah is afraid that her poisoned essence will infect Carla, and because she cares for Carla, whereas there was no other place she belonged because she had no friends. So even in the midst of a
Deborah has to protect her friend from the poison. Because of this concern, she withdraws from Carla crowd of people her age, Yr was more attractive because she knew that she was welcomed there.
for a while.
4
31
Friendship 5: Deborah feels the first rays of friendship when Carla has the chance to hurt her and
Fear 8: Deborah is afraid that if she gives in completely to her anger, she could hurt someone. So her doesn't. Deborah isn't sure how to feel about this unexpected kindness because she's not used to having
great tantrum is partly the anger that has been building up in her over a lifetime, but it's also partly friends.
caused by her fear that she can't control that great anger. But what she doesn't realize is that she is
controlling it in some way. 12
33 Friendship 6: Carla and Deborah are becoming pals by breaking the rules together. Their common
enemy -- the rules of the D ward -- unites them in their plan to have fun despite the rules.
1. '

Friendship 7: Deborah and Carla have become friends during their time together on D ward, so when

(
Carla is moved down to B ward, Deborah is sad. To avoid the pain of loss, she retreats to Yr and tries

to remove all the feelings of kindness andfriendship she felt for Carla because she believes that her
) '* +,
+
friend is gone forever. *+-
1/ ## . +

Friendship 8: While Deborah and Sylvia are packed in the same room, Sylvia talks with Deborah until
the attendants come to unwrap them. Given that Sylvia doesn't usually talk, Deborah feels privileged to ^
be the person to whom Sylvia. Such a confidence is like a gift offriendship, and Deborah is grateful for
it.

%

10

/

Friendship 9: Deborah made a friend at summer camp, and it was another girl who was just as sick as
she. At the time, the illness scared Deborah because she had not yet been allowed to acknowledge her !

condition. Her fear made her isolate herself from the one friend she had made there.
0

3,

,
Friendship 10: Deborah helps calm Carla without even realizing what she's doing. Such an act of
% 1
#
% 1

thoughtless friendship surprises Deborah, but it also makes her proud of herself.

30 ^
Friendship 11: Deborah shares her dream about Carla's creativity, and it makes Carla happy. Deborah 2

realizes that she has the power to help her friend, and she is learning what it means to be a friend to #

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I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

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