Mental Illness In Amy Bloom's Silver Water

“She had her first psychotic break when she was fifteen. She had been coming home moody and tearful, then quietly beaming, then she stopped coming home.” (Page 1). In the story Silver Water, Amy Bloom’s main character Rose who is mentally ill and had her first psychotic breakdown when she was 15. Her sister Violet wants everyone to know that she was normal before the illness happened. Rose was taken to many different therapist one including Doctor Walker who talked to her in third person even when she was next to him. He treated her like she was only known from her sickness. Then, Doctor Thorne changes Rose. He helps her through her illness and allows her to have a chance to be normal. Doctor Thorne later dies and Rose starts to return to her old ways. Many people look at ill patients only as the illness. They do not give them a chance to be a normal person, while other therapists allow them to have a life outside their illness. In Silver Water, Amy Bloom uses, Doctor Thorne as a symbol of healing to Rose’s battle to be normal.
Thorne. The day she met him Rose's family immediately prepared for him to run off but he didn't. With Roses violent language he managed to joke back with her. In the story, Dr. Thorne says, “And it's the good Doctor Nut… cause they are the hardest damn nut to crack, over here in the overalls and not much else is No One's Nut.”(Bloom pg.2) This Quote shows that Dr. Thorne is able to have a relationship with rose other than just with her illness. Even though he knows she has a mental illness he is able to make Rose to feel like she means more than her