The Dive Into Insanity

Now as stated earlier, the effects of the war may have taken some time and this book shows that greatly. In the novel, it shows a gradual decent into 'madness'. When Caroline  discusses "nervous prostation" it relates to the carnage of war and people losing their humanity around her. This is most prominently shown in chapter seventeen "Nervous Prostration and a Venerable Cousin". The author speaks in this chapter and some others on the increasing cases of madness around her. Many women she knew began thinking absurdly. In one case a woman steals and says that the commandments in the Bible were not written for her as she did not mean to do these things until she is fronted with "Thou shalt not kill" and she then realizes the commandments were "written for her". Many other women in this book are following the same suit which shoes the widespread madness caused in the south post war. In chapter nineteen, the author describes the new self reliance that has driven people mad as they had always relied on the work of others. Many in this time had begun to die or lose their sensibility because of this new 'self reliance' and it shows one of the longer term effects.