In my book "The Silver Linings Playbook" by Matthew Quick, the main character Pat Peoples has a mental illness called Bipolar Disorder. He has had this illness for over four years. His illness has caused him to act very impulsively which led him being led into a mental institution for the last four years.
Before he was in the mental institution, he lived with his wife, Nikki. He loved her much more than she loved him. Because of this cheated on Pat and his mental illness caused him to nearly kill his wife's lover. This shows that with bipolar disorder Pat is not stable and is dangerous to be around before he was in the mental institution.
Pat also doesn't realize what horrible things he's done because he doesn't remember them until the climax. I think part of it is because he doesn't remember, but also I think he chooses to block his bad experiences out. I think he tries to block 'bad' things out and thinks about silver linings to his problems because in the text he says" 'Just as soon as apart time ends' I say,and his face falls as if I said I was going to kill his wife, Natalie, and their three blond-haired daughters-Kristen, Jenny, and Becky-because that's how much he does not believe in silver linings, making it his business to preach apathy and negativity and pessimism unceasingly." This shows that he thinks others are negative and apathetic when they are just trying to be realistic.
I think not only does Pat not focus on unfortunate things, but he also can get violent or extremely emotional about them. I think this because in the text, after he finishes Hemingway's 'A Farewell to Arms' he says " I am crying so hard at the end, partly for the characters, yes, but also because Nikki actually teaches this book to children."This shows that Pat blocks out negativity which, sometimes doesn't seem healthy because he needs to learn to accept some of it and become realistic.
In conclusion, Pat Peoples in the book 'The Silver Linings Playbook' is affected a lot by his mental illness and what they taught him in the mental institution, which is not all good. Throughout this book he learns to be more open to things not going as planned and learns to cope with it.
l liked how you put your opinions and thoughts of how and why Pat doesn't realize the bad things he has done. Also the description of what he wants to do and how his actions are effecting other characters in the book, are really stated clearly. The way you organized the response, made it easy to read and understand of how the character is and how he reacted in parts of the book. Overall the character Pat's issues in this book, that you described very well, really makes interest for new readers ( Like me!) to read this book.
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