Ameerah Al-Suleimany’s “Fractured Wings” portrays depression as a person. In her piece, she describes the first day that her depression returns. In her piece, she writes about how her depression forces her to call in sick to work, even though she wasn’t, believe that her friends will never understand her, and that she “is too fat”. She writes about how her depression makes her feel broken, and how she cannot escape, hence the title, “Fractured Wings”. If your wings are broken, how can you be free?
I feel that this piece was written perfectly. It does not make depression look as if television shows would make it. Her piece doesn’t show the skinny girl who refuses to eat; it goes deeper than the usual shallow appearances. However, although she tries to fight her depression, it pushes her down deeper, until she cannot escape the hole. In the story, she writes, “‘I don’t hate myself’, I whisper. She looks taken aback. And then her eyes harden. ‘Yes, you do Nobody likes you. You know Adam likes Thea; he’ll never look at you the way he looks at her.’” In this day and age, our society is driven to believe that depression is something that you decide whether to stay in that hole or not. That you are the one keeping yourself in a depressed state, when you can get yourself out at any time. Ameerah shows that this is not the case. There are many people who suffer through depression, and try to get out of it, but just cannot, because of the way they view themselves, or of how others view them.