Category: Humanities

Ten Days a Madwoman is a literary non-fiction book by Deborah Noyes. The book is about the life of the female reporter Nellie Bly who risked herself spying in a madhouse. The central idea of this book is that that empathy is needed for everyone, even the insane. The main character in the story, Nellie, discovered how badly the patients were treated at the madhouse. The author of this book wanted us to know that respect should be equal for everyone, including the minority who may sometimes be treated with bias and discrimination.

1. This page was mainly created when I started the book. In this page, I stated 4 possible themes for the book. This first one is about gender equality mentioned in the book, the second one is from the early stage of the book when Nellie was trying to enter the madhouse, Police force is needed. The third one is what Nellie had experience, she faced challenges and overcame those. The last one is, in my opinion, the main theme of the book. Most of the book has many evidences to support this theme, and further expanded it in the “Central Idea” page.
2. This page is the lesson 6 page about the fourth theme. I rewrote the theme into what I though was more accurate, and connected quotes and plot together to form a mind map surrounding the central idea. At the bottom left corner, I wrote a simple explanation about the reason why this is a key idea throughout the entire book.
3. This page is showed the connection between multiple sections of the book. There is always many similar topics such as gender equality and discrimination against the minority. Throughout the book, the “minority” had changed several times, but the author always suggested that empathy is needed for them, same as the page above.
4. This is one of the last pages in my notebook. By this time, I had reread many sections of the book and came out with a flow chart of events and theme changes both physically and psychologically. Conflicts are also shown in the page. There is a conflict between Nellie’s situation, what she was assigned to do, and what her personal goal was. As usual, Nellie did not give up her dream and worked harder and harder on what she wanted to do, corresponding to the third theme in page 1.

In conclusion, I think this book is fantastic and had taught me a lot. I recommend this book to people who wanted to comprehend issues of the pass 100 years and more influential text. For people who want additional information, check the books below:

• “Roosevelt Island”
• “Women of the Asylum: Voices from Behind the Walls”
• “Women Journalists in American Culture and Fiction”