Depression

Depression is a major theme in this novel because Jam and the other students who were in her Special Topics in English class were suffering from depression. Their teacher, Mrs. Quenell chose for them to read the work of a woman who suffered depression and eventually killed herself. Through the course of the semester of class work and the help of their special journals, the students worked together to pull each other through their dark times.

First in the novel, Jam exhibits the symptoms of depression before she is enrolled at The Wooden Barn and during her first weeks there. She retreats from life. In her case, she stays in bed all the time. She doesn’t see any sense in staying awake. Small things, like the discussion in her English class, wears her out. She claims she hates her life and everything about it. It...