Veronika decides to die

Introduction

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Today many people tend to commit suicide easily. We want everyone to know how important their lives are. We are reading a book "Veronika decides to die" written by Paulo Coelho. This book is about a girl's life who tried to kill herself. Please try to think about your life again.

About the author

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Paulo Coelho is the author of this book "Veronika Decides to die". He also wrote the world-most-translated-book "The Alchemist". All of his books are originally written in Portugee.
more about Paulo Coelho

Warm up questions

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Before we read this book, we think ahead what will go on in this book from the title, Veronika decides to die.

Q1. What made Veronika commit suicide? ---prevent suicide (Answer)

Q2. What way did she choose to die?(Answer)

Q3. What her life was like? (Answer)

Q4. What is her nationality? (Answer)
[Do you know Slovenia? If you do not know this country, please look at this. ---Slovenia]

Q5. Can she have good life? (Answer)

Chapter 1 (p.1-32)

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1. Summary
One day Veronika decided to kill herself by taking overdose of sleeping pills one by one. But death did not come soon, and started to read a magazine while she was waiting for death. She thought about this magazine, her country and her reasons to die. Her stomach began to churn and at last she lost her consciousness. She woke up and noticed that she did not die. She was sent to a mental hospital, Villete, where those who accused of madness or pretending to be mad. A tall doctor, Dr. Igor, appeared and told Veronika that she would die within five days. She was afraid to wait for death.

2. Characters
In this chapter, there are Veronika, Dr. Igor and a patient in Villete, Zedka. This chapter begins with Veronika's commiting suicide and she meets other characters after she was sent to the Villete. First she meets Dr.Igor on a bed. In a ward, she meets Zedka.
Q 1: How did they act in this chapter?(Answer)
Q 2: What did they think in all scenes?(Answer)

3. Setting
In this book, all stories about the changes of Veronika's mind happen in a mental hospital, Villete.
Q : How is it like inside the hospital?(Answer)

There are 310 to 273 mental hospital in the US and there were also many mental hospitals in Slovenia during the World War Two. Now in Slovenia, the highest cause of death is commiting suicide. The World Health Report (WHR) also reports that the number of people 0who suffer from mental illness are increasing in America and European, African or Asian countries. From many years ago, there have been a lot of people who cannot control their feelings and behave like others cannot understand. As this book, in Slovenia, there are many people who commit suicide or abuse alchole etc. The percentage of schizophrenia is high, male-27.5 % and female-26.7%, and other people also have some other mental disorders.

Chapter 2 (page 33- 72)

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Summary
In chapter1 Veronika decided to die, but she failed. In the Villete, she met a woman who named Zedka. Then Veronika knew she could not live only about five or a week. In this chapter, who did she meet? , and what did she know? Answer

Charactor
In the Villete, Veronika talked with many people, patients. One of them was Zedka, who was a patient in the same room with Veronika. They talked to each other many times in this book. At first, Zedka seemed a normal peason, but then Veronika thought she was not so normal. In this chapter, Zedka talked about herself. What was happen in her past? Answer

Poet
Also in this chapter, he talked about the famous poet in Slovenia, who he experienced Impossible Love in his life. There are others who are famous in Slovenia. If you are interested in them, please click this.
Famous Slovenes

Chapter 3 (p.73-102)

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1. Summary
Veronika refused to meet her mother because she did not want to say goodbye before death. Later she noticed a sharp pain in her chest and she could not breathe, but death did not come. When she woke up, she was in Dr. Igor’s consulting room lying on a bed. Conversing with her, Dr. Igor thought she had what he called Vitriol which was released whenever a person was in frightening situation. After she left Dr. Igor’s room, going to the lounge, she thought she should have been madder. In the Sufi lecture, she met Mari. Mari told Veronika about what the “real” meant. She decided to take Sufi lecture and found that enjoying the rest of her life was the best plan. She began to hope to live and other members in the Villete also began to rethink their lives.

2. Characters
In this chapter, there are Veronika, Dr. Igor and another patient in the Villete, Mari. This chapter begins Veronika's feeling against her mother. After the pain in her chest, she talked with Dr. Igor about "schizophrenic". After that, she met Mari at the Sufi lecture.

Q 1 : How they act in this chapter? (Answer)
Q 2 : How Veronika changed her thought against her life? (Answer)
Q 3 : Why he injected her nevertheless her death was coming? Why he talked to Veronika about schizophrenic? (Answer)
Q 4 : What did Mari want to say to Veronika? (Answer)

In this chapter, Veronika and Mari joined to the Sufi lecture. As Mari said that she could see what was mad in a mad thing, everybody think the Sufism is mad. Everyone think the Sufism is a suspicious religion. But the Sufism has been a source of Islamic countries. Idries Shah, who was the author of the contemporary Sufi education. For Islamic people the Sufism is not a mad thing.

Chapter4 ( p.103- p.149)

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Summary
Chapter4 starts with Mari’s past story; how she quit her job, divorced from her husband, and entered Villete.
Veronika was playing the piano and Eduard was there, wishing to listen to her piano. That night, she took an action to Eduard. Next morning, Veronika went to see Dr.Igor and asked how much time she has got left. Then asked him to give her something that she can stay awake; also to allow her to leave Villete. Eduard was feeling like opening his heart to her and tell her his secret. He would ask Mari for her advice. Edured and Mari talked about leaving Villete.
When Veronika woke up, Eduard talked to her but nurse found it. They took electric shock that affects short time memory to him. Zedka went into the ward and talked to Veronika who is sitting by Eduard. She told her that she came to say good-bye to her.

Q1: At first, Eduard did not seem like understanding Veronika's piano nor what was going on around him. In this cahpter, after Veronika takes action to Eduard, their relationship obviously develops and Eduard's mind changes. What made this schizophrenia guy Eduard change?
Answer

Characters
Mari is one of the members of Fraternity who can leave Villete anytime she wants. Although the doctor told her that she does not have to stay in Villete when she went to see Dr.Iogr first, she decided to stay there.

Q2: What happened to Mari? Answer

Q2: What made her stay in Villete? Answer

Chapter 5(p.150-p191)

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Summary
When Eduard was in highschool, he wanted to be a painter but his parents did not accept his dream. Then he addicted to incense and marijuana. His parents could not stop his strange behaviour so they sent him to the mental hospital; Villete. This is how Eduard was sent to mental hospital.　Veronika and Eduard left the Villete. Surprisingly, Dr.Igor knew that Veronika would not die from the heart attack and he had been experimented how Vitriol could affect the people who are suicidal by using Veronika.

Character
Eduard; He liked to smell the earth because it is to feel alive. He had a dream to be a painter but his parent were against his dream. He once had a Brazilian girl friend Maria since started to go out with her his behaviour went mad like smoking pot and reading strange books. His parents tried to cure but could not. Then he was sent to Villete. Now he was diagnosed as Schizophrenia.

Questions
1. When Veronika and Eduard are eating supper they made a big noise and they were forced to left the restaurant by the owner. Why did they do this kind of behaviour?
Answer
2. Mari and Dr. Igor talked about being mad. What does the author want to say to us from their conversation?
Answer

Experiment on humanbeings
In this chapter, it became clear that Dr. Igor had been making a human experimentation using Veronika. Let us see what is human experimentation.
Read about human experimentation
Examples of human experimentation

Relationships of characters

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Veronika and Eduard :
At first, Eduard just likes to hear the piano Veronika playing. But finally he reached love. What changed his mind?

Veronika and Dr. Igor :
Veronika was sent to the Villete as a mad person who committed suicide. In their conversations, Dr. Igor talked to her how bad her physical condition was, and sometimes he talked about Vitriol, a poisoning substance. He let her think she could not live more than five days. What was his aim in the experiment with Veronika? (Answer)

Veronika and Mari :
Mari is one of the members of Fraternity who can leave Villete anytime she wants. Although the doctor told her that she does not have to stay in Villete when she went to see Dr.Iogr first, she decided to stay there.
Veronika influences not only Eduard but also Mari. How dose she change after meeting Veronika? Answer

Theme 1

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Veronika committed a suicide because she felt that everything in her life werw same and she thought she would not be able to get anything by continuing to live, and she could not be satisfied with what was going on in the world. As she had reasons to die, people who hope to commit suicide have some reasons.

Q : What makes people commit suicide? (Answer)

The causes people decide to die are various. There are many specific causes in their suicide. The causes of suicide are different by their age, sex or environment. The causes of teenagers' suicide are mostly related to their feelings due to bruse from friends or parents etc. They cannot control their feelings well by themselves. On the other hand, young adults' and old people's causes are more related to their habits like alchole and feelings against their work or marriage. Moreover, in the case of old people, they feel loneliness becuaes of the death of his or her spouse or social isolation.

Theme 2

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2. In the Villete, she met many people. At first, she was so confused, because they did not seem normal people. They were called "mad". Then, what does "mad" mean?

Answer

After reading answer, if you would like to know about people who are called "mad", look at this. Letters from mad people

Theme 3

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In the first chapter of this book,Veronika easily chose to die but she could not die and chose to live. There is one question"Do people have the right to commit suicide?"Answer

Slovenia

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Today there are more than 190 countries in the world. If we want to know the exact number, it would be very difficult sice there are still now many areas those are fighting for independence.

The story of the book "Veronika decides to die" is set in Slovenia which was established its independence from Yugoslavia after ten-day war in 1991. In the first chapter of the book, Veronika remembers about a question that was on a magazine,"Where is Slovenia". She also thinks "A journalist on an important magazine feels no shame at asking such question, because he knows that most of his readers would not know where Slovenia is.".
Is this true? If it is, why Slovenia is so unknown? answer

Slovenia is located in the central Europe; to the north is Austria; to the east is Hungary; to the south is Croatia; and to the west is Italy. Because of its location, it has Mediterranean climate on the coast, continental climate with mild to hot summers , and cold winters in the plateaus and valleys to the east. This enchantes people and 1.2 million foreign tourists visit Slovenia every year. As tourists, visiting places and experiencing those climates would be the most exciting events. If you visit the capital city Ljubljana, you will be able to see the beautiful city and old buildings.

People
:The population of Slovenia, 2,011,473 is living on their land whose size is 20,273 sq km.
:In those, there are several ethnic groups such as; Slovene, Croat, Serb, Hungarian, Bosniak.
:They speak thier official language Slovene, in nationally mixed areas, Italian and Hungarian, also Serbo-Croatian.
:Roman Catholic accounts for about 70% of religions.

Culture
:In chapter3, Edured finds words of a poet. Actually slovene literature and poetry are mostly very traditional and popular. There are many famous poets in their history. Poetry and literature are still part of Slovene importand culture.

History of Slovenia
:In the 6th century, Slavic ancesters settled in the area.
:In the 7th century, it became the Slavic duchy of Carantania, the first Slovenian state.
:In 745, Carantania becomes part of the Frankish empire, and the Slavs accepted Christianity and gradually lost their independence
:In 1282, All the Slovenian regions got to be possession of the Hapsburgs.
:In 1918, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed.
:In 1945, It became one of the Federal Peoples' Republics of Yugoslavia
:In 1991, Slovenia officially declared its independence.
:In 1992, The EU officially recognised Slovenia's independence.
Untill they won their independence as a nation, people in Slovenia were always living under the contorol of other nations.

Mental hospital

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Today, all over the world, there are many mental hospitals that help the patients like the Villete in this book. In this post, we will talk about mental hospitals. So if you are little interested in this topic, please think about what mental hospitals are.

At first, why mental hospitals exist? Why we need mental hospitals in society? Answer

As you know, in the mental hospitals there are many kinds of patients. Also, there are many kinds of mental diseases.
Then, what types of mental diseases are there? Answer

One of mental diseases is ADD. What is ADD? Answer

However, there are the positive accepts of ADD. So, what are the positive accepts? Answer

If you want to get more information about ADD, please click at this. ADD

In mental hospitals, there are many kinds of treatments for patients. What kind of treatment exists? Answer

In fact, up to six percent of people affected by mental disease commit suicide.
After knowing about mental hospitals and diseases, we recommend people who have these diseases listed above to go to mental hospitals.

Suicide

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At first...
Today many people commit suicide and we often hear in the news, for example suicide of famous people or workless people and suicide due to bruse etc. This book is about a girl who wanted to die by taking pills but failed. It is true that everybody has own view against their lives and they can determine what they do for them. Then, how poeple who commit suicide feel themselves? What make them commit suicide? Let's think about it.

1. Facts
To explain the fact of suicide, we will look at the present condition of suicide in the world.
Seen as whole world, people commit suicide every forty seconds.

In the US, there were 30,622 people who committed suicide in 2001. Firearms are the most often utilized method of suicide. Males are four times more likely to die from suicide than females. Women attempt suicide about two to three times as males. Suicide is the third lesding cause of death in the US among young people ages 15 - 24. It is also a major cause of premature death among people who has mental illness. Moreover suicide rates are very high among those 65 years and older.

Japan is, as you know from the former link, tenth higher country of the number of committing suicide. Many years ago, Japanaese samurais had to cut their stomach by themselves if they did something disobeyed to the adminstration. It was their faithfulness toward themselves. It might be concluded as the faithfulness in the past, therefore some foreigners think Japan has a suicide culture. But it is wrong. We, Japanese ourselves do not think we have such culture and cutting ourselves leads to the faithfulness toward ourselves. In today's Japan, the reasons people commit suicide are same to the ones in the US. From the latter of 1990s., the number of unemployed people has been increased and the number of suicide also begun to increase apparently. They start hoping to erase their existences from this world. They are mentally depressed and hoped death.

2. Factors
As factors of committing suicide, we can raise fifteen reasons.
1) trouble in eating or sleeping
2) drastic change in behavior
3) withdrawal from friends
4) loss of interest in school, work, hobbies, social activities etc.
5) giving away prized posessions
6) previously attempted suicide
7) taking unnecessary risks
8) preoccupation with death/dying
9) loss of interest in appearance
10) a recent severe loss
11) history ofb substance abuse
12) increased use of alchole/drugs
13) running away from home
14) presence of diagnosable mental illness
15) making a will for funeral arrangements

As you know from the list above, Depression is a major cause of attempting suicide.

How can we help? :
It is not easy to prevent suicide because we cannot understand others' minds easily. But we have to prevent wasting life easily. Then...

Q 1. What is the best way to help such people?(Answer)
Q 2. Is not there anything we, not professorof mental illness, can do for them?(Answer)

This will lead you the most effective choice of preventation of suicide.----To prevent suicide