# 47 004

To Live Differently

I’d like to reminisce about things that are very dear to my heart – books; especially one of them, which I got as a gift from my parents a few years ago and I often return to it. “Veronika Decides To Die” by Paulo Coelho – this is a novel, which I decided to write about.

When Paulo Coelho was a young man, his parents had him committed to mental institutions three times because he wanted to be a writer. To be an artist was an unacceptable profession in Brazil at that time. During his numerous forced confinings he vowed to write some day about his experiences. Coelho makes good on his promise, with the creation of a fictional character named Veronika. A 24 - year old girl whose life is frustrated and much of the sameness, decides to commit suicide. She is not angry, tired, depressed, or anything that one would typically associate with the motivation for such a desperate act. She decides to pass away when faced with all that is wrong with the world and how powerless she feels to change anything.

Although the suicide attempt fails, she is taken to a mental hospital where she is told that her heart has been sufficiently damaged. She will die in a couple of days. Her life from this perspective takes a fresh meaning. She begins to wrestle with the meaning of the definition of mental illness and whether forced drugging should be inflicted on patients who do not fit into the narrow definition of ”normal”. Those experiences lead Veronika gradually to realize that every second of her existence is a choice between living and dying.

What is the point of my story? Well… I was born in Poland located in central of Europe. The nonconformists and the people think differently from most other people in society haven’t been tolerated since the ancient civilizations began there. Coelho’s book shows how to find an alternative way of living for people who think in a different way and teaches us the tolerance, which is very important for me. That’s why I wrote about this book.