I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

Content Warning: This guide contains descriptions of self-harm, mentions of suicide, depictions of life in a psychiatric ward, and the use of outdated language to describe mental illness. It also includes a brief mention of rape and several references to antisemitism.

Deborah and her parents drive through the countryside to a mental healthcare facility. Deborah’s father, Jacob, is agitated, and her mother, Esther, tries to appear positive. They stop at a diner after Jacob grows defensive, certain that he is being blamed. Esther and Jacob are in general disbelief. They later stop for dinner and then at a motel, and Deborah seems happy. Her parents lay awake wondering if the facility is the right choice; Esther reiterates the doctors’ opinions that a mental healthcare facility is the best option. She adds, “We have to try!” (3).

Deborah lies down to sleep in another room, transporting herself to “the Fourth Level” (3) of “the Kingdom of Yr” (3), a world that Deborah created in her mind and is now falling deeper into. The Fourth Level is a place where there is no self, no memory, no future, and no past. She sleeps peacefully and dreamlessly. The next day, the family continues driving, and Deborah wonders if she is finally being given a break from the demands of the “gods and offices of Yr” (4).