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How do our beliefs about life shape how we view death? In the story "The School" by Donald Barthelme, the school in Eddy's life was depressing because everything seemed to have died, literally and figuratively. Eddy had many unpleasant  experiences in the school, like when kids had "two heart attacks and two suicides, one drowning, and four killed together in a car accident." (Barthelme 2), which has an impact on his viewpoint on life. Eddy's school is filled with misfortune and bad luck, from trees and animals rotting and dying, and even other humans experiencing the same fate. Death can be viewed in many different ways. People who experience life in an unsatisfying way, might want death to arrive quicker, because they feel that there is no meaning to life. People who had happy and positive experiences growing up, might not want life to end, because of how enjoyable it is. In our society, some deaths are caused because of conditions like depression, which is the main source of suicides. Stress and depression can also lead to diseases, and health problems. In order for our society to evolve and become a comfortable place for everyone, understanding people who live in a bad community, or are feeling stressed or depressed, and helping them is what's needed.

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people naturally feel empathy or sympathy for one another. the difference between empathy and sympathy is sympathy is feeling bad for someone and empathy is knowing the pain that that person it going though. when a person can relate to ones pain or emotions they can connect and feel a little less alone. obviously people cant have the exact same experiences because every person is different and unique but people can have very similar situations. for example if someone has experience childhood trauma and is struggling with it, another person who has the same issue can relate and that is a bond that is formed. just because they were not in the same house and have not been through the exact same scenarios, they still have empathy for each other. in the excerpt from the text "words on the bathroom wall" by Julia Walton, Adam  feels alone in his struggle with his illness. Adam states "I really didn’t want to be crazy". What Adam needs is to meet or see another person with schizophrenia so he doesn't feel crazy and alone but rather understood by at least that one person. people don't have the same experiences but that doesn't stop humans from empathizing and find the pain they once felt (or is still feeling) and using it to help others.

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A person can understand the experiences of others well, but not to the full extent. In the story "Words on Bathroom Walls" by Julia Walton, Adam is diagnosed with an uncommon illness. While his mother loves him dearly, his stepdad struggles more in accepting this. "Now that he knows about me, about the illness, things are different. He doesn’t know what to do with me anymore. We’ll still sit and watch TV, but I can almost hear him thinking when I’m in the room"(Walton 3). After being diagnosed, his stepdad is finding it harder to empathize and understand with Adam's experiences. In addition, "The weirdest feeling, aside from seeing things that aren’t actually there, is sitting on the couch next to a grown man who is suddenly afraid of me. He didn’t used to be afraid. It’s hard not to take that personally"(Walton 3). His stepdad, while still trying to empathize with Adam, is now scared of him. He tries to support Adam, but not to the full extent because of his illness. In our society, people sometimes have hard times understanding and empathizing with someone, especially if they have some kind of illness. This is because this person has never had the experiences the other has had. They don't share the same memories and experiences. Therefore, they cannot understand each other's experiences to the full extent, causing them to drift farther apart.

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To what extent can one person truly understand the experience of another? In "Words on Bathroom Walls" by Julia Walton, Adam is schizophrenic. He is diagnosed with it after a long time of just hiding it away. He writes, " I’d like to treat therapy the way I treat everything else I’d like to ignore. Like it doesn’t exist." (Walton 1). He would rather hide everything away in his mind. He feels he is crazy, but cannot come to terms with telling other people what is happening because he fears being viewed this way. It is scarier to him to express the crazy things in his mind, so he carries them with him in fear of others seeing him only as schizophrenic. He wants to ignore it, so he hides it. It can be easy to understand this feeling of pushing things away when the feel tough. Often when people have something in their life that they are struggling with, they decide to keep it to themselves because it seems more difficult to tell others. But, often it is much easier for someone to tell others and get the help they need, rather than bottling everything up and holding it inside them. Because, at some point they will have to burst. Ignoring problems only makes them worse, and even when someone hides them away, often people find out the truth.

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To what extent can one person truly understand the experience of another? When Adam is watching TV with his stepdad he notices "sitting on the couch next to a grown man who is suddenly afraid of me. He didn’t used to be afraid. It’s hard not to take that personally." He feels bad because he is making his stepdad scared of him because he has a disease. I think that this shows that it is hard to really be empathetic, and truly understand someone's struggles. The farest that you can go to be empathetic is to still like the person that is masked behind the bad. I'm sure that Adams stepdad still loves Adam but he is just scared not for himself, or of him. He is scared of the disease. What might that disease do to his stepson? To be fully empathetic you have to fully understand how it feels to be in that person's situation but in this case, you can't. Unless you have the disease. I think that this shows a bigger problem in our society. It shows that it is alright in societies view to not like someone and judge them before you meet them, just because they have a disease or look a certain way.

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In the story "Excerpt from Words on Bathroom Walls" by Julia Walton as a lot of empathy. To what extent can one person truly understand the experiences of others? The relationship between the main character, Adam and his step father seems very sweet towards the end of the story when Adam knows he has schizophrenia. Adam says, "My stepdad, Paul, is a nice guy. He’s good for my mom." then he proceeds to say, "Now that he knows about me, about the illness, things are different. He doesn’t know what to do with me anymore. We’ll still sit and watch TV, but I can almost hear him thinking when I’m in the room. The weirdest feeling, aside from seeing things that aren’t actually there, is sitting on the couch next to a grown man who is suddenly afraid of me. He didn’t used to be afraid. It’s hard not to take that personally." Even though it was hard for the stepfather to understand, and feel conformable with Adam he started to become a father. For example, one thing he did was, "Paul also made sure that my new school knows not to talk about my illness. As a lawyer, he explained that legally they aren’t allowed to tell anyone what I have, which I appreciate." To what extent can one person truly understand the experiences of others? Adams step father will probably never understand Adams illness but he was still getting used to it.

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How do we truly understand someone experience? Well in my thinking people understand people by similar experiences or people that are close to others who had a similar experience. Or when people feel like they can make an important change. This causes them to understand but not fully see the whole image towards that experience. In the story this does not show as well as I am saying how people understand to extant. "When she started crying, I wished the bats had been real." The mom is showing empathy towards Adam.  The mom would not be crying if she did not realize how terrible it is for Adam sickness he has  which is showing empathy towards him.

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To what extent can one person truly understand the experience of another? In the excerpt Words on Bathroom Walls, the main character Adam struggles with schizophrenia. Depending on the situation, a person may not be able to truly understand the experience of another. In the story, Adam writes, ¨My first doctor said it was unusual for the symptoms to manifest in someone so young. Schizophrenic males are more commonly diagnosed in their early to late twenties. I remember thinking, Well, shit, that’s awesome. I’m unusual. INITIAL DOSAGE: 0.5 mg. Adam Petrazelli, 16 years old, is a subject of the clinical trial for ToZaPrex.¨ Adam does not feel like people can connect to him. He feels like he is the only one he feels like nobody knows what he is going through. This is similar to society. In society, people have no idea what some people are going through. People think they know what some people are going through but they don´t. People are always getting stereotyped because of things like paranormal symptoms/sicknesses. People are always getting treated like they are not even human because of sicknesses. Its like discrimination for the black people sick people are getting discriminated. Some people can try to understand by imagining what is happening to people. Not say I know what you´re going through just something like I am so sorry and things that are empathetic empathetic words.

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To what extent can one person truly understand the experience of another? In the story "Words on the Bathroom Walls" by Julia Walton. Walton shows that what people are going through on the inside can be different from what you see on the outside. "It’s significantly more difficult to make friends when people know you see things you shouldn’t be able to see." (Walton 3) This is at the point of the story where Adam is thinking about a new year of school, wondering what is going to happen with his illness he has had to deal with for his entire life. I think to the extent of other's experiences, anyone is able to empathize with anyone. You just have to understand that people's experience are different than you. The difficult part of that for most people is living in someone else's world, having to feel what they are feeling, and think what they are thinking. That can be a very tough thing to understand because there are differences between someone feeling bad for someone, and someone feeling the feelings someone. Anyone is able to empathize they just have to understand that people are different than you, and have different feelings. Another difficult part of empathizing is people not caring for other people's feelings or experiences. As long as people can get over that, and understand what people are going through on the inside everyone is able to be empathetic, and understand what people are truly going through.

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I picked choice 2 and I the answer to it is yes that other people form different backgrounds can understand another's experience.  And the line that I am going to be doing is,Now that he knows about me, about the illness, things are different. Paul understands the illness that Adam has and he thinks that Paul is going to feel weird about him because of it. But hes not and he understands his illness that he has and all of the stuff that he is going through. He wants to help him to get better and Adam feels like all of these people are gonna make fun of me for having it and going to therapy when he starts school again. But Paul made sure that they didn't and that the school knows not to talk about the illness that Adam has. So Paul does understand even though he doesn't have illnesses. But some people may not understand because that's who they are and they will judge you because you are sick or messed up. They won't understand because that's who they are.

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EQ: Choice 2: How can people from different backgrounds understand another’s experience?

People from different backgrounds can understand another's experience through empathy experiences from similar feelings felt. In "Words on Bathroom Walls" by Julia Walton, 16 year  old boy Adam Petrazelli has Schizophrenia, an illness which creates unusual behavior, feelings, and experiences for those who have it. Adam's main issue with his illness is seeing things that aren't there. When he does, he tends to squint and move his head around to see better, which draws lots of attention from onlookers. His mother used to think it was because he needed glasses. But he got them, which he calls spectacles, and he was still seeing things and drawing attention when he squints and moves around to see them better. In public, one time, " I realized I was seeing things other people couldn’t see. I was the only one jerking my head or squinting my eyes to get a better look. Everyone else was looking at me, not the birds that flew through the open window or the strange people who just sort of appeared in the living room. So I stopped wearing my spectacles and told my mom I’d lost them" (Walton 2). Through this action, Adam shows the measures he would take so that others would stop looking at him strangely, stereotyping that he is just another crazed victim of Schizophrenia, when in reality he cannot control these episodes. Though those experiencing Schizophrenia are in the minority, one who doesn't have the illness can empathize with Adam. In the world, many people are insecure with the way others view them. Some would take extreme measures to avoid negative opinions. People are greatly influenced by others' judgement- they do not want to be the odd one out or the one targeted by negative thinking. It can be because of looks, personality, even the other people they hang out with. There are many reasons why one can be victimized and affected by the thoughts and opinions of others. So though one may not share the same backgrounds with another, they can sympathize with each other's experiences through similar feelings felt.

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To what extent can one person truly understand the experience of another?  In the excerpt from Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton, Adam is struggling with schizophrenia. And his parents and his step dad are trying to understand what is wrong with him.But Adam is a quiet kid he doesn't like to talk,so they brought him to a therapist these therapist and Adam don't get long they don't like each other so he writes in his notebook. "I’ll answer your questions, but I won’t do it during our sessions. I’ll do it here, on paper" these show that this is his limit to where we could understand Adam on paper were he could write and tell his experiences even thought people don't like to open up they might what to open up a little if they could ajust what there saying before they say it so there countable with what to comes out of there mouth and what is to much and what is to little so writhing or some other way were you could tell some what your feeling to the point were it has boundaries.

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To what extent can one person truly understand the experience of another? In the excerpt from "Words on Bathroom walls" by Julia Walton, ordinary individuals cannot understand Adam's life because he has schizophrenia. Most people cannot comprehend his thought process, this leads to him feeling alone. "I don’t always say the things I mean to say when I talk to someone. It’s impossible to swallow words after letting them out, so it’s better for me not to speak at all if I can help it. You’ll just have to deal with that (Walton 2). Walton uses the words and phrases "impossible" and "better for me not to speak" to set a tone of difficulty and confusion. The word impossible implies that a situation is insurmountable and not possible to accomplish. In the case of this story, it means that Adam cannot takes back things he wants to. "better for me not speak" means that an individuals should not do something because they are reckless and it will cause more bad then good. As a result of his condition, Adam sees thing that are not really there. This leads individuals not to want to be around him as they are scared of him. Individuals may never be able to fully understand someone else's problems. They will never be able to feel what someone is going through, the best they can do is imagine what that might feel like. However, the more someone hears about other peoples situations, the better they can imagine what that pain will feel like.

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To what extent can one person truly understand the experience of another? In the story "Words On Bathroom Walls" by Julia Walton, Adam suffers from a mental disorder which messes with his mind to create illusions. Adam is looked at and made fun of, and he is as fun to be around anymore so he has a difficult time making friends. "But I get that you have questions about my illness. Once people find out, it’s all they can talk about"(Walton). He is the center of attention at times, but it's not fun or enjoyable in Adam's situation. Through experiences we can learn how to react to others devastating or happy feelings. We can feel for people with empathy and as a society we could also grow stronger by asking. People can only truly understand others emotions through experiencing what they went through. It is difficult to truly comfort or feel what others are feeling

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To what extent can one person truly understand the experience of another? In the short story "Words on Bathroom Walls" by Julia Walton, Adam has multiple people in his life trying to understand his illness but they can't quite relate with him. Adams step dad tries to understand Adam but ends up being scared of him "The weirdest feeling, aside from seeing things that aren’t actually there, is sitting on the couch next to a grown man who is suddenly afraid of me. He didn’t used to be afraid." (Walton 3). His own mother doesn't really understand him well either "When she started crying, I wished the bats had been real. That the creepy little bastards had eaten me in the chemistry lab and I’d never had to see the way my mom looked at me in that moment: like I was crazy."(Walton 2), we can see that his own mother doesn't fully understand him and views him as crazy. Adam tries to live normally but his Schizophrenia is preventing him and causes people to have a hard time understanding Adam. People will not always be able to understand certain people. If someone has never experienced a certain they will have a hard time understanding someone who has experienced that event. In real life some people can try to understand someone but won't always end up being successful. People will end up becoming afraid of something they can't relate to or understand.

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To what extent can someone be able to understands others experiences?  In the short excerpt from the story "Words on Bathroom Walls" by Julia Walton, Walton is able to illustrate how being able to understand someone's life story and experiences is challenging. In the story Adam is a kid with schizophrenia who doesn't quite fit in and has a hard time being accepted and is commonly misunderstood. In the story Adam says "Once people find out that all they talk about" (Walton 2) in regards to telling people about his illness. This quote symbolizes how some people do not completely understand how traumatizing or upsetting it is for people to have medical disabilities and do not know how it feels. When Adam tells people this they seem to automatically treat him a different way and kind of stereotype him into a different type of person and treat him differently. In life being understanding to others experiences is challenging to do but it is the right thing to do and the easiest way for someone to understand is to step into that persons shoes or situation. Being able to interpret and understand others stances and point of views is key to having an equal and empathetic society. Adam feels very different because of his disability and battles with telling people about it. Many people who know about it have different ways of thinking about it and are not always kind and accepting to it. In our society and world today too many people judge others for things that they cannot control which creates strife and different social levels. Adam among with many other people have to deal with people not being able understand their situations and have empathy and being open to having a world with all different people and being able to accept them and look at it as a unique and special world. In society when people have a hard time understanding and being accepting it can hurt feelings and create a sense of self consciousness. Being able to understand someone's experiences to an extent where you can be completely normal with a person no matter their health or life story is a level of understanding that creates tranquility and peace among everyone. Instead of people being afraid of being different is should be a source of pride that people can be proud of not be judged because of it which is from people being understanding.

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How can people from different backgrounds understand another's experience? In the excerpt from "Words on the Bathroom Walls", the main character, Adam, is diagnosed as a Schizophrenic teen. Adam can see things that others can not, and that makes him unusual. Summarizing the story, Adam had bad-eyesight and was prescribed with glasses that caused him to see things that didn't exist to others. No one understood what was really happening, but it made it something that the whole school could talk about. "He was the one who suggested the new private school instead of tossing me back into a school where all the kids knew there was something wrong with me" (Walton 3). If only people could accept that everyone leads an uncontrolled life, it may be easier for them to understand one's experience. Luckily, the world has forgiving parts, with millions of people who are diagnosed with some sort of deadly or wretched condition. All of these people are familiar with the word solitude, and can easily accept how their world is diverse. If they were to bully someone for having a skin condition, and they themselves are paralyzed, they are showing a form of hypocrisy. Instead, they will be understanding and soothing, letting them know they are not alone.

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A person can never completely understand what one is going through, but they can have an emotional understanding. In the story "Words on Bathroom Walls" by Julia Walton, Adam becomes annoyed and impatient and depressed about his current situation. In the story Adam writes "I really didn’t want to be crazy. Nobody wants to be crazy, but now that I know what’s happening to me, now that I understand what’s going on in my head, I don’t want to think about what it means to know you’re crazy." I do not have any mental health disorders. However there are ways I can relate and emphasize with Adam. Adam is annoyed and mad and sad about his situation. Many people have felt like this. A lot of people have mental disorders just like him. I have not gone through the same experience as Adam, so I cannot emphasize with him in that sense. I can relate with him in a different way because I have felt what he is feeling. Not for the same reason, but still I can relate with him because I no longer feel the way he does, so I could help him navigate a way through. In society people go through many unique situations and a lot of people feel they are alone, but this is not the case. It may not seem like it but there is almost definitely somebody, somewhere going through the same thing. Even if there is not somebody experiencing what you are, somebody has felt what you are feeling. They might not have experienced the same thing as somebody else, but they have definitely experienced the same feelings. There is always somebody to relate to, you just need to find somebody who is having or has similar emotions to you. You may be surprised at just how may there are.

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When it comes down to it, how can someone truly understand another person's experience.  In the story "Words On The Bathroom Wall" by Julia Walton, Adam doesn't feel like he has a good life because he is a Schizophrenic. He doesn't want to share his problems with other people because he is afraid that is all the people will talk about when they think of him. "Once people find out, it’s all they can talk about. You probably know that it’s the reason my mom and step dad picked you. Because you have experience." (Walton 1)Another reason Adam also feels incredibly uncomfortable with sharing his secret is how people will respond to him. He doesn't think that people will understand him and that they will always think about as the crazy kid. Sometimes people feel uncomfortable with talking about their experiences because they feel that they might react to it in the wrong way. Adam doesn't want to be known as the crazy kid in school. Overall, it depends on the experience. They sometimes it can be easy to understand and feel empathy for and sometimes someone can see it from the wrong point of view.

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How can people from different backgrounds understand anthers experience?

People can understand others that are from different backgrounds by taking time to listen to what they have to say. Adam was diagnosed with schizophrenia at a young age so there is not really anyone who can relate to him. when Adam says " It’s significantly more difficult to make friends when people know you see things you shouldn’t be able to see." It shows he assumes other kids will not take time to get to know him and will judge him based off his disability. When Adam says significantly more difficult it shows how he thinks how much harder it will be for people to understand him and what he lives with. This shows how sometimes when people go threw things that not many other people experience it hard for them and they feel alone. I think that they would not have to feel alone if others could show empathy and try to understand others and what they are going threw. Sometimes if people give others a chance they would find that they are not that different are actually a good friend. If others showed empathy people would not feel left out and everyone could feel expected in their environment even if they can not physically relate. This relves how experience, empathy, and understanding is important to everyone.

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To what extent can one person truly understand the experience of another? In the excerpt from “Words on Bathroom Walls” by Julia Walton,  Adam Petrazelli a 16 year old boy sees things that are imaginary but seem real to him.Adam sees these things and gets very scared and screams and yells because he is scared of the things he is seeing. This leads to people like his mom, his classmates, his teacher, and his stepdad thinking he is crazy. This is painful for Adam because he knows that he is not crazy but can be crazy when he sees things. This makes Adam feel very self conscious and feel like people can be scared of him because he has Schizophrenic.
No one can truly understand the experience of another. This is shown in the excerpt because the excerpt conveys that no one truly understands Adam. For instance, in the excerpt Paul Adam's stepdad is nice to him but after he thinks Adam is crazy it changes how he acts around Adam. In the excerpt it states ”We’ll still sit and watch TV, but I can almost hear him thinking when I’m in the room. The weirdest feeling, aside from seeing things that aren’t actually there, is sitting on the couch next to a grown man who is suddenly afraid of me”. This shows that people can not truly understand the experience of another. Another example of this in the excerpt was “When she started crying, I wished the bats had been real. That the creepy little bastards had eaten me in the chemistry lab and I’d never had to see the way my mom looked at me in that moment: like I was crazy.” This also shows that no one can truly understand the experience of another. This is because although he told her what happened and how he felt when it happened she still thinks he is crazy. This reveals that people with Schizophrenia can not be truly understood just like people in different situations because no one can truly understand the experience of another.

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To what extent can one person truly understand the experience of another?

In “Words on Bathroom Walls” by Julia Walton, Adam is a Schizophrenic kid.  People around Adam understand that he has a condition but they struggle to understand it. Because of this, Adam doesn’t talk about his condition a lot. In the text, Adam says that “once people find out, it’s all they can talk about” (Walton 2). This shows how people do not always understand how others with disabilities and illnesses feel. When people find out about Adam’s condition, they immediately  start to think of him differently and stereotype him. In our society, it is important to be understanding and accepting others, even when it seems hard. A person can never fully understand what another person is going through. Because of this, many have to try to truly understand the experience of another person. In our world today, people judge others without trying to really relate to them and put themselves in their shoes. This why empathy is a good skill to have because it allows people to understand instead of judging others who might be a little different from them.