Kevin Love Essay no name PDF

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Assignment 4B – Non-fiction Kevin Love” Everyone is going Through Something”

Being born a boy comes with a lot of preconceptions because there is this idea of how a boy should act. Imagine being raised and being told that it is a taboo to express your feelings or to speak about what you are going through deep inside, because of your gender. This is what our writer Kevin Love experienced back in the days when growing up. Kevin Love is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kevin Love makes use of pathos to engage with the readers. This can be seen in the article when he tries to reach out to sportsmen or men in general, who are battling with society’s expectation of masculinity, making them know that they are not alone feeling the way they do. For example, “(…) If you’re suffering silently like I was, then you know how it can feel like nobody really gets it. (…), I want to do it because people don’t talk about mental health enough. And men and boys are probably the farthest behind.” (p.1, ll. 10-13). Love wants to shed light on this topic, especially for the benefit of men’s mental health. He also makes use of ethos, when he describes how he was struggling with his mental health as a professional basketball player. This makes him trustworthy as a person “.(..) I was 20 or 21 years old, and I’d grown up around basketball (…) I’m healthy(..). What do I have to worry about? I’d never heard of any pro athlete talking about mental health, and I didn’t want to be the only one.”(p.2, ll. 60-65) Love criticizes the expectation society has for men that to be a man means to be strong. Love makes sure to show that it does not matter how strong or active you are, mental health issues can affect anyone no matter your profession or gender. A lot of young men are dealing with some sort of mental illness, some are even at the point where they take their own life because they are unable to access or express their emotions. They feel like if they express their emotions, they will be seen as weak, and to be seen as a weak man in today’s society is not in the “playbook”. Due to this a lot of men have not been able to allow themselves to feel pain as it comes in this life, but instead, they try to bury the pain. Love manages to demonstrate this in the article by mentioning that men grow up learning that they have to act strong no matter the circumstances as it can be seen in this quote; “It’s like a playbook: Be strong. Don’t talk about your feelings. Get through it on your own” (p.1, ll. 15-16). As the quote indicates, sensitivity and

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vulnerability are not considered masculine and therefore need to be absent. Instead, men desire to have control and power. This can also be seen in Love’s life, as Love tried all he could to ignore his mental health issues because he felt that it was something that could ruin his career as it can be seen in this quote; “ To me, it was a form of weakness that could derail my success in sports or make me seem weird or different” (p.1, ll. 21-22). This was how Love felt before until his mental issues started to get more serious; “It was a wake-up call, that moment. I’d thought the hardest part was over after I had the panic attack. It was the opposite. Now I was left wondering why it happened – and why I didn’t want to talk about it”(p.2, ll.52-53), as it can be seen in the quote Love started to question the values of his upbringing and society. Love’s style of writing is a bit personal and formal. In the article, there are a lot of short sentences that describe what happened to him and how he felt. An example of this style of writing can be seen; “It came out of nowhere. I’d never had one before. I didn’t even know if they were real. But it was real – as real as a broken hand or a sprained ankle” (p.1, ll.2-3). And again, in another passage; “The air felt thick and heavy.” (p.2, l.34), the passage is very describing, making it real for the reader, how it feels like to have a panic attack. He also makes use of adjectives in his writing to describe his situation and how things went down the day he got a panic attack as it can be seen here; “My mouth was like chalk. I remember our assistant coach yelling something about a defensive set. I nodded, but I didn’t hear much of what he said. By that point, I was freaking out” (p.2, ll. 35-36). Love describes every step he took in detail with the help of adjectives and verbs, and this helps the reader to create an image of Love’s situation at that specific time. Kevin Love does an incredible job speaking to those who are afraid to come out of their hiding and talk about what they are really going through inside. “I’ve seen the power of saying things out loud in a setting like that” (p.3,ll.89-90) when we speak openly about our weaknesses or struggles, it does a lot for us and also to the people around us. In other words, you can say that the more open a person is, the more the stigma toward mental health reduces. Mental illness is as real as any other physical illness. It is easier to deal with physical illness than mental illness because with mental illness you can look perfectly fine outside, but in the inside, you may be going through hell. This can also be seen in the video “Kevin Love details his battles with mental illness” from August 20. 2018.e see how the shadow illustrates how the person is really feeling, even though everything seems to be fine outside. A lot of men are struggling with mental health, some are “strong” enough to ask for the help they need and others still hold on to this Side 2 af 3

“playbook” that you can do everything or overcome your problems with time by yourself. To ask for help should not be seen as a weak move, but rather as a strength. As said earlier you can look strong on the outside and be tormented on the inside. To conclude Kevin Love wants to make it clear for society that “Everyone is going through something.” that we cannot see, and your gender should not decide how you should behave or react towards mental health issues.

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