What are the main literary devices used in the book and their related quotes

Mental illness as a means to discuss truth and reality

Neal Shusterman uses mental illness as a means to discuss truth and reality in his book Challenger Deep. The focus of the novel consists of Caden’s struggles with mental illness, but enough information is given so that readers are aware of the struggles of others struggling with mental illness as well. Those suffering from mental illness are often unable to distinguish reality from imagined reality, but this does not mean that what they perceive as reality is not to some degree real or true.

Much of Caden’s imagined reality stemming from his mental illness assumes portions of actual reality. There, Caden’s mind warps what reality is to its most basic levels, often through metaphor. For example, the African-American Callie becomes the wooden bowsprit maiden, Calliope, where her genetic coldness and always looking away from the others is manifested in her wooden state and position on the front of the ship. While the entire existence of Callie as Calliope is not real, the characteristics of Calliope are indeed real. The mind has seized upon determining and essential characteristics to make what is real an imagined real in its own way.

Truth can be found in other places even in the midst of mental illness. The reader should consider that Hal’s observation that Caden’s artwork is a map is not mere chatter. Instead, it is truth as Caden uses his artwork to express the things he feels which do not have names, and in effect forms a map of his mental illness. When Skye gives Caden a piece of the sky from her puzzle, her intent is to provide reassurance, but she – knowingly or unknowingly – provides the final key and missing puzzle piece to Caden’s mental illness later in the novel.

When one is mentally ill, one has little of anything, if anything at all. This is clearly the case of Caden, who has only moments of clarity which ultimately bring him to Callie. The love the two come to share is the only things either of them truly carry with them through and out of Seaview. Everything that exists in reality – school, careers, money, cars, vacations, television shows, technology – all takes a backseat to simple human truths, such as that love is more important than anything else. In their mental illness, Caden and Callie find love, and therefore find that simple, inarguable truth.