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guide contains descriptions of self-harm, mentions of suicide, depictions of life in a psychiatric ward, and the use of outdated language to describe mental illness, as well as several references to antisemitism.

Deborah Blau is the protagonist of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and a semi-fictionalized version of Joanne Greenberg herself. Deborah is 16 when she is admitted to a mental healthcare facility after attempting suicide. Deborah was seen as a golden child when she was born the first blonde in her Jewish family, and her grandfather in particular propped her up as an important symbol of his success as an immigrant. Contrasting with this special treatment was the total exclusion and abuse that Deborah experienced for being Jewish at the hands of her peers and camp counselors. When Deborah underwent surgeries for her tumor, she recalls being lied to about the pain and continues to harbor a phantom pain of the tumor in the present. All of these traumatic experiences, along with Deborah’s parents’ own denial of her condition for so long, result in Deborah developing a defensive imaginary world in her mind that she calls Yr.