Content Warning: This section contains discussion of mental illness and its accurate and inaccurate portrayals in media.

The way schizophrenia is largely discussed, stigmatized, and portrayed in the media is, at best, ignorant of the realities of the condition, and at worst, actively perpetuating harmful stereotypes that make it more difficult for those dealing with schizophrenia and similar illnesses to get the proper information and treatment. Cindy Baldwin’s Where the Watermelons Grow seeks to subvert the harmful tropes surrounding schizophrenia while still portraying the realities of being around someone who is disconnecting from reality.

Schizophrenia is classified as a psychotic disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM. The DSM characterizes schizophrenia through the presence of delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and catatonic behavior. When diagnosing schizophrenia, a psychiatrist will examine how long a patient’s symptoms have persisted and in what ways a patient’s symptoms have impacted their lives, socially, emotionally, and professionally. Schizophrenia most often first appears in men in their early twenties, and women in their late twenties. Schizophrenia can be co-morbid with a multitude of other disorders such as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder, and, like in Della’s mother’s case, can be triggered by intense hormonal or emotional events, like pregnancy and grief.