Girl, Interrupted

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Girl, Interrupted

Part I: Critical Analysis
Author: Susanna Kaysen. Girl, Interrupted: New York Division of Random
House. Inc 1993.

1. What is the author’s topic?
The author’s topic is about a teenager name Susanna Kaysen. At 18 she voluntarily turned herself into McLean Hospital.

2. Identify the author’s main idea(s). In other words, what is the main point the author is attempting to make about the book?
The author’s has 2 main points; one point is about her two-year stay McLean hospital. The second main point talks about how she handles and gets treated for being depressive and suicidal.

3. Identify the author’s overall pattern(s) of organization. Give examples and/or details to explain your answer.
The pattern the author uses is time order; she starts off the book with her case record, which was submitted in 1967. The last example given is her recovery record; she left and had a recovery of her depression and being suicidal in 1969.

4. What biases, if any, can you detect from the author’s writing? Give examples and details to support your answer.
The author isn’t biased about anything, she wasn’t for anything and she wasn’t against anything. Susanna Kaysen was simply trying to find her place in the world through the world of medicine.

5. Is this book mostly concerned with factual information, or does the author use conjecture and opinion to make his/her point? What detail and examples support your answer?
Girl, Interrupted is all factual information. Susanna Kaysen the author has put her reports from the doctors that were helping her in the book. On August 9,1967 the author Susanna Kaysen

6. Identify the author’s purpose(s) for writing this book. In your opinion, does the author accomplish his/ her purpose? Support your answer with concrete evidence.
The author’s purpose to the story is to make people notice how people are being treated in a mental institution. Susanna Kaysen writes about the girls in the ward as if nothing is wrong with them. She writes about being in a pschychiatri...

... middle of paper ...

...ok. The girls in the book make up swear words about the weirdest things or how they act if they don’t get something they want. In a way I can relate to that because my mom is just a little bit like some of the girls in the story. If she doesn’t get what she wants she gets mad at the world and it is unnecessary, and that’s for everything. I think that’s just too spoiled. The girl I can most relate to in the story is Polly, because I can see myself listening to everyone and not complaining about anything really in life. But she was also a burn victim that didn’t complain about her face. I’m almost like her, I never once think I’m cute or beautiful, and I don’t complain about anything about my body. I know I have to live with what I have, so what’s the point in complaining about it.
One more way I can relate to the story is my cousin is like my cousin she tried to the whole I swallowed this many pill thing. I never got why she did it. She never told me why, on the other hand she had some problems in the past with some things. So maybe that might have been the problem. But she never passed out like Susanna did in the beginning of the book. I’m just glad my cousin didn’t die.

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