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...
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...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.
...centrates more on the patients daily lives rather then what the asylum does to the women, how she hid the women’s real names, and the fact that her work did not really effect the women’s lives to a great extent. But she nonetheless showed us a world unseen to many. She revealed disturbing practices done at the asylum. Her photos essentially became documents of Ward 81 that no longer exists. Mark’s “intimate glimpse of life in confinement turned out to be affecting,” she changed the way some viewed the mentally ill, and the asylum. And they untimely had an effect of the shutting down of Ward 81 in November of 1977 (Jacobs). Many articles and essays about Ward 81 usually reference Mark’s work as documentary (Fulton). Even though Mark strived for Art, she also left a documentary footprint in history. Ward 81 ultimately must be viewed as both artistic and documentary.
The novel Deadly Unna? explores many themes; discuss which theme you feel is most strongly focussed upon. Use examples from the novel to support your argument.
Kesey knew firsthand how mental hospitals work and wanted to express to his audience that no matter what type or how many physical limitations you have they should never keep you from your freedom. While most parents got a different message from Kesey’s book, their children seem to appreciate his message and understand where he is coming from.
The setting of this story is described as an old nursery that is located on the top floor of an old isolated mansion that is several miles off of the main road. The narrator’s treatment is “prescribed” by her husband, John, who orders her to stay in bed and separate herself from the outside world in a bedroom that previously had several different identities. “It was a nursery first, and then a playroom and gymnasium, I should judge, for all the windows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the wall”(730). The feeling the room creates around her slowly begins to alter her mindset. The barred windows create the sense of being trapped within the walls around her which slowly starts to transform the room into the identity of not just any prison, but the narrator’s prison.
The novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ written in 1954 tells the story of a group of school boys surviving on an island. Life on the island becomes chaotic and represents a microcosm of the bigger world. On the island Ralph represents the power of a capitalist fighting for democracy and Jack portrays that of a fascist. Ralph also represents a democratic society which is ruled by power for the sake of law and order and in contrast to this Jack represents an autocratic society governed by power just for the sake of having power. In ‘The Tempest’ written in the 1600’s the play reflects the colonisation of countries occurring at that period of time, Shakespeare writes this clearly as most people want to rule the island for example Caliban ‘ As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island’.
...treatment of mental illnesses and that their ways of treatment and cures were ineffective and often detriments to their patients. She shows Charlotte as a victim to the male idea that women were not competent nor capable. This piece shows the power of diagnosis and its empowerment of the male physician's voice and how it took over and disempowered the female patient's opinion and thoughts on her own treatment and life choices.
Over the past thirty years interest groups in America have gained more influence upon government officials and candidates for government office. Interest groups are "organizations of people with similar policy goals who enter the political process to achieve those aims." Interest groups have had a significant impact upon elections for many years and, since the invention of political action committees in 1974, PACs have increasingly donated more money to candidates in attempt to achieve their political goals. Interest groups can range from groups that support a woman's right to abortion to a group of businessmen that want to ensure no more government regulations are imposed on them. Interest groups can have both positive and negative impacts on the American political system.
...tive pain management and Improvement in patients outcomes and satisfaction [Magazine]. Critical Care Nurse, 35(3), 37,35,42. Retrieved from
Susanna’s actions prove that she is continually working towards recovering. Jim Watson visits Susanna, asking her to run away with him, however, Susanna denies his proposal and stays at the institution: “For ten seconds I imagined this other life...the whole thing...was hazy. The vinyl chairs, the security screens, the buzzing of the nursing-station door: Those things were clear. ‘I’m here now, Jim,’ I said. ‘I think I’ve got to stay here’” (Kaysen 27). Susanna wants to stay at McLean until she is ready to leave; her choice supports what Buddha said, “There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting” (Buddha). Susanna finds reassurance from McClean as she undergoes her journey. Susanna sees the young nurses at the ward who remind her of the life she could be living: “They shared apartments and had boyfriends and talked about clothes. We wanted to protect them so that they could go on living these lives. They were our proxies” (Kaysen 91). Susanna chooses to take these reminders as a positive motivating force along her journey. However, Susanna is also surrounded by patients who have different, more severe psychoses. These girls do not hinder Susanna’s progression, but instead emphasize her
The Confederate flag is a symbol of hate AND heritage. The hate that is shown by the Confederate flag is racism towards black people, the Confederates were on the slavery and losing side of the civil war to abolish slavery. For heritage after the Dylan Roof shooting of nine black people, one man named Ron Springer a descendant of a civil war veteran wrote in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette : “It’s not about slavery, it’s about my ancestors fighting for their freedom.”. So overall the Confederate flag is both hate and heritage depending on the person and their ancestors.
Having the author’s purpose is vital to knowing how informative, opinionated, or factual the arti...
Girl Interrupted Review Cherie Pryor Denver College of Nursing Girl Interrupted is a film about a young woman, Susanna Kaysen, who voluntarily enters a psychiatric facility in Massachusetts. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a portrayal of psychiatric care in the 1960’s. The film is based on the memoirs of Susanna Kaysen and her experiences during an 18 month stay at a mental institution. During her visit, Susanna is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. The film depicts psychiatric care, diagnoses, and treatments from a different era.
Essentially, interest groups use many different tactics to accomplish their central goals but this paper will detail 2 of them. The first being lobbying, which is the act of persuading businesses as well as government leaders to help a specific organization by changing laws or creating events in favor of that group. Interest groups use this technique by hiring someone to represent them and advocate their cause to on the behalf of the entire group. These hired representatives usually have more than enough experience within the political field and are able to persuade connections within the government for help with their concerns. This method gets a lot of criticism because although lobbyist offer their input to government officials on pending laws, they only look at what is favorable for their cause. When trying to make a difference you have to not only reflect on your argument but on the side affects of that argument as
People in this world have many different struggles. Some deal with chronic pain, others with poverty and some even with the consequences of their bad choices. Numerous individuals also struggle with mental illness also known as various disorders that affect mood, personality, cognition and other areas of functioning. Mental illness is unique to the individual and can be experienced in a variety of ways. Three people that have experienced mental illness and all that it entails are Susanna Kaysen the author of the memoir Girl, Interrupted, John Nash-a mathematician whose life was the basis of the film A Beautiful Mind and a woman named Theresa Lozowski who is a medical professional. All three struggle with a mental illness and the way they view their illnesses and the aspects of it are similar in several ways as well as different. These similarities and differences are witnessed in how they view their symptoms, their diagnoses, how they view the cause of their mental illness as well as how they view mental illness in general. There were also similarities and differences in their views on taking medication as well as the treatment of psychotherapy.