English Notes
November 20, 2015
Girl, Interrupted
“Elementary Topography”:











Explains how Susanna was committed to McLean Hospital
Took 50 aspirin to abort a part of herself
She talks about being “incarcerated”—imprisoned in the hospital
Claims she isn’t mad, and she will get out.
Did the doctor judge her for the length of her skirt? Being a part of the late 60s generation? Out
of fear he would be accused for harassment?
Seems depressed—hates parts of herself, consumed with patterns—she doesn’t see meaning in
other’s faces
We don’t know exactly what she wanted to kill in herself—why she took the aspirin
“So the opportunity to be incarcerated was just too good to resist.”—she knew she wouldn’t get
locked up forever.
Her sufferings proved her existence—asserts her individuality by doing what is not expected of
her
Last line of the chapter: “I knew I wasn’t mad and that they wouldn’t keep me
there, locked up in a loony bin.” She wants to be rebellious and contrary.
Medical document—says Susanna contemplated jumping into the river, fully realizing the nature
of her act
“Applied Topography”:







Seclusion Room—where patients would go and scream
Blackboard—20 names, even names of the dead would stay in silent memoriam
TV room—a place where the patients wouldn’t constantly be checked on, it was on the left
side—“lunatic side of things”
Bathrooms do not lock
Topography—a map of the physical place—mental ward
Page 46 “You could also ‘request’ to be locked into the seclusion room. Not many people made
that request. You had to ‘request’ to get out too. A nurse would look through the chicken wire
and decide if you were ready to come out. Somewhat like looking at a cake through the glass of
the oven door.” –Nurse would decide when they were finished, someone could join if you
weren’t locked in
Freedom—the price of privacy, “free” to do what you want as long as the nurses know about it.
Are you really free? Not if someone is watching you. The location contributes to her mental
instability.
“The Prelude to Ice Cream”:







Famous residents of the hospital—musicians, poets
“Did the hospital specialize in poets and singers, or was it that poets and singers specialized in
madness? Ray Charles was an ex-patient.
Considered 6 lunatics, so behaved as such
A complex system of “privileges” determined how many nurses accompanied each patient
Sometimes list was required to have 2 nurses with her
If you behaved in a group you got special privileges—telephoning the head nurse to let her
know that you were there
“Once these Stations of the Cross were achieved within the hospital the whole circuit began
again in the outside world.”—repetition of steps that they have to repeat as patients to achieve
freedom
“Ice Cream”:







Spring usually gives hope, but the writer calls it “suicide weather”--JUXTOPOSITION
Nurses seemed less nervous that day—spring fever
Magnolia tree—losing blossoms, tree could crown you or poison you
Floor pattern preoccupation—can’t interpret the patterns—organization, order
Going out in public—fearful
Girls joke about ice cream flavors
Attendant asks if they want nuts on their ice cream—“I don’t think we need them,” said
Georgina. (They are considered nuts—SITUATIONAL IRONY).