English Notes
December 16, 2015
Homework: Complete position and examples for test review sheet.
Position = What is the book saying about _______________? (What is the book saying about sexism?)
Example 1, 2, 3
1. Responses to “Girl Interrupted at Her Music”
 Girl in the painting seems annoyed, frightened, looking for help
 Kaysen connects with the girl when she comes out of the hospital—begins to cry since her life
was interrupted by her stay at the hospital
 Freedom of her 18 months of hospitalization was taken from her—interrupted, paused
 Music—could be her thoughts, her loneliness/isolation in the hospital. Her art is her writing.
 Interruptions—just a moment in the painting, but an 18 month interruption for Kaysen
 She will always have to live with the interruption—the memory will still haunt her
2.
Perhaps she connects this to others telling her what to do—her parents, school, society. She
visited the museum with her English teacher (the painting is of a girl and her music teacher).
Her situation is troubling—she’s romantically involved with an older man. She says that the
painting said “don’t”—when she sees it again she cries. The painting after her release from the
hospital makes her break down. She says to the painting “I see you” which indicates she knows
how the girl feels.
3.
Kaysen’s life is interrupted over a two year period when she is hospitalized. The girl in the
painting is only interrupted for a moment.
4. Chapters are like portraits, still-life pictures that provide a glimpse of her hospitalization and life
after
Painting—is a meditation on a moment. Chapters are frozen meditations on memories, ideas.
Portraits—the book provides “portraits” of Lisa, Susanna, Polly, Lisa Cody, the nurses, the
people she meets, the lack of freedom, etc.
Book lacks a narrative structure (beginning, middle, end)—provides portraits, glimpses of her
days in the hospital