Mark Pereira
Cover Letter
ECE 1011
February 22, 2013
The major issue I wanted to point out on my essay was that interactions made between
each other can influence the life of another. While I was writing this essay I knew that it would
be different from other essays that I typed in the past. While writing the essay I knew that I had a
difficult time trying to make my introduction and ending with a good conclusion. During the
process of the essay I noted also how it was difficult for me to transition from one paragraph to
the other. During my revision I wanted to focus on working on my introduction and my
conclusion to make them flow better and clear as to what my point of view is. Also I wanted to
work on explaining the significance of quotes as well. If I had more time I would work on trying
to make essay flow by working on transitioning topics. Compared to other essays that I have
done in the past I felt that I had to put more thought into writing this essay.
Mark Pereira
Melanie Zamorski
ECE 1011
February 22, 2013
Man Vs Man: The Influence of Man
It is in human nature for us to interact with one another and with these interactions lives
can be influenced by others. Interactions such as sharing ideas, physical contact or even conflicts
made with one another can cause a psychological influence on a person. In the novel Girl,
Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen, Kaysen has several interactions with patients and staff in the
ward which influences Kaysen’s belief that she may or may not suffer from a mental disorder. It
is demonstrated in this novel, as well as Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher and “Othello” by
William Shakespeare, in which the interactions of humanity influences the live and outcome of
another person. For example Kaysen throughout the novel does not appear to suffer from a
mental disorder but is implanted with the reason to believe so. If Kaysen never made the
interaction with the doctor her life would have been different from what had happen to her.
Kaysen’s interactions between the patients and the staff in the ward allow her to analyze and
achieve a better understanding of mental disorders. At the end of the novel she questions whether
or not she should have served the two years in the ward. Her doubt shows that she feels that she
was given the diagnosis of mental disorder and it’s because of that title she was treated a
differently. If it was not for her diagnosis made by the doctor she could have lived a normal life.
Kaysen was diagnosed with “Uncertainty about several life issues, such as self image,
sexual orientation, long term goals or career choice, types of friends or lovers to have” (Kaysen
150). At the age of eighteen most teenagers would be uncertain of these issues presented in the
diagnosis. Even after Kaysen leaves the ward and revisits her records she states that “I still have
that uncertainty. Is this the type of friend or lover I want to have? I ask myself every time I meet
someone new” (Kaysen 151). Although years have passed since her release from the ward
Kaysen still continues to have uncertainties in her life which of course is normal for anyone.
Kaysen brings up a point in the novel in which she reading about her diagnosis from the
diagnostics and statistical manual of mental disorders. She reads that “the disorder is most
commonly diagnosed in women” (Kaysen 157). Notice the choice on words used in the sentence
suggesting that women are diagnosed with this disorder due to a common activity that women do
which Kaysen states as “shopping sprees, shoplifting and eating binges”(Kaysen 158). Therefore
it can be concluded that the mental disorder known as borderline personality disorder associates
itself with sexism.
The doctor who had decided to place Kaysen in the ward was basing his analysis of
Kaysen in only twenty minutes but stated that he had interviewed her for three hours. Given the
information from Kaysen’s perspective and the admission note which dates the hour of arrival at
11:30am, it can be concluded that the doctor whom Kaysen met for the first time made an
irrational and quick diagnosis. What was interesting about the doctor’s diagnosis letter to the
ward was the statement in which he said that Kaysen had a “History of suicidal attempts”
(Kaysen 13) which is a lie because Kaysen had only reported that she had only once attempted a
suicide which was by overdose. Another reason which shows the doctors inappropriate
professionalism is when the doctor tells Kaysen “it’ll be a rest. Just for a couple of weeks,
okay?”(Kaysen 8) referring to Kaysen’s stay in the ward. The doctor obviously lies again
because Kaysen stays in the ward is much longer than two weeks. The interaction made between
Kaysen and her doctor shows how she was manipulated to attend the ward which demonstrates
how Kaysen’s life took a turn for the worse due to the actions of another person.
When Kaysen goes to attend the ward the first patient she begins to discuss about is
Polly. Kaysen states that Polly must have had courage to light herself on fire. “Who had the
courage to burn herself? Twenty aspirin, a little slit alongside the veins of the arm, maybe even a
bad half hour standing on a roof: We’ve all had those” (Kaysen 17). Kaysen is comparing the
severity of Polly’s suicidal attempts to the other possible suicidal attempts she could have
chosen. The perspective in which Kaysen takes Polly’s suicide is one in which there is no turning
back. She says that she could have stopped taking the aspirins and faint in the street which was
her exit from suicide. Kaysen realizes that unlike Polly she had the will to survive she had only
gone through with the suicide because she felt that “it was only part of myself that she wanted to
kill” (Kaysen 37). You can see that Kaysen is not seriously mentally damaged when compared to
Polly and she learns that unlike Polly “We might get out sometime, but she was locked up
forever in that body” (Kaysen 19).
During her stay in the ward the nurses did their routine “checks” which was to check on
each patient every five, fifteen or thirty minute intervals. Kaysen described this as being very
annoying because it was a constant reminder that “another five minutes of life down the drain.
And spent in this place” (Kaysen 54). The reader doesn’t fully see the effects of these “checks”
on Kaysen’s psyche. It was only until the visit to the dentist in which Kaysen begins to question
the dentist on how much time had gone by while she had her tooth removed. “I want to know
how much time that was,” I said. See Valerie, I’ve lost some time and I need to know how much.
I need to know” (Kaysen 109). Now the effects of the ward can be seen on Kaysen, she has
become so accustomed to the idea of knowing how much time that has gone due to the routinely
“checks” that when she loses track of time she begins to have a fit.
Kaysen describes herself and the other patients as “naked, we needed protection, and the
hospital protected us. Of course, the hospital had stripped us naked in the first place-but that just
underscored its obligation to shelter us” (Kaysen 94). The hospital itself has taken away
everything that Kaysen and the others knew. They had made her so dependent on the hospital
which has made her believe that she needs to be there for protection, but of course this not true.
While she was in the hospital Kaysen has an episode of depersonalization. She begins to tear at
her hand because she feels that she isn’t human. She then says “I’m not safe” (Kaysen 103) and
then she goes on to say “Oh, Valerie, you promised,” (Kaysen 103) meaning that the hospital
was not protecting her. She begins to realize that they could not keep their promise of keeping
her safe. She then concludes after the incident “now I was safe, now I was really crazy, and
nobody could take me out of there” (Kaysen 104). Here Kaysen admits to being crazy but before
this incident she never believed that she was which proves that she had only begun to feel crazy
because of the interactions with the people and the amount of time she had been inside the ward.
In the play “Othello” the protagonist Othello is influenced by the deception and lies told
by Iago. Iago tells Othello “Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster which
doth mock the meat it feeds on.” (William Act 3, Scene 3) Iago chooses he’s choose of words
carefully here so he can make it seem that he doesn’t want to provoke Othello into becoming
jealous. Similarly to Kaysen as the story goes on the condition of Othello’s mind progressively
becomes engulfed with jealousy, although Kaysen wasn’t filled with jealousy her mind was
approaching insanity due to the constraints and interactions in the ward.
Kaysen isn’t the only
character in which interactions with other people affects the outcome of their decisions and
actions.
Being diagnosed with a mental disorder Kaysen was viewed differently from the people
in society. There is a moment in which Kaysen is looking for a job and is denied the job due to
her attendance at the ward. She is given this look by the man in the shop, “He gave me a look of
such terrible intimacy that I cringed. I know what you are, said his look” (Kaysen 124). The
people in society know look at Kaysen completely different with disapproval because of an
incident in which she had no control of. Monica, from Reviving Ophelia, dealt with a similar
situation in which people laughed and disapproved of her based on her appearance. Mary Pipher
talked about how Monica knew “that some people were so put off by her plain appearance that
they never gave her personality a chance” (Pipher 148). Monica and Kaysen were both isolated
from other people because of something that they had no control. It was because of society’s
disapproval of being overweight or declared as insane which causes the people in society to deny
them an opportunity to reveal their personality.
In Kaysen’s final chapter of her novel she revisits a painting that she had seen before.
This time it has a much larger affect on her perspective then when she had first seen it. She reads
the paintings title Girl Interrupted at her Music she goes on to say “Interrupted at her music: as
my life had been, interrupted in the music of being seventeen, as her life had been, snatched and
fixed canvas: one moment made to stand still and to stand for all the other moments, whatever
they would be or might have been. What life can recover from that?” (Kaysen 167). This the
moment when Kaysen finally admits to how the ward had changed her life forever. In this quote
it demonstrates how being in the ward stood for all the other moments which can be interpreted
as a statement in which the possibility of having a normal life was severed.
Overall in can be seen how Kaysen was not suffering from a mental illness but seemed to
be ill because of the interactions between other characters. After being released from the ward
Kaysen knew that she was not crazy but her life had been interrupted because of the actions
made by the doctor. Kaysen did not deserve to go to the ward just because of a suicide attempt, it
was the thought that she wanted to remove. Mary Pipher points out a good statement which was
“adolescence is a time when development and culture put enormous stress on girls” (Pipher 151).
Kaysen at her age was dealing with the stress of her parents because she was the first in her
school not to graduate and culture placed a large amount of stress on her as well. Therefore it
was the influence of man which decided the life of Kaysen as well as Othello and the girls
described in Reviving Ophelia.
Works Cited
Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. Print
Pipher, Mary. Reviving Ophelia Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. New York: Penguin
Group, 1994. Print
William, Shakespeare. Signet Classics Othello. New York: Penguin Group, 1963. Print