English Notes December 14, 2015 Girl, Interrupted
Reminder: Test this week. You will develop a thesis (position statement) and support it.
Position = What is the book saying about _______________? (What is the book saying about sexism?)
Themes: Sanity/Insanity, Sexism, Freedom and Independence, Identity
Document page 145
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Prognosis—prediction, forecast of how one will do outside of the hospital. This differs from the diagnosis (in Susanna’s case, Borderline Personality Disorder).
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Chart with prognosis suggests that recovery is not to be expected at this time unless the patient makes better choices and achieves a dependent relationship.
 Consider limitations of a sexist environment
 Would a dependent relationship help?
“Borderline Personality Disorder” and “My Diagnosis”
Summary:
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Generalization of Kaysen’s character disorder
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Explanation of how she doesn’t fit the label and how she reclaims her identity (an act of power to be able to tell your own story)
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Some characteristics of borderline personality disorder are the same characteristics of adolescence—mood swings, unpredictability, instable self-image, uncertainty about career goals. Keep in mind, on admission, Susanna is only 18.
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Contrariness—contradicting social norms (A lot of people do this—we also highly value individuality)
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Label or title of diagnosis has changed over the years.
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“My chronic feelings of emptiness and boredom came from the fact that I was living a life based on my incapacities, which were numerous” felt unfit for educational system, was the first person in her boarding school to not go to college.
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Discharge sheet reads “Recovered” –she notes that she is not finished with the diagnosis. She feels emptiness, boredom, and saw herself as unfit for the educational and social systems.
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One teacher called Susanna a nihilist—meaning, she believes in nothing (paradoxical). She does have beliefs, just not in writing history papers, etc. She enjoys poetry and dating.
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Sexism—women are diagnosed more often for character disorders and promiscuity. Would a teenage boy be diagnosed for promiscuity as readily?
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Susanna keeps questioning herself if she’s crazy, even when doing everyday things like taking two baths.
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“…the tunnels, the security screens, the plastic forks, the shimmering, ever-shifting borderline that like all boundaries beckons and asks to be crossed. I do not want to cross it again” (159).

“Farther on, Down the Road, You will Accompany Me”
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Georgina and Kaysen keep in touch
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Georgina lived in a women’s commune in Cambridge, fights over dough—beats it up
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Georgina is married, has a goat, is domestic (makes lunch)
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Georgina makes the goat dance for its food—makes Kaysen want to cry
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Lisa—saw her years later in Harvard Square, has a child, no longer with the child’s father, wants a real home life and goes to temple
“Girl Interrupted at Her Music” and view of the painting
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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
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Freedom of her 18 months of hospitalization was taken from her—interrupted, paused
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Music—could be her thoughts, her loneliness/isolation in the hospital. Her art is her writing.
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Interruptions—just a moment in the painting, but an 18 month interruption for Kaysen
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She will always have to live with the interruption—the memory will still haunt her
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Chapters are like portraits, still-life pictures that provide a glimpse of her hospitalization and life after
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Painting—is a meditation on a moment. Chapters are frozen meditations on memories, ideas.
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Portraits—the book provides “portraits” of Lisa, Susanna, the nurses, the people she meets
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Book lacks a narrative structure (beginning, middle, end)—provides portraits, glimpses of her days in the hospital
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Girl in the painting seems annoyed, frightened, looking for help
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“She [girl in the painting] had changed a lot in sixteen years. She was no longer urgent. In fact, she was sad. She was young and distracted, and her teacher was bearing down on her, trying to get her to pay attention. But she was looking out, looking for someone who would see her”
(167).
Two different types of light:
Idealistic light vs. Light of reality
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Light in the painting is opposite of the light we see in real life. The light we see highlights imperfections, what is real.
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Relationship with boyfriend = real light
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Job = real light
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Freedom outside of the hospital = ideal light
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Getting out of the hospital and dealing with reality = real light
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134—ideal light, snowy Cambridge evening with her boyfriend
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Marriage proposal = ideal life, but the realization of it then becomes light of reality