Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Day 1 Block 1: Girl, Interrupted
Remember to post twice for a B. More than that will get you the A. We've been seeing a lot of plot summary. You've all ready the book so that isn't necessary. We've also seen a lot of GREAT comments about characters and conflicts. Keep it up! Question each other and dig deeper.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
37 comments:
Alyssa Burnette -
I think the most interesting person so far is Lisa. Sometimes she seems so sane, but she's one of the craziest ones in there. She's very in-your-face, so I think she creates many conflicts herself.
But I also like Susanna. She's simple - and she may seem like she doesn't need to be there, but she knows that she should be there. She wants to get better. But she's not the typical crazy lady.
Tara Piche:
I find the character Lisa interesting. She was so full of life and was never so dull like everyone else until she tried to run away and they found her. They must have put her on some medication and done something to her to make her more dull. I find it interesting that she used to say stuff about the people who would just sit and watch television all day and then all of a sudden she became one of them. It's like whatever medication they have her on took the life and the individuality out of her. She used to serve hot chocolate to the late night workers but since she tried to run away, it seems like she stoped caring all together.
Alyssa Burnette -
I think the most interesting person so far is Lisa. Sometimes she seems so sane, but she's one of the craziest ones in there. She's very in-your-face, so I think she creates many conflicts herself.
But I also like Susanna. She's simple - and she may seem like she doesn't need to be there, but she knows that she should be there. She wants to get better. But she's not the typical crazy lady.
Ashleigh Harding- In this book Girl Interrupted I have really devoloped and interest in the character known as Lisa. I found her interesting because she seems like the girl in the book with the most problems but yet she has the most energetic mind. She is always the one who is dieing to be free yet she needs the warmth and structure of McLeans.
The confilct within most of the characters through out the book is that they have devoloped problems in their life that they need help dealing with yet, most of them want and feel the need to be free. They are trapped in a world of confusion and are seeking a way to become free in their own world once again. They also dont seem like they can all get along well, so working together to build frienships, trust and love for one another is their main key to freedom.
Sarah Hall- I thought the book was easy I finished it in two days.
I don't think I myself relate to any of the characters in the book.
Also the book is nothing like the book. I think I like the movie better than the book though, the book dose have similar parts.
This would have to be a book that I wouldn't read again though because it didn't really go any where good, I pretty much new what was going to happen at all times so there wasn't any element of surprise, in this case that's where I think the movie did a better job.
Jade Alvarez- The character that I have found interesting is Lisa Row. Lisa is interesting because theres that approach on her that she this person with numerous problems and with desire to explore the world. She ends up trying to escape but always is returned back to the McLean Hospital.
A conflict in this book is women are being admitted to the hospital or some might admit there self cause they already know they want to get help and find a healthy way to live and go on there way with life without living on drugs.
Maridella Soeur
In Girl Interrupted I liked the character Lisa. I thought that the character was was interesting because she was different than the other girls. I liked how Lisa was rebellious and kept the other girls happy. I think Lisa seems a little scary and threatening to the other girls.
This book I would have to say is very interesting because its about people with problems that are a little crazy. I would have to say that I rather read about a nutty person instead of a dull one. I was a little surprised to see that electroshock was one of the treatments. With that, I instantly thought about the insane haunted asylums and a movie I saw similar to this.
Sarah Lathrop, D1B1
Girl, Interrupted is an interesting book so far. I chose it because I wanted to compare it to the movie. Turns out, they are nothing alike. I really enjoyed the movie and I'm enjoying the book, too. I don't particularly identify with any of these characters, because I'm not crazy. However, I can identify with Susanna being somehwere that she didn't feel she needed to be. It can be a tough situation when you're some place that you feel it's not necessary.
I think Susanna is not somewhere where she feels comfortable, but it makes her situation less tense because she's being accepted by the other girls in the hospital. Her relationships with the patients are growing, in a good way. She's beginning to judge people in her ward and she's being judged back. Even though she's judging them & feeling that she knows a lot about the people she's sharing this time with, she still feels that she's better.
This book took me a couple chapters to get into it, since it's a lot different than the movie. I saw the movie first, so I expected the book to happen in the same order. When it didn't, it was weird for me to get use to.
So far I'm liking the book but I think I'll always like the movie better. I like the way this author writes and uses a lot of details about the patients in the ward, not just Susanna.
Kayla James.
I find the whole scene in the ward interesting. The fact that the people in the ward treat each other like family. A lot of people in there seem to be content for the most part. Its only every once in a while they just seem to lash out and loose there sense of sanity. The scene itself can seem depressing at times but its nice to see they can communicate with each other.
The most disturbing part of the book so far is some of the things that happen with the inmates. Like one girl gets wrapped in cold towels and you hear her screaming. When they bring back Lisa she is screaming and fighting the guards because she had run from the ward and didn't want to return; she says she saw freedom.
Nicole
I didn'r really identifiy per-say with anybody in this book. I'm not crazy, though the girls in the hospital do really strike me as all that dangerous anyways. I didn't really like how the book was written, it seemed really simple. I didn't like, the few metaphores they used I found them to be broad. I think a metaphor should be put in place to give you the same feeling that they are trying to convey in a more vivid sense and the metaphores used just didn't give me that.
as for the individual characters they pose more interesting and have more personality then our humble narrator. I don't only leave this to the fact that they are infact crazy and she had a mis-diagnosis. she is a very bland woman stuck in a place of the unique, or different. I'd have to say i'm not inpressed by the style of writing or the developement of the lead charater in the book I find them both sub par at best.
chuck
i don't know if i identify with any of these girls, i don't think any of these girls are really crazy i just think that they have more problems then the average teenager. i think their is an underlying conflict between all of the ladies, they all seem to get on each others nerves at one point or the other.
Ashley Chase
I think this book started off really slow, but I'm hoping it gets better as it goes along.
I thought it was weird how Susanna went to see a psychiatrist once and he ended up sending her to McLean Hospital, after just one visit. What did the doctor see in her that made him immediately send her to the mental hospital? I can relate to when the doctor told her she was going to "rest", and she basically had no choice in the matter. My parents always tell me where to go and what to do, but that's what parents are supposed to do I guess. My older brother does that too sometimes, I don't have much say in what I do or where I go.
It seems like at McLean they have some freedom but obviously not as much as being in the outside world. Lisa tries to run away a lot, but she always gets caught and brought back, so why keep running? In my family we have this thing where lots of kids (my cousins and others), try to run
away or they just leave and go stay with friends for a while, to get away from their parents and their troubles. I think it's kind of funny actually, but the whole running thing doesn't help, it usually just makes things worse, at least it has in my experiences.
I thought it was funny how Georgina and Susanna made caramels together and Susanna dumped the hot caramel onto Georgina's hand. I think it's hilarious how some people react to something, that really doesn't affect them. I was playing tag one time and the safety was a set of old wood stairs. I was running to safety, but ended up sliding on the wet grass, so when I hit the stairs, I kept on sliding all the way down the length of them. I had a huge splinter in my hand but I didn't notice it until my cousin started screaming and crying. Then I just pulled it out nad put on a band aid on it and she just kept on screaming. It was crazy because it didn't even happen to her.
Most of the people in McLean get along it seems, but on occasion they have troubles with each other, they mostly have conflicts with themselves. Like Polly, and how she lit herself on fire only now to be haunted by the way she looks and she's trapped and can't ever get out.
Who is Jim Watson?
Sarah Lathrop, D1B1
Did anybody think about the part of the book when Susanna mentioned sexual relations with her English teacher. I wonder if that had something to do with her mental illness. She might have not even known it but she could have had borderline personality disorder before she was sent to McLean Hospital.
It's kind of weird that somebody her age would have sexual relations with a teacher, something's got to be wrong with you. At least that's what I think.
Jade Alvarez
Day one block 1
So why is susanna there. Whats really wrong with her? Has anyone found whats wrong with her?
Manda Maurice
I want to add to what Sarah had said about susanna's english teacher. I thought i was really weird how he just showed up at her school to pay her a vistit and heck well he's there he offers to help her escape with him and run away, what was that all about?
Then we find out he was having sex with her and then you start to understand why. It is hard to read but in the book they have little notes that her doctors write about her and if you read it closley it says she is permiscuous which means having causual sex with different people all at the same time. Is she trying to act like an adult and in the end just couldn't handle it and thats why she broke down? Maybe it just because to overwhleming for her to handle.
I definitely think her english teacher has something to do with why she's there. I don't remember what the book said about her family, where are they, what happened to them? Do they ever come visit, because it sounds like they don't.
I think Daisy is quite the character. She seems to be different from all the other girls in the ward. And what's up with her and the chickens? That's just plain weird.
I thought it was kind of strange how Lisa Cody got out without getting brought back, but no one else can do it. The part about Lisa getting out for two days then being found and brought back and how she seemed pleased with herself, made me laugh a little bit. It probably shouldn't have though. Just the fact that she saw Lisa Cody and now she is a real junkie, and it made Lisa happy, like she acheived something. It's like when you hangout with someone for a really long time and then suddenly something changes and you drop them and move on to find someone better to hangout with. And then later on you see your old friend, and you see how their life is and you're pleased that their life is crappier without you, and it makes you feel a little good inside, even if you know it shouldn't. It just does, because you're happy and they're not. That probably makes me sound like a jerk but that's what it made me think of.
Maridella Soeur
D1B1
I'm almost done with book and I have like ten pages left. I would have to agree with Sara that the book really didn't go anywhere. I think Susanna really didn't grow as a character very much. Through out the book it sees like the characters seem to stay in place. I think something big and interesting could happen besides Susanna finally leaving the hospital.
I think the book will have a boring ending and I think this book could've been better.
Tara Piche:
I deffinately agree with the statement of Susannas English teacher having something to do with her being in the ward. That could deffinatly have caused something to go wrong in her head, guilt and other emotions about her enlish teacher could of made her doctor think there is really something wrong with her.
I was also thinking a lot about the Susannas doctor. I find it odd how he says he interviewed her for three hours and yet she says it was really only twenty minutes. I feel as though no doctor should really be able to admit someone into a hospital after just talking to them for twenty minuets unless there was something very obvious wrong with that person and from what we've read so far, there really isn't anything EXTREMELY wrong with Susanna. It seems as though she's just an ordinary 18 year old who just happens to be in a pysch-ward.
Ashleigh Harding- I would definitly have to agree with the comment out Susanna's English Teacher. What happened between them could have cause various emotional emotions to run through her mind. Part of this could be why the doctor who saw susanna thought she need "REST" or time to think things over.
The way the doctor put it makes me feel like Susanna shouldn't have really been put into the hospital. The way it sounds she, is just like every other teenager that needs to think things over more than once. If she needed time to "REST" she should have been brought some where else. I dont think susanna is crazy like the other girls in the Hospital..
Ashley Chase
Yeah I don't think Susanna should be in the hospital either, her problems probably would have gone away or seemed smaller over time, they usually do. But the instant she was thrown into the psych ward, the problems just got bigger and now they are never going to go away, it's like she just wasted years of her life by sitting in a psych ward acting crazy.
I didn't really get the part where the doctor said Susanna was there for three hours and she said she was only there for twetny minutes. Which was it, twenty minutes or three hours? Did the doctor do something to her that messed her up? Or are they just confused and completely not agreeing with the time. And what did he really mean by "rest"? I think she just needed a little vacation or time away from her problems, but definitely not a mental hospital.
Maridella Soeur
D1B1
To what Ashley said about the whole
three hour or twenty minute thing, I think to Susanna it felt like a long time. Even though it was 20 mins I'm sure I think since Susanna is in this odd state everything goes slower for her because she's kinda lost.
When they said rest I think they were referring to her, getting away from the world. I think Susanna did need a little bit of a vacation because she really needed to figure some things out if she's said to be promiscuous like that
chuck pendexter
i think the relationship between the main character and georgina is pretty strange. they seem to be the best of friends but i get the feeling that the main character doesn't like georgina all that much, i think she gets on her nerves a lot.
Tara Piche:
Okay so what is up with the Mrs. McWeeney lady? She does not seem at all pleasant. Is there something about the psych ward that makes her so mean or is she just a mean person? Also, why doesn't she get along with Valerie? Was there something that Valerie did, I think that she probably just has a problem with the way Valerie works. I think that Mrs. McWeeney doesn't like that Valerie isn't as structured and uptight as she is used to and she likes. But I'm not intirely sure. If anyway can help clear things up a bit about Mrs. McWeeney please do.
Tiffany Baud
Susanna is a normal girl until she ended up in the hospital. She has changed cause of the crazy people that she has meet while being in their. Maybe the docs will relize that she is normal before she ends up weird.
Ashleigh Harding- I agree with Chuck completly. In the story Suzanna and Gorgina seem to have a strong relationship but at times she seems to really drive Suzanna crazy. Gorgina always seems to be in a fanasty world or just a diffrent world from the one she is living in. Also I wanted to say something about Polly. Polly seems like such a sweet girl and she gets along with everyone yet, shes the one with a big problem that she has to live with for the rest of her life? How come no one said that much about Polly? Will she ever get out of this Hospital?
I also agree with all the comments about Susanna. I don't think she is "phyco". I mean she has her problems but so does every teenager. I mean the longer she is in the hospital it seems the crazier she gets. I think someone should be able to notice she isn't like any others. She dosn't need shock treatments, or anything drastic like that. I know she tried to commite suicied but she didn't really want to die. She just needed help, and someone to talk to. I don't think she needed to be hospitalized I think she just might have needed therepy (someone to talk to). To just revel her feelings insted of holding them inside!
Jade Alvarez
Day 1 Block 1
This book is confusing me badly. Is Susanna married or what. I didnt understand that at all. That she was leaving then all of a sudden shes back or is it she has more privelege then the others that she can leave the hospitall. Why wont Susanna's family come and visit her? && How did Susanna's "husband" Its confusing me.
Does Susanna have a double personality?
Ashleigh Harding- Suzanna being able to reveal her feelings to someone she trusts would probley even be better for her then for her to reveal them to a doctor. If she felt comfortable in a situation then she would talk about it more. She doesnt need to stay in a hospital.. The more or the longer shes in the hospital the crazier or more insane she gets. She didnt want to die, she wanted to ease the pain.
Ashley Chase
The part about Susanna trying to get a job made me realize how hard it must be for people who have been in those situations to actually do anything with their lives after they get out. If you were an employee of a big company would you want a bunch of "crazy" people working for you? Probably not, so what are they supposed to do for jobs and money, how are they expected to be put away for a while and then come out and act all normal and be better? It doesn't seem right, especially in Susanna's case, because she isn't really crazy. Susanna was put in the psych ward for two years to get better, and then thrown back into the real world to live her own life, but she will never really forget about the days and time she spent at McLean, because it's a part of her, it's who she is.
Also when Susanna had to get her wisdom teeth out, and how she flipped about losing time. What was that really all about? Was it because she thought it was like the doctors and the three hours or twenty minutes deal? I didn't really understand that part very well. But I know that sometimes in life you do soemthing and it seems like time flies and then later on you look back and think wow where did that time go, what happened to it all? Was it worth while or did I waste it all?
And then there's Alice Calais, the new girl in the psych ward. She didn't seem crazy at first but then she just flipped and went extremely weird, so they put her in seclusion which ended up in her going to maximum security. I thought it was funny how she'd never had honey before and said it tasted like bees. How did she know what bees taste like, "all furry and tingly"? That was weird. I liked how after she was moved into maximum security, they went to visit her. Did they really want to see how she was doing? Or did they just want to see what maximum security was like?
I really like the descriptions in this book, you could pretty much picture it and it was like you were almost there. Maybe not in feeling it but in seeing it, like maximum security, I could totally picture how that was.
Sarah Lovely-
I agree with Alyssa when she says that Lisa is "in your face" & Susanna is simple and i think thats part of the reason that the two of them blend so well & get along.
When Susanna needed to get her wisdom tooth taken out it made me really sad when she kept asking how much time had passed. It was as though the fact that she was 18 and spending her days pretty much locked up was catching up to her. I tried to picture it as though i were in her place and it made me even more sad. I don't think i'd be able to live in a mental hospital, not that she had a choice.
Ashley Chase
Yeah I'm confused about whether or not Susanna is married or not too. I think she got her marriage proposal, and said yes so she could get out of the hospital. And I want to say she is or was married at some point, but maybe she's not married anymore, because it said something about picking fights with her husband for no reason. So I'm not completely sure. At the end it talks about going to the Frick and at first I thought she went with her husabnd but now I'm not sure, it mentions it being sixteen years later, and she's with her new rich boyfriend, so maybe they did get married. Or maybe it's a different boyfriend guy.
Sarah Lovely
The way I saw it was she was proposed to and she said yes but changed her mind for some reason. I understood it as when she got married she was under her husbands’ care so when she left he would be her ‘hospital’. Since she did not marry him she was kept in McLean’s care. Maybe the reason her family doesn’t visit her is because of a social stigma? Or maybe its just because its hard to see her in a mental facility? I’m not completely sure. On the first page it tells you that she was diagnosed with 1) Psychoneurotic Depressive Reaction and 2) Personality Pattern Disturbance (Schizophrenia). I don’t know if ‘diagnosed’ is the correct word to use since she had never seen this doctor before, nor had she been with him for any length of time before he made his conclusion.
Sarah Lathrop, D1B1
Towards the end of the book when Susanna was getting a job, she had trouble with all of the rules. I think Lisa made her this way. When she was in the hospital, she started to hang around Lisa and that caused her to rebel. This was probably also part of her borderline personality disorder.
I think it's funny that she decided to get a job but she wasn't impressed with the rules that she had to follow. That happens to a lot of us sometimes, we avoid a situation because we don't like the set of rules that comes with it. She didn't like not being able to smoke at work and not being able to wear miniskirts at work either.
She's so determined to do things, such as become a writer. She's determined to convince people that she WILL make a living out of it, and that she's not crazy. Lisa convinced her that she was, but I also think that Lisa taught her to overcome her problems. Susanna didn't want to end up like Lisa. The conflicts between them are awkward and that happens a lot of times in real life situations.
Amanda Maurice
I love the end of the book where Susanna runs into Lisa on the side of the road. I thought that Lisa would never be able to leave the mental institute, but in the end she is out and has a kid! I think Susanna was immediatly stunned.
The only thing i thought was weird was that Lisa never called the boy by his name but by "the kid" and "the kid and I" which i thought was really strange. Lisa just wanted to start a real life with her new family and i never would have guessed that happening!
Jade Alvarez
Okay I was pretty shocked when they told me that Susanna had split personalites. I didnt think of that through the whole book. I thought she was just crazy. I have finished the book. There was times when I thought this book wasn't going anywhere. But then I kept on reading and it came out to be a good book.
Jade Alvarez.
To go off Sarah Lathrops post.
THE ENGLISH TEACHER.
It was weird that at then end it talked more about the situation. The ending of the book made me happy that Susanna was remembering that waitress withq the look telling her to turn around and susanne never did she kept going.
The ending made me Happy.
Susanna and Lisa saw each other at the end and how she was like look at my kid. It showed me that you can recover and still end up with a happy ending
Sarah Lovely
I thought it was really interesting when she kind of categorized the mind into interpreter 1 & interpreter 2. I think that since she’s over thinking things a little bit more now that her time at McLean’s is coming to an end. I just thought that it was kind of weird that she wasn’t completely freaking out but then her time is ending and maybe the fear of not having the securities and pre-planned schedule is scaring her. That may be part of the reason that she rebels when she gets a job.
Post a Comment