Friday, February 29, 2008
Day 2 Block 4: Girl, Interrupted
Some questions to think about: What do you think of Amir's actions? Why does he do what he does and how does it enhance or destroy his character? What is going on inside? What do you learn about the culture and religion that hints at the fact that Amir would decide to do this?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
42 comments:
I think Lisa stands out the most. She pretty much does whatever she wants. Leaves the hospital, stays up all night. It made me wonder though as she stopped talking and started doing the thing she was against, watching the t.v.
It doesn't go into too much detail about the other people in the hospital, just talks about a couple of the other girls. So far it doesn't seem like there's any conflict between anyone.
From the little I have read as of yet, I have to say that I enjoy the author's writing style thoroughly. The humor is conveyed subtly yet effectively, and the scenarios are described in vivid detail. I hope that this excellent writing style stays constant throughout the book.
~J. Church
When I first started reading Girl Interrupted,I was really confused. My first impression on this book, was I thought that this book was going to be like all suicidal and stuff like that.
Overall I thought the chapters that we read up to page 30 were kind of interesting and overall I really like the books. The main character was Susanna and she is in a home where crazy people are helped. Susanna tries to act normal but everyone knows that she Isn't normal.
Taylor
Girl, Interrupted is, as far as I've read into it, a decent book, and for as little as I've read of it, I can see items down the road that would make it a classic. The lead character is Susanna, a young woman who is confined to a mental institution after a one-off visit with a psychiatrist. Inside the hospital, people regard as if she is crazy, even though she feels quite normal compared to her fellow "inmates." I can relate to her in this fashion. After all, having Asperger's Syndrome, I am not a typical person–––I am certainly not a typical teenager–––but I don't feel like I'm a comparatively bad person, even though society often treats me that way. I am simply different, and I guess to society, one contrarian, one person going against the flow, is one too many. Thankfully, nobody has tried to put me in a mental institution yet, but sometimes I wonder if someone wants to.
Between the characters of this novel lies the conflict of hierarchy. Some patients are considered "healthier" than others. Susanna shares a double suite with Georgina, and according to page 23, they were "considered the healthiest." Other patients try to commit suicide repeatedly, or run screaming like they are possessed. This is an example of the conflict occurring within characters: A torturing voice telling them to do things that drive them insane. Susanna feels enough nerve and sanity to be aware of this, saying "a whole world lies between this moment and that moment you've been planning, when you pull the trigger" of suicide by gunshot. 30 pages in, Girl, Interrupted is a riveting read. Let's see what there is beneath this promising surface.
So far I think this book is pretty good. I like Suzanna but, Im not quite sure why shes in there. Like she says why everyone else is in there but, we dont know her story. All we really know about her is that she had a boyfriend and she was seeing a therapist. What was up with the therapist anyway? All he did was ask her if she was tired, made a phone call and sent her in a cab for a "rest".
The other characters seem alright. But, the Lisa girl and Polly seem to have a few loose screws. I also really want to know why Polly decided to burn herself. What kind of state of mind she was in. I wonder what her life was like before she was sent there. Maybe thats why she burned herself because she wasn't happy with her life. I cant wait to find out.
Desiree Richard
i really like this book so far. I think its interesting the way the author wrote it in sections that are little stories about each different character. One other thing I liked was how the book started with Susanna in the taxi.
I think that Polly is an interesting character. She seems to like everyone and just wants to be liked. Her face is burned but it never really bothered her until one night. I like how the author talks about how they all knew it would bother her one day but she had never let it get to her.
I think that all the girls in the book will learn from each other and i am looking forward to reading more about the other characters.
Charlotte
I think that the book is pretty good so far. To me it is better then the other ones we had read in class. I got into it quicker and the reading is pretty fast. I can kind of relate to a lot of what the main charactor is talking about because I have people who tell me that I am not normal and that I am crazy all the time, when I myself feel completely normal. I have Bi Polar, so reading a book involving looking into mental illness is very interesting to me.
For me Polly stands out quite a bit. I find her to be very interesting. I mean she lit herself on fire. I want to learn about her past and I wish I could actually see what she looked like. A line I liked a lot was " We might get out sometime, but she is locked up forever in that body." on page 19. Another character that is really interesting is definitley Lisa. She kind of reminds me of myself in some ways.
Charlotte Potter Day 2 Block 4
I just read pages 30-67. In these pages I learned a lot more about Daisy and Lisa. I think Daisy is interesting. I wonder what the chickens represent and why when she gets 14 of them she leaves the institution?
I have a feeling that Lisa is going to cause a lot of conflict between the other girls. She seems to like everything to go her way and wants the most attention.
One part of the book I found interesting was when they went to get ice cream each girl had a number of nurses that watch her. Also how the girls don't try to act normal when there out in public they continue to act the same way they do in the institution.
Desiree Richard
I really like this book. An like Cori K. said, when Lisa started acting weird I got kinda curious about why. But, the nwhen she pulled that prank it all made came together. Then when the other Lisa came and started acting like the original one, I kinda got annoyed with her because it was like the second Lisa was taking over the first Lisa. Like when she started acting just like her and everything. To be completely honest I was happy when she left.
Now the only real question I have is, if Suzanna signed herself into the hospital cant she just sign herself out? If she can than why doesnt she? I think she likes it there. I mean usually if she signed herself in than I would think she could sign herself out and that's what most people would do. They wouldn't want to be cooped up in that place. Or at least I wouldnt. I would want to get out asap.
Delving deeper into this book is letting some characteristics reach the mind of the reader. As the reader, I can say that Susanna Kaysen is giving us a promising style of writing, in the sense that it is a descriptive style that leaves untied ends that the mind can tie itself.
Right now, what jumps out at me the most has got to be some of what I see in terms of language and references. The copyright states this book was published in 1993, which explains how some of the foul language and sexual innuendos made it to the printer. However, the book is set in 1967, and I am told by folks who lived through that year that words like "bulls***," "clit," and so on were not part of anyone's vocabulary. Is there a correlation between being insane and using these words? After being discharged, did some of these patients assist in bringing these words to under-the-radar conversation? I am curious to know.
A Oliver
The book so far is very interesting. The relationship between Lisa and Lisa Cody is unusual. They quickly become friends and have those phone conversations in the phone booths. Then when Lisa Cody gets her diagnosis it changes her and she starts acting out. By this time the two Lisa's don't like each other any more and Lisa Cody runs away. In such a short time they become friends and enemies.
Does anyone else think that Lisa felt jealous because Lisa Cody was able to escape and not be brought back. When ever Lisa escaped she was always brought back?
Amanda Maurice
I deffinietly think that Lisa is jealous of Lisa Cody. Lisa wanted to be the one and only that everyone looked up to and went to. When Lisa Cody came they were so similar that she felt threaten. There wasn't room for two Lisa's. As for Lisa always being caught and brought back, i think that was exactly what she wanted. She even said "Its a mean world". She would take a 'vacation' and then come back. She knew she could never live in the real world, it scared her to much. The Institute was her home, and she knew this.
Taylor Gowen
Day 2 Block 4
I think all the characters in Girl Interupted are all interesting.The character Lisa confuses me.I dont get why she runs away when she asks someone to take care of her.
Wade is another person i find veryy weird. Im wondering if his dad is really a spy or like if hes just going crazy and making it all up, which would be why hes in that hospital.
This book so far has been pretty decent. Not as bad as I thought it would have been. Sometimes i feel like the book doesnt really make sense by thats probably why there are crazyy people in it.
Taylor Gowen
Day 2 Block 4
Ray Charles, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and other famous former residents of McLean Hospital share a gift for poetry.I think Kaysen thinks just because she has mental problems that she thinks she is drawn to poetry. I also think its very weird that Kaysen can only use a razor with a nurse in the room because she is soo crazy and suicidal. I think that Kaysen is the worst one soo far in the book.
At first when I started to read the book I didn't fully understand why exactly she was in there. Yes she tried to kill herself, but she didn't seem crazy in any way. But then I got to the part where she didn't think she was real. She kept trying to find her bones. I didn't really get where it was all coming from.
It made me wonder if she's going to continue to get more crazy. Or why she even started to think that she wasn't real, and all of a sudden needs to how long things took so she could know where her time went. She seems to be acting more like the other girls in the hospital.
I still like this book and Suzanna is still keeping things interesting. But, the one that I dont really understand is Lisa. Like whats her story? how did she end up there? On top of that whats up with the tantrums to entertain herself and annoy the nurse. I dont know, I guess I just dont understand her motives for whats she does.
Another thing that I havdent quite figured out yet is the doctor at the beginning of the book. It was the first time they met and only a few minutes before he sent her to the hospital. I would love to know how her knew that soon to send her there and what his motives were. When is he going to get her? Out of everyone there she sems to be the most sane.
Desiree Richard
A Oliver
d2b4
When Susana Kaysen went to the hospital she thought it was going to be for a week. When she found out that she was going to be stay longer than a week I wonder how she felt? To find out that you are going to stay longer in a place like that has to be tough. And to make things worse every aspect of privacy is gone. even to make a phone call they have to have the assistance of a nurse. The only place of privacy is the suculation room that they can screem and yell if they want to but cant even get out unless they ask to be let out. I wonder if Susana feals that sence the sucultion room is the only place of privacy is it also the only place of freedom? If there is any. What do you think?
A Oliver
d2 b4
Some of the things that I like in the book are how susana Kaysen describes each character in a way that you can understand the reason each person is in the hospital and how right away you know there personality. The other thing that I like about the book is that Kayen is very honest and direct about the events in the book and how she dosn’t leave anything out. This style of writing make it so its onf of those books you can’t put down.
A oliver
d2 b4
One thing that I found intresting was when Susana analysed how mush time she sctually spent in the doctors office before she was sent to Mclean hospital. The doctor says she was there for three hours and she said she was there for twenty minutes. Then for some reason she brings it up again later in the book. Why does she annlyse this so much? Does this make you question if Susana is wrong on any thing else she has said? I think it shows that she has memory lapses do to stress.
A Oliver
d2b4
“Dasy was a sesonal event” Is the first line of chapthe(If you lived here, You’ed be home now). Daisy came and went each year. She stayed from thanksgiving through christmas and sometimes comes on her birthday. She has this fascination with turkey that her father brings her and when she has 13 turkeys she leaves.
I wonder why she showes up at thoes times? Why does she have such a facination with turkey? and Why does she have to get 13 turkeys before she leaves? In my oppinion Daisy showes up at those times because she needs some sort of stability and because she dosn’t know how to handle everyone being happy when she is not. What do you think?
A Oliver
D2B4
What is ment when Susana says”every window on alcatraz has a view of San Francisco”?
(“Toward a Topography of the Parallel Universe.”page 6). I thinkthink she is trying to illistrate the “Parellel Universe” of the patients in Mclean. Maybe how their are mainly two different worlds, the sane and the insane. The window seprates the two worlds. Where in the inside and outside both represent prison and freedom. For the paitents the inside is freedom from the responcibilites of the world, though it is also prison in that they have no privacy and are locked up and told what to do. The outside world is freedom in that they would be able to make their own decisions but prison in that they would have the freedom to harm themselves.
Desiree Richard
I dont think that Lisa felt threatened I think she got annoyed with the other Lisa trying to be just like her. I mean if i had my best friend or anyone for that matter follow me around everywhere then I would get pretty annoyed as well. Suzanna, I think, is getting crazier and crazier by the day. I think that all the time shes spending there isnt helping her its only making her worse.
When she said that she didnt think she was real and she was checking for her bones I knew she wasnt the same as when she started. I dont think the doctor she had gone to had had enough time to actually make the right decission on where Suzanna should go. I think he was jumping the gun just a little. Since she spends every waking moment with those same people that they're all starting to have an impact on each other.
Charlotte Potter
day 2 block 4
I agree with the thought that daisy goes to the mental institution around the holidays because she needs to be around people who are just as unhappy as she is. Also I think the girls in the institution are the only people she can relate to and in a way that makes her happy because she can fit in with someone.
In the book it talks about Daisy’s relationship with her dad. I think part of her is in the institution so she can get away from him. Yet at the same time she loves him so much she still has him come to visit her. I have the same question about the turkeys too.
Taylor Gowen
Day 2 Block 4
I agree with the whole thing that Daisy only really goes to the mental institution around the holidays because she needs to be around people who are just as unhappy as she is so she feels normal for once.Everyone else in that institution are all crazy too so she must feel normal knowing that all of the other people in that instition are on the same boat.
Charlotte Potter
Day 2 Block 4
On page 108 Susanne is getting her teeth pulled. She seems like a normal person who can do everyday things like getting her teeth pulled. However after it’s all over she starts asking repeatedly how long it took for her teeth to be pulled. When know one tells her she starts to freak out about it. I wonder why she does this and why time is so important to her.
I like how the author shows us she can function in the everyday world but when she freaks out it shows she’s not ready to go home yet.
Charlotte Potter
Day 2 Block 4
On page 124 I liked the way the author talkd about how Susanne was thinkng about her progress she had made. I thought it was intresting how she said she knew she was better of now then when she got there however she wasn't sure if she was better enough to think straight or go to work.
On the bottom of he page the author writes, "Someone who acts "normal" raises the uncomfortable question, what’s the difference between that person and me?" I thought that was intresting because at what point do they know you are "crazy" enouf to be put into the instatution or at what point are you "normal" enouf to get out?
Charlotte Potter
Day 2 Block 4
On page 124 I liked the way the author talkd about how Susanne was thinkng about her progress she had made. I thought it was intresting how she said she knew she was better of now then when she got there however she wasn't sure if she was better enough to think straight or go to work.
On the bottom of he page the author writes, "Someone who acts "normal" raises the uncomfortable question, what’s the difference between that person and me?" I thought that was intresting because at what point do they know you are "crazy" enouf to be put into the instatution or at what point are you "normal" enouf to get out?
Desiree Richard
I agree with Charlotte, how she said about the whole "normal" and "crazy" thing. If you think about it its true. An who has the othority to say so? Who has the power to tell you if you're crazy or not? Do only the therapist's have that othority? Or in the childs case the parents?
Anyways, In the beginning of the book I thought the whole thing was going to revolve around her time in the hospital and I didnt think that my question about if you signed yourself in can you sign yourself out was ever going to be answered. But, then when all it took was a wedding than I dont see why someone else hadnt come up with that sooner. I think that they all liked it in there, in cluding Lisa, or they would have tried harder to get out.
A Oliver
d2b4
“Clearly she was nuts. We were locked up for eight hours a day with a crazy woman who hated us.’
I find this quote Ironic because they call Mrs. McWeeny crazy when she thinks the same thing about them. They are after all locked up in a mental hospital. I wonder who thinks who is more crazy? Do they think she is more crazy then themselves or does she think they are the the only crazy ones? How do you define crazy?
A Oliver
d2 b4
“They have to gag him because they’re afraid people will believe what he says”
This sounds to me that she is saying that it is ok to gag him because if people believe him then there will be even more fighting and killings, so they have to gag the guy. I would think of that situation as if they are trying to gag him so he cant say what he wants to say, then it has to be important. It would make me want to hear what he has to say more and make me think that it was all that more important just because they won’t let him say it.
AOliver
d2b4
Torrey is a curious character. I wonder what will happen to her when she goes back to mexico? Her parents don’t seem to care for er that much. Though they did bring her to the hospital. I think that was because they wanted her out of there hair. Her father said” Im not going to pay for you to take it easy in here while we have to suffer." So does that mean that they want her to suffer with them or that they don’t have the money to pay for her to stay there? When she goes back I think she will turn to drugs and that will be it. What do you think?
A Oliver
d2b4
“It was the staff that got addicted to our taking it” Now this I find weird because Susanna says they act better when they are on the drugs because they wipe them out. While the nurses say that they are doing so well when they are on the drugs.
So does that mean that the staff likes when the patients are on the drugs because they are less rambunctious? Do you think the staff rather have the patines on those drugs so they don’t have to do much?
Amanda Maurice
I deffinetly think that the nurses want them to be on drugs, that is the only way to keep them under control. The only nurse who doesn't seem skidish around the girls is Valerie, she understands them in a way that no one else does. Do you think that some of the girls would be able to be let out in the real world if they were kept on medication? I think susanna and georgina would do fine if they were kept on meds in the real world. Are they just there to be sheltered from the real world? Could they function in a real like with medication?
Desiree Richard
I agree with A Oliver about the gaging thing, that if they gaged him than I would want to know what he was saying just dispite them. And if you think about it it possibly could be important. I mean doesnt everyone have something important to say every now and then? So, shouldnt they give him a chance or keep gaging him until he stops?
I think the nurses like the patients on drugs because it makes them more predictable. Because when they're not on drugs they're apt to do anything so, when they're drugged they dont see things as clearly so they cant pull anything. I also think they like it because it is less of a hassle for them when they are.
To go off of what A Oliver said about McWeeny, I think it's weird how they say she's crazy and they that want her gone but they want her to stay. That they protect her. You would think that they would try to get her fired.
Taylor Gowen
Day 2 Block 4
The Lisa's i think are competing with each other in a way to try and see whose the sane one and who is actually crazy. They have nothing better to do then compete with each other, so why not.
Before i start reading i read the titles of the chapters and that really helps me understand whats going to be in that chapter. The titles are usually very helpful in understanding.
A Oliver
d2b4
On page 109 Susan’s had gone to the dentist and when she leaves she ask’s “ How long did that take”. I wonder why she needs to know that so badly? I think that maybe it is because without the time she is lost. She is always on a schedule and for her not to be on a schedule she would crumble. Another thing that I don’t really get is when she asked how much time that took why didn’t they tell her the amount of time. It probably wouldn’t have been made into such a big deal if they had just told her. I would have wanted to know how long it took as well. What about you?
A Oliver
d2b4
I find it very interesting that on page 114 when the patients went to see how Alice was doing and when they wanted to leave the nurses didn’t come. They continued to call them but no one appeared. Only when Lisa lit a cigarette did the nurses come. I would think they would want to come when they were asked to so something like that wouldn’t happen. Another thing I find interesting is how much Susana and them got agitated when they couldn’t get out. They thought it was a loony bin even though they are locked up as well.
Aoliver
d2b4
“What I meant was that now I was safe, now I was really crazy, and nobody could take me out of there” Pg104.This scene in the book kind of surprised me because through out the book so far, Susana has shown little sign of being crazy compared to the other patents. I think, when Torrey leaves she just realizes that the world is difficult, and she doesn’t want to go back. So If she does something that is drastic they will think she will need to stay there so she doesn’t have to go back to the real world. Then she wonders why she doesn’t feel any of her bones. That may symbolize that she is afraid she will have no structure or strength to get through things in life so she uses the thought that she has no bones. Though I t may also be do to the fact that one of her friends just left so she was under a lot of stress.
A Oliver
d2b4
When Susana discovers the tunnels she becomes obsessed with them. She asks to be taken down there all the time. I wonder why she likes the tunnels so much? She says that its warm and cozy and try’s to describe it to her doctor but he doesn’t get it. I think she likes it down there because its connected to everything in the hospital so she feels secure. And it is big so maybe she may like to go down there and explore because she is locked up all the time that the tunnels give her a since of freedom but she can’t go far so she is also secure. What do you think?
Charlotte Potter
Day 2 Block 4
I agree with A Oliver with what she thinks about Susanna and the tunnels. I also think she goes down there because its something different. She’s so us to being in the same place everyday. The tunnels are her escape from the world.
Charlotte Potter
Day 1 Block 2
On page 150 I think its interesting that the author is just now explaining Susanna’s diagnosis to us. Also that Susanna is just finding out what she was in the institution for. I wonder why the author did this instead of telling you in the beginning of the book.
I also found it interesting that in the book Susanna says she doesn’t ever want a family because she doesn’t need it. However toward the end of the book it talks about her husband. I think that shows in a small way how much the instantiation helped her change.
Post a Comment