Susanna Kaysen example essay topic

GIRL, INTERRUPTED by Susanna Kaysen (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1993) 1. Author: Susanna Kaysen was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1948 where she still lives. She is the author of books which are in some parts related to her personal experiences. She worked as a free-lance editor and proof reader until an introduction to an agent set her career in motion.

Her novels: The novel that caught the agent's attention, Asa, As I Knew Him, was published in 1987 and people were very interested in it. Kaysen followed up the success of her first book three years later with her second novel, Far Afield. Kaysen's third and as far as I know last book, Girl, Interrupted has been hugely acclaimed in America and Britain. 2. Subject of the book: The book is an autobiography. It's about her memories of her two-year stay at McLean's psychiatric hospital, where she was treated for depression and Borderline Personality.

With the help of a lawyer she obtained her 350 page file from the hospital. 3. Setting... : The story is set in the years 1967 to 1969.

Mostly it takes place on the ward for teenage girls in the McLean psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, which is known for its famous clients - Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, Anne Sexton and Ray Charles. 4. Characters: Susanna Kaysen (main character): She is an 18-year-old girl, and the story is, since it is an autobiography told from her point of view. What was going wrong with her life? She tells us she decided she did not want to go onto college, and she slept with her high school English teacher. A couple of years earlier, she took an overdose of aspirin and had to have her stomach pumped.

She was sent to McLean because of that where she was, as mentioned before, treated for depression and Borderline Personality. But apart from that, we learn almost nothing about her family, friends, or her past. She mentions that one boy liked her so much that he remained in contact with her even while she was in hospital; on one of her visits to him - she had to leave the hospital- he asked her to marry him and she accepted it. This comes as a total surprise to the reader. She mentions that the marriage did not last, and that she has had a number of lovers. Susanna decided to have no children.

She wanted to be a writer, and she succeeded. As it is an autobiography it is very hard to find some other important characters. But there are the several doctors, nurses and other clients. There is Lisa Rowe who thinks she is hot shit, and if she could have any job in the world, she would be a professional Cinderella. She is wildest and most hardened of the bunch.

She always runs off. "She'd had beautiful nails, which she worked on, polishing, shaping, buffing. They said her nails were sharps."She rarely ate and she never slept, so she was thin and yellow, the way people get when they don't eat, and she had huge bags under her eyes". Georgina Tusk in, Susanna's roommate, who comes in swiftly and totally, during her junior year at Vassar. She was in the theatre when a wave of blackness broke over her. Daisy Rand one... ". was a seasonal event.

She came before Thanksgiving and stayed trough Christmas every year. Some years she came for her birthday in May as well". She has two passions, laxatives and chicken, and twice a week her father brings her a roasted one. Her father is in love with her and "wants to f her to make sure she's real". She smells, glower es hisses and pokes, but she is sexy. One time she committed suicide when she didn't come to McLean's for her birthday.

Polly 'Torch " Clark, who had set herself on fire with gasoline when she was 18. She is full of scars from that. She is never unhappy and never complains, but she always listens to other people's complaints. 5.

Summary: It's 1967, and Susanna Kaysen in eighteen. After a short meeting with her psychiatrist she is sent to a mental hospital for her borderline personality disorder. She lands in the teenage girls ward. There she meets many interesting people.

Lisa, the sociopath who is always trying to escape. Daisy, who is in constant need of laxatives and roasted chicken and commits suicide in the end. Psychiatrists have the antagonistic role in her frank and funny commentaries on life on the ward, and while reading the stories you begin to wonder who is really crazy after all. 6.

Main Themes: . suicide: Daisy, Susanna's overdose. life in such psychiatric hospitals. sex. society - "sometimes the only way to stay sane is to go a little crazy"7. Structure / Style/Language: The story is divided into several chapters. They are not really in a chronological order, moreover it's a kind of flashbacks and forwards. Mostly it's written in the first person.

There is more description than dialogues. The language isn't very hard to understand but the fact that there are so many people and special psychiatric vocals is responsible for the fact, that it takes some time to get into the book. 8. Personal Experience: This book is full of suspense because you never know what will happen next.

It's also very interesting because you know that all these things really happened. Although you need some time to get into the book, it's worth reading. I would say that people from the age of 16 are able to read the book. The book has also been published as a film production. Now it is a major motion picture from Columbia Pictures starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. I think it is easier to read the book if you have watched the film before.

Have fun!