Girl, Interrupted. Some final thoughts.
After reading “Girl, Interrupted” by Susana Kaysen, we can discover that we can really learn a lot from the title itself. To me the title of “Girl, Interrupted” gives me the idea that Kaysen’s life was interrupted by the mental illnesses that made her check into the McLean hospital. Essentially her whole life was interrupted by her stay there. With nurses doing checks and while the hospital virtually had everyone on lock down their lives were being interrupted by some outside source. Also the actual mental illness was interrupting virtually everyone from their lives.This concept of being interrupted can be seen during the riots that they were watching on television. Despite the frightening scenes, the patients were actually calmed by the fact that they were on the sidelines of the turbulent events which were happening outside their door.
In relation to the Vermeer Painting, “Girl Interrupted at Her Music” the feelings conveyed in that painting can be compared to those of the patients within the hospital. They were going throughout life doing what they loved, up until they were affected by the mental illness which sent them to the hospital. Looking at the painting the music teacher could either represent the doctors or the disease’s that are affecting the patients. As Kaysen quotes in her story, “Don’t you see, she’s trying to get out” referring to the woman in the painting. I can imagine most of the patients in McLean are there against their own will, and are trying to get out for example Lisa who describes several escape attempts.
“Girl, Interrupted” stands for the patients and the fact that their lives were interrupted by a mental illness. Kaysen spent 2 years in McLean which was her interruption, but after being discharged she lived a normal life, and even ended up marrying. The painting and the patients can be as one in the same, being interrupted from what the love, and yearning for the interruption to end.
