English Notes Girl, Interrupted December 7, 2015

English Notes Girl, Interrupted December 7, 2015

“Security Screen” (79-82)

·  Lisa—tries to show that she has power in McLean Hospital. She gets nurses to open her window. She enacts her free will.

·  The windows had to be unlocked by a staff person, who then had to open a security screen/lock it

·  Opening the window—provides freedom, outside air

·  Daisy asks for cigarettes—Lisa dismisses her

·  Chapter is not in chronological order—we learned previously that Daisy committed suicide

·  Lisa finds a way to pass the time by getting someone to open her window

“Keepers” (83-91)

·  Valerie—strict, inflexible, only staff person they trusted

·  Dr. Wick—Susanna saw her for therapy, Susanna reveals the painting she saw at the Frick by Vermeer (the painting the book was named after). Susanna also reveals her relationship with her English teacher (she slept with him).

·  Nurses are as young as the patients. They loved talking to the patients about movies, relationships, their lives. They knew that the patients were not going to tell anyone. The patients actually gave good advice—work harder in school, etc. They know from experience what not to do.

·  End of the chapter—flips “keepers” (nurses) to “finders”

“Thus, our keepers. As for finders—well, we had to be our own finders” (91).

“1968”

·  Historically chaotic time—Vietnam War, MLK, Robert Kennedy shot, war protests, freedom, equality

·  Lisa: “They gotta kill them,” she explained. “Otherwise it’ll never settle down.”

·  Chaotic inside and outside of the hospital—patients don’t have freedom or equality

·  Girls saw Bobby Seale bound and gagged in a Chicago courtroom---girls realize the world wasn’t going to change. Cynthia agrees—“They do that to me!” she cried. During electro shock therapy, she was tied down and gagged.

“Bare Bones”

·  Torrey—uses amphetamines, girls seem to care about her and pool their money to devise an escape plan

·  Lisa creates a disturbance in the ward so that Torrey can escape in route to the airport (she will only be attended by one nurse)

·  Tory is drugged—she can’t escape

·  Susanna then worries that she doesn’t have bones in her hand—she attempts to create an opening in her hand to check to see if she has bones.

·  Susanna has an episode of depersonalization—she wants to see if she has bones to see if she is a person. The might be a result of the Torrey situation—she cares about Torrey, but can’t help.

“Dental Health” (107-109)

·  Susanna has a wisdom tooth infection. Valerie takes her to the hospital dentist, who recommends surgery to treat the abscess. Susanna refuses.

·  The infection lessens in intensity—she takes penicillin, but Susanna has an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. Valerie suggests a visit to a dentist in Boston.

·  The girls are excited about Susanna’s trip into Boston and propose ideas for what she should do while outside the hospital. After the surgery, Susanna demands to know how long she was unconscious. The doctor is confused by Susanna’s questioning. “It’s my time and I need to know how much it was” (109). –Connect this to the lapses in time when she was admitted to the hospital.

·  Susanna cries at the thought that she will never know how much time she lost.

“Calais Is Engraved on My Heart” (110-115)

·  Alice Calais is a new patient—young, didn’t look too crazy

·  Says her last name sounds like Callous—Georgina says that it should be pronounced “Cal-lay”

·  Girls feel it is easy to impress Alice since “she knew almost nothing about anything” (111).

·  Alice never had toast with honey—the girls find it odd and wonder how her parents are able to pay for her hospital stay.

·  Several of the girls decide to visit Alice on her new ward—high security, bars obscure every window, and there are no doors or seats in the bathroom.

·  Alice has smeared herself and the walls of her cell with feces. Alice’s appearance and total change in character repulses the girls, who quickly decide to leave.

·  Lisa lights a cigarette, prompting immediate attention from the staff.

·  Once back on their own ward, the girls discuss the likelihood that any of them could end up like Alice. “Don’t let it,” says Georgina. “Don’t forget it” (115).

“The Shadow of the Real” (116-122)

·  Chapter centers on Susanna’s visits with her therapist, Melvin. She likes him, but he asks vague questions (doesn’t offer judgment).

·  The therapist arrives to his appointment with one day in a sports car, which prompts her to remark that he usually drives a station wagon or a sedan. She makes a comparison between the parts of the psyche—the ego, the superego, and the id—and the therapist’s three cars.

·  Something about her observation leads the therapist to suggest that Susanna enter analysis, a more rigorous kind of therapy. Once the analysis program begins, Melvin arranges for her to have grounds privileges at the hospital, enabling her to travel around the property without an escort.

·  Susanna discovers a series of tunnels under the hospital grounds that nurses use to move the patients around during bad weather. She loves the smell (like laundry), the temperature, and silence of the tunnels, and the way that they connect the entire hospital underground.

·  Melvin suggests that Susanna likes the tunnels because they resemble a womb. She sees the tunnels as an echo of Plato’s theory that everything we see in this world is simply a copy of its ideal form. She sees the twists and turns like life—you never know what is at the end of the tunnel—you have to make decisions.