James Mangold's Girl Interrupted

For this applied paper I chose to read the novel Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. In her biography she writes about her time at McLean Hospital, a residential psychiatric facility in Massachusetts. She tells about the experiences she had there, the people that she met, and most importantly her diagnosis; Borderline Personality Disorder. Through reading her novel I was able to see what caused her diagnosis, the symptoms that she portrayed, and the treatment she received to have the status of recovered.

Because of her suicidal actions she was checked into a psychiatric hospital where she meets others who are also suffering. Through this experience she comes out with a changed perspective on life, her identity is shaped as she realises she doesn't want to end up like the people in the asylum. Susanna narrates “But I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't.” Girl interrupted connects with Sucker punch as both main characters want to make the effort to make their situation better. Susanna wants to change and be able to leave the hospital while Babydoll wants to escape her personas realities and get back to living her real life reality. Both characters strife to rebel against the hand society dealt them. By wanting and needing to get better and improve their situations, the characters are learning to shape their identity into something they can be proud of and live with for the rest of their lives, which is something that happens to Liesel and Jack in the Book Thief and

Explore through any film of your choice using either Vogler's, Voytilla's or Cochrane's model, the concept of the Hero Journey as discussed by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero of A Thousand Faces.

The film Lars and The Real Girl is revolved around a withdrawn man who longs for a meaningful relationship after years of abandonment. The story is heartwarming and implements openness to change and acceptance. Lars’s character and his relationships with the real girl and the community’s response played a major part in his crisis. The movie gave a good demonstration that implemented an unconventional alternative to help Lars. Lars’ disinterest in relationships, his childhood trauma, and triggers of distress played an important part in creating a formulation as to what has happened to him, rather than what was wrong with him.

The film, Girl, Interrupted, is based on the life and memoir of Susanna Kaysen. During the late 1960’s Susanna Kaysen, attempted suicide and checked herself into a mental health hospital for two years. This movie adaptation weaves together the intricacies of Susanna’s personal life, the pressures of a changing society and the unexpected friendships she formed while committed to the hospital. In the film, directed by James Mangold, Susana is played by Winnona Ryder. The movie is made up of small vignettes of Susanna’s life. Susana is from a well-off family, but considers herself an outsider and

The character of Lars seems to be a fantastical person who couldn’t really exist in real life. Truth is, there are many people like him who struggle to have relationships with others due to mental illness. Lars is able to find a way to channel his insecurities of personal relationships onto Bianca, whom is a realistic looking sex doll. Ironically, Lars never has sex with Bianca, he treats her as a real human being and forces his community to accept Bianca in ways he never imagined. This acceptance from the community turns out to effect how Lars views Bianca over time, and they unknowingly help Lars grow to have feelings for a real girl named Margot.

Susana Kaysen is a fictional character in the movie, Girl, Interrupted. She is an 18 year old young adult, who suffers from a mental illness. Susana had multiple behaviors that can be defined as abnormal. There are four categories that Susana’s behaviors are grouped in. The first one is deviance, which is defined by behaviors that differ from society’s norms.

For two books to be in relevance to each other, they must share the same message and cover the same topics. The two books Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kayson are somewhat connected, but it may not be enough for them to be paired together. The main characters in these two novels are along the lines of complete opposites. Clay Jensen, the main character of Thirteen Reasons Why, is a caucasian male whom is still in high school sometime during the two thousands. On the other hand, we have the main character of Girl, Interrupted, is a newly high school graduate, attending McLean hospital in the late nineteen sixties. Due to the fact that they are so different, in the nature of both time frame and personality,

Compared to Annie Proulx’s short story, “Brokeback Mountain”, Ang Lee’s usage of additional dialogue, scenery, and symbolism in the film more effectively presents the argument against homophobia, underscoring the theme that everyone suffers when forced to deny their emotions.

Think back: to your first school disco, to the first time a parent spoke to you like a grownup, to the summer it looked like your relationships would last forever, to getting in the car to drive away after your heart had just been wrecked. What song was playing?

“Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx has been known as the “gay cowboy” short story. The two men, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, meet each other on the mountain where they are hired to do sheep herding duties. Jack and Ennis enter the wilderness. The pairing of natural landscape and freedom brings Ennis and Jack emotionally and physically closer together. One night, fueled by whiskey, they begin a romantic relationship which can’t last long later on. Jack and Ennis’s relationship thrives in the wilderness. Under the influence of the wilderness, they feel free to speak about their respective family backgrounds and to move toward becoming whole themselves. Since the moment Jack “unbuckled his belt, shoved his pants down”, everything just goes wild. Readers can feel the intensity of the scene, as Ennis appears overwhelmed with pleasure as well as shock, confusion, and fear. Ennis states earlier that he has not yet had the chance to sin but he still knows that the sexual encounter will require lubrication. Come to this point, as readers, we don’t know whether or not this is Ennis’s first homosexual encounter. The romance between Ennis and Jack is agreed as “private” business between two men, “nobody’s business but ours” said Jack.

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly known as Multi Personality Disorder, occurs when an individual experiences a loss or discontinuity in memory, identity, or consciousness (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner, & Nook, 2014). Psychologist believe DID occurs in individuals who suffered an extremely traumatic situation at a young age as well as a way for overwhelmed individuals to escape their reality(Briere, Dietrich, & Semple, 2016). Portrayed in the 1999 hit, Fight Club, directed by David Fincher, the story follows the protagonist also known as the narrator and views the complexity of the disorder in an intriguing way.

“There’s something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold.” (Flynn 19) Gone Girl is a mystery novel about two writers who fall out of love. Nick and Amy Dunne are about to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary when something goes wrong. Nick comes home to find his beautiful Manhattanite wife missing from their Missouri McMansion.

The Bride thinks, “As I lay in the back of Buck's truck, trying to will my limbs out of entropy, I could see the faces of the cunts that did this to me and the dicks responsible. Members all of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad. When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other, that not only does God exist, you're doing His will.” Kill Bill: Vol. 1 is an action film directed by Quentin Tarantino that was released in 2003. It focuses on a skilled assassin known as “The Bride” who is brutally attacked at her wedding from a group of people sent from her vengeful ex-lover Bill. This leads to her dedicating her life to getting revenge on all of the people involved. Due to strong and entertaining

The main character in the film “Girl Interrupted”, Susanna Kaysen, is an eighteen-year-old female. She admitted herself into a psychiatric hospital after attempting suicide by overdosing on Aspirin and Vodka, where she was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. Susanna repeatedly denies trying to commit suicide, and claims she took aspirin because she “had a headache”. She appeared to be well groomed, her speech was articulated, and her thought process clear. Susanna is not currently employed, nor is she a student, and appears to have no motivation or ambition (Wick, Konrad, Ryder & Mangold, 1999).