The Lines By Jodi Picoult And Samantha Vanleer

In the book Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Susanna Kaysen was only 18 years old when she agreed to enter a medium security psychiatric facility in Boston, McLean hospital in April 1967, after a failed suicide attempt. She insisted that her over dose on aspirin was not a suicide attempt, but after a 20 minute interview the doctor decided she needed to be admitted to a hospital. During her prolonged two-year stay at the hospital Kaysen describes the issues that most of the patients in her ward have to deal with and how they all differently deal with the amount of time they must stay in the hospital for. While in the hospital Kaysen experienced a case of depersonalization where she tried to pull the skin of her hands to see if there were bones underneath, after a failed escape attempt. Soon, after going to therapy and analysis she was labeled as having recovered from borderline personality disorder. After her release she realizes that McLean Hospital provided patients with more freedom than the outside world, by being free responsibility of parental pressure, free from school and job responsibilities, and being free from the “social norms” that society comes up with. Ultimately, being in captivity gave the patients more freedom then in society and created a safe environment in which patients wanted to stay in.

In the article Skin Deep written by Nina Jablonski and George Chaplin, they discuss and look deeper into the diverse differences in skin color. Our skin color has developed over the years to be dark enough to prevent the damaging sunlight that has been harming our skin and the nutrient folate that it carries. At the same time out skin is light enough to receive vitamin D.

Individuality is the quality that people that makes each person unique and distinguishable from each other. It is important to remain distinct from others, even among groups of people that are classified as either the same or very similar. While individuality is a concept that many people agree with and want to ensure, the pressure from most people’s lives, including their environment and the people around them, forces individuals to lose who they truly are and morph in order to fit in. I strongly agree that individuality, while important, is difficult to keep because of outside factors, a concept that was presented by Logan Fey.

11. Point out some moments in the play when the playwright conveys much to the audience without dialogue

This book is called "Twins", it was written by Coraline B. Clooney. Caroline is an America author ho has written suspense, horror, romance, and mystery themed books. The book is about a girl named Mary lee, she is the twin sister of Madrigal. Before college, their parents decide to send Mary Lee away to boarding school. Mary Lee expects her sister would be on her side, and help her stop their parents from sending Mary Lee away, but instead, Madrigal agreed to the ides. In boarding school, it was hard for Mary Lee to make friends, while back at home her sister, Madrigal, is getting more beautiful, more popular, and got a boyfriend. Mary wishes that she could live her sisters life.

Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.

“Passing,” by Nella Larsen is a novel all about pretending to be something that you are not. It is about giving everyone the impression that everything is in order when in reality everything is falling apart. Passing in this novel refers to the ability of a person to be classified as one thing, normally a social group, while belonging to a different group. Passing is usually done to gain class or acceptance by groups other than one’s own. The primary focus of the novel is on racial passing which is the ability to look white and belong to a white group when in reality the person is an African-American in order to gain privileges that were unavailable to them. Although racial passing is the main focus, another major theme in this novel is sexual passing and identity.

Throughout their lifetimes, individuals encounter a variety of challenges that test their resilience. Sometimes it targets a person’s personality, beliefs, race or culture. It can follow an individual throughout their life or stay in it for a period of time. However, with a strong personality and a determined goal, these obstacles can be conquered. An example of an obstacle that can be a battle in everyday life is prejudice, mostly against the different types of race. Racism is the false conviction that one race is more unrivaled than the other which isolated the world to what it is today. It is a part of human nature, and unfortunately, many people don’t know their limits when it comes to it. Some other individuals, however, have internal conflicts with themselves which, in some situations, limits them from the world.

Girl Interrupted is Susanna Kaysen 's memoir a series of recollections and reflections of her nearly two year stay at a residential psychiatric program at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. She looks back on it with a sense of surprise. In her memoir she considers how she ended up at McLean, and whether or not she truly belonged there. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of her experience. Founded in the late 19th century, McLean Hospital had been a facility for troubled members of wealthy and aristocratic families. By the late 1960s, however, McLean had fallen into a period neglect. This was a time of great change in the mental health care field. Kaysen grew up in a wealthy and prestigious family. Like most teenagers, she was rebellious at times, confused and unsure about her future. She didn’t want to go to college and slept with her high school English teacher. She witnessed firsthand the widening generation gap that was developing in the late 1960s. Older generations looked at Kaysen’s generation 's world with alarm.

Through my understanding of the book, Homeward Bound by Elaine Tyler May explores two traditional depictions of the 1950s, namely suburban domesticity and anticommunism. She intertwines both historical events into a captivating argument. Throughout the book, May aims to discover why “Post-war Americans accepted parenting as well as marriage with so much zeal” unlike their own parents and children. Her findings are that the “cold war ideology and domestic revival” were somewhat linked together. She saw “domestic containment” as an outgrowth of frights and desires that bloomed after the war. However, psychotherapeutic services were as much a boom then as now, and helped offer “private and personal solutions to social problems.” May reflects her views on the origin of domestic containment, and how it affected the lives of people who tried to live by it.

“Love on the B-Line” by Adam Kraar gives us an understanding of how to write a play. He gives us great examples of structure, character development, and dialogue that can help young or novice writers understand the basics of making a play.

The novel, Girl, Interrupted is a memoir of author Susana Kaysen’s life and her journey through early adulthood as she suffered with Borderline Personality Disorder. The novel captures her time at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital located in Belmont, Massachusetts. Kaysen divides the novel into separate anecdotes of events and fellow patients she encountered during the two years she was admitted at Mclean.

Sex At Dawn by Chrstopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, describes our current society as a sexual hypocrisy where monogamy is the norm and everything else falls under taboo. Based on prehistoric facts, they argue that we derive from a sexually free and promiscuous culture, and were never meant to be in lifelong monogamous unions. In Paleofantasy by Martha Zuk, looks at evolutionary theorists, like Ryan and Jetha, who use the Paleolithic Age for guidance on how our current society should live. Zuk’s argument is that people want to make our nature into one-form, but humans are not designed for one-way/form of life. As for our sexual system it too can not be put into one-form. Zuk shows various points on popular assertions, creating uncertainty to the reader. This therefore shows how difficult it is to determine a precise natural sexual practice from our past, and debunking Ryan and Jetha. For this reason, Zuk provides a better argument regarding how we should use prehistoric history in present day.

Rene Magritte is an artist known for his contributions to the surrealist art movement of the 1920’s. Working with other surrealist artists, such as Salvador Dali, through the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, Magritte's style was comparably dark to the styles of others. However, while taking a brief hiatus, Magritte began to receive recognition for his works just as world war II began, which resulted in a much brighter take on surrealism in dark times. Yet, his works “The Lovers I” and “The Lovers II” were both painted before Magritte's rise to fame and reforms as a surrealist artist, both depict a couple with white sheets obscuring their faces.

The art piece I decided to write about is Woman in White Dress by Daniel Ludwig. 1988. Oil on canvas. 50 3/16 x 40 1/8. This painting is displayed in the University of Kentucky art museum and out of all the other pieces, this one drew my attention. This simplistic painting gave me serene vibes. As I gazed upon the painting, it immediately reminded me of a beach front home. It gave me a feeling of relaxation and reminded me of our family trips to the Bahamas. The hotel where we would stay was right beside the seashore. There were several occasions where I would simply sit on the balcony and absorb the cool crisp air and breathe in the scent of seawater. That 's how I perceive this piece to be. The woman in a striped summer dress, resting on the couch in front of the open landscape just relaxing in the getaway environment.