SUSANNA. Yeah. How's she doin'?
MRS. GILCREST. 'Just accepted at Radcliffe. What a conundrum. I'm a Wellesley girl myself, but these days young women should make up their own minds, don't you think?
Just to bring you back to what we watched today, the completion of the scene we ended with:
Girl, Interrupted is based on a memoir by Susanna Kaysen about the eighteen months she spent at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. It is the same psychiatric hospital that Sylvia Plath spent time at in 1953 and that she writes about in The Bell Jar. (The reason we're watching this movie just became a lot clearer, didn't it?)
Not worrying about Plath yet: though several of you have already seen the film (all girls, for some reason), most of you haven't: and Andrew's response at the end of fifth period probably speaks for many of your responses, which was basically, "What the hell?#@>?" It's a disorienting film, for sure. Susanna struggles with her focus and balance; Polly who burned herself; Georgina, "the pathological liar"; Daisy and her chickens; Lisa, chaos on two feet; all raise the question of, indeed, what the hell? How did they get this way? What is the treatment they receive at Claymoor doing for them? Will they get better? Can they get better? And what's all this have to do with The American Dream? Answers are forthcoming.
First: what was your response to the first 40 minutes of the film we watched today? And what scene, moment, or image stuck with you, and why?
Second, for second period, answer the following question: do you recognize the world Susanna exists in? Yes, it's 1968 and it's Boston, but if the film still resonates for an audience, it's because we can, on some level, relate and understand what Susanna's experiencing. Is her world all that different than yours? Where does her world (that is, home and school) intersect with yours?
Second, for fifth period: are you surprised that Susanna is struggling with her emotional and psychological balance? Can you make a case that her imbalance is, on some level, a rational response to the life she's living? If so, how? If not, why not?
So that's two questions, guys. Everyone answer #1, and second period does the first part of #2 and fifth period does the second part of #2.
We'll see you all tomorrow and we'll discover what other fun things are in store for Susanna at Claymoor.
