Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

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Recommended: Essay on the film rating system

Between character differences and overall structure of the memoir Girl, Interrupted written by Susanna Kaysen, it is difficult to find ways the book is similar to the film. Changing the way Kaysen perceives and shares her story with the audience changes the meaning behind her experiences illustrated throughout the text. Rather than seeing the gritty details of being hospitalized in a mental institution as described in the memoir, James Mangold, the director of the movie, portrays a less abrasive version so as to be visually pleasing and relatable to the viewer. In Girl, Interrupted we see a harsh change in the substance of Kaysen’s work compared to Mangold’s film. Characters are either toned down or changed entirely to suit the norms and restrictions of ratings and public opinion. When looking closer there are many factors to take into consideration as to why the film differs so much from Kaysen’s memoir such as the audience, budget, and casting. It may also go without mentioning that personifying someone’s life experiences as perceived in a memoir can prove to be difficult. Despite the many differences it is almost impossible to envision a better representation of the memoir as the movie has portrayed. The director and cast did the best they could in order to make Susanna Kaysen’s memoir come to life on the big screen.

In the memoir Girl, Interrupted a troubled teen has admitted herself into a mental health institution after a half-hearted suicide attempt and later questions why she was put there in the first place. The memoir has no linear plot line, so the reader follows a series of scattered short stories as told by Kaysen concerning her stay at McLean Hospital. The chapters in the memoir give the reader bits of knowledge an...

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...an entire family is crazy, but since an entire family can't go into the hospital, one person is designated as crazy and goes inside” (Kaysen, 95).

Work Cited

Cheever, Susan. "A Designated Crazy." The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 June 1993. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

"The Film Rating System (CARA)." The Film Rating System (CARA). MPAA, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Girl, Interrupted. Dir. James Mangold. Perf. Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Clea DuVall. Sony, 1999. VHS.

“Girl, Interrupted (1999)." Find the Best. Find the Best, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1993. Print.

Saffian, Sarah. "Woman, InterpretedSusanna Kaysen Saw Her Troubled past Re-created by Winona Ryder in Girl, Interrupted By Sarah SaffianUs, February 2000." Sarah Saffian Entertainment Feature. Us, Feb. 2000. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

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