Plot

** Introduction- The author Susanna Kaysen retells her experience of living in a mental hospital in the book //Girl, Interrupted//. **
 * __Plot__ **

** Conflict- Susanna has a mental disability, and she is sent to live inside the walls of McLean hospital. She longs to be a normal person, and to have an ordinary life. She is not pleased with the way her life is going. **

** Complications- Susanna gets in the taxi to go to McLean hospital. At the hospital, she meets the people whom she spends the next two years of her life with. She struggles with compulsive thoughts and behaviors, and peculiar attitudes. Susanna longs to be free and normal. While she is in the hospital, she gains a few friendships with others who deal with similar issues as her. Her friends sometimes affect the way she feels about herself with unnecessary comments and gestures. **

** Subplots- Susanna must deal with people constantly crying and screaming in the hospital. Lisa, a friend of Susanna's, runs away from the hospital quite often. Susanna and some other patients are treated with a stop to get ice cream, but the patients are not able to act normal while in the "real" world. In the hospital, the patients rarely ever go outside. Susanna attempts to eat the skin off her hand to see if she has bones. **

=== Climax- During one ordinary day at McLean, James Watson, a friend of the Kaysen family, arrives to visit Susanna. He offers to help her escape, and give her a ride to wherever she wants to go. Susanna struggles in making her decision. Does she want to stay and fully recover, or leave and start a new life? Susanna decides to stay, and wait until she is completely better to leave the hospital. ===

** Resolution- After long, painful years in the hospital, will Susanna ever be released? Will she ever get married and find a job? Will she get the normal life she always desired? Will Susanna ever come across her friends from McLean? Read and find out!!! **



** Personal Response- The book, //Girl, Interrupted//, made me really think a lot. It showed what kind of thoughts and actions that someone with a mental disability has. That part was very interesting to me. Most of the characters in the story dealt with a mental disability, so it was hard to understand what they were saying and doing. //-Becky// **


 * //Girl, Interrupted// was a fascinating book. Normally, I hate reading, but this book pulled me in and I couldn't put it down. It was very interesting to hear the thoughts that run through the mind of a mentally-ill person, and face the problems Susanna did. Susanna Kaysen makes you feel as if you are the one with the mental illness, and you are going through the same things she did. This book gave me a new perspective for how I look at people with mental-disabilities. I can understand them much better. I strongly recommend this book for teenage girls and up. //-Lauren// **


 * This book caused me to question the way I view menatally-ill people. It is very eye-opening and will change the way you think about mental illnesses and insane people. //Girl, Interrupted// tells a very good story, and is extremely interesting. Susanna gives you feeling of living in the hospital. It is very crazy! I enjoyed reading this book, although I would not recommend it to anyone under fourteen. -//Allie// **