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Essay on Girl Interrupted
In the movie Girl Interrupted, Susanna (Winona Ryder) is labeled with "borderline personality disorder," a diagnosis as ambiguous as her own emotions. Susanna begins a journal, a book of her own to lose herself in. Thus even in Claymoore she finds ways to withdraw deeper and deeper into her imagination. Susanna is dissociative (which means she separates herself from the world around her), but she is not crazy. In her journal Susanna comes up with a tempting insight: being crazy is an amplification of certain traits we all have. Susanna is a deeply troubled woman, and her confidence in Lisa (Jolie) only leads her into more confusion. During her stay there she makes unexpected friendships, unlikely discoveries, and finds the courage to face her fear of others and herself. (Mangold, 2000)
Lisa Rowe (Angelina Jolie) is diagnosed a sociopath. But if being crazy means the inability to cope with the system, she is not that. Lisa moves (by escaping and being returned) from Claymoore to the world outside and back. In either system she knows how to take care of herself and thus remain very much her own person. Lisa is dissociative in the sense that she does not fit for long in any world. But her dissociation is visceral, which is intellectual. Lisa is chased from one world to another and back by her flaming rage. We get a glimpse of a book and some papers on Lisa's bed.
The book (books are symbols in this movie) appears to be about math. It looks as if Lisa has been working on equations. Thus she may have her own intellectual ivory tower that from time to time she escapes into. Lisa characters are often full of surprises!
Of the main characters, it is Daisy Randone (Brittany Murphey) who is really crazy. She obviously cannot cope being....
