The Purpose of Laughing With Susanna Kaysen

Essay #2

Andrew

The Purpose of Laughing With Susanna Kaysen

[1] Girl, Interrupted is funny. By all means, Susanna Kaysen’s memoir of her hospitalization due to insanity is hardly a humorous work in its entirety, but she frequently includes passages of both light and dark comedy. So in this book that is focused upon a young girl’s profound attempt to find herself amongst murky waters and little assistance, why does Kaysen include humorous scenes throughout her story? Doesn’t that steal the reader’s focus away from the intense nature of the memoir? On the surface, it could be said that Kaysen is simply relaying her experiences in McLean Hospital and that many of those incidents just happen to be twisted enough to make the reader guiltily laugh. However, the author’s literary depth digs beneath that superficial layer and provides patterns and thematic evidence using that same seemingly benign humor. Structurally, the comical scenes juxtapose other, very serious moments. Humor becomes a tool to emphasize poignant emotional points in Kaysen’s memoir. It outlines the crucial psychological progress of young Susanna throughout the book until the author is prepared to present the enigmatic central idea of herself in the final chapters.

[2] The first chapter of the memoir is rather thought-provoking. It immediately opens the reader’s mind to Kaysen’s perspective of insanity. The second chapter is somewhat frightening due to the alacrity of admittance to the asylum. The book cannot continue on that dense path, however. Kaysen follows those introduction chapters up with a short chapter of “Etiology” where she pokes fun at the list cookie-cutter diagnoses present in the mental hospital. It may seem strange to some, but the answer choices Kaysen presents are impossible to avoid laughing at. She lists the most prevalent societal views of insanity that are nothing short of humorous. The options list the patient as being in ridiculous states such as: on a “perilous journey” from which he/she mayor may not return, being possessed by various supernatural entities, and being “bewitched,” “bad,” “ill,” and “sane in an insane world” (Kaysen 15). So the reader laughs, but why? It obviously alleviates the dark entrance into the memoir, but even more importantly, the following chapter, called “Fire,” begins with, “One girl among us had set herself on fire” (16). The reader, in a jovial mood, almost wants to laugh upon hearing this sentence, which makes the next instant of true realization even more affecting. The heart suddenly drops as Kaysen continues describing the grotesque appearance of this unique survivor, Polly. Kaysen introduces the reader to the first of many extreme differences in mood after “Etiology.” This quick drop of the emotional roller coaster emphasizes the first introduction of Susanna’s peers in the hospital and the stark reality of a mental institution.

[3] Another quick shift in emotion follows directly after the sudden low. The next chapter begins with, “She was funny. Lisa! I can’t think of her without smiling, even now” (20). Kaysen explains lightly how Lisa had run away again. It was a usual occurrence at the hospital, and the rowdy names of, “Cheese-pussy,” and “schizophrenic bat,” that Lisa calls the nurses in jesting insanity creates a couple of giggles (20). Again, Kaysen nullifies the mood as soon as it was excited by explaining Lisa’s catatonic reaction to medication and solitary confinement. Once again, the scene is not funny, and remains very somber until the end of the chapter when Kaysen reveals Lisa’s practical joke of toilet-papering the TV room-furniture, catatonic patients, and all. So between moments of levity, the true message is presented: the hospital is controlling institution that can do harm to its patients at will. Furthermore, the little entertainment that the patients have is funny but sad. While normal individuals watch TV, go outside, play sports, or be with friends, the patients at McLean struggle to find unconventional means to smile in a cold atmosphere.

[4] The most completely comic segment of Girl. Interrupted lies in the introduction of Daisy, the seasonal resident of McLean who is obsessed with laxatives and chicken (for some odd reason unknown to Kaysen or anyone else). Her arrival means that room assignments must be rearranged to make room for the new body. The subsequent scene of confusion is hilarious. The voices of the mental patients are heard in all their glory as each attempts to put forth her two cents. The sexually charged “Martian’s girlfriend” gets excited, Cynthia, affected greatly by six months of shock therapy, speaks herself in circles, and Polly offers to share when she already has a roommate (who turns out to be an anorexic). Kaysen manages to poke fun at the sensitive state of anorexics by explaining the anorexic's theory of how every weight is “the perfect weight.” To solve the rooming problem, “a couple of catatonics were teamed up and Daisy’s room was ready for her arrival” (32). Unlike earlier, there is no specific event or instant that creates the humor. Kaysen, instead, allows the voices of her peers to speak for themselves. The combination of a series of insane female voices and a taste of the internal soap opera of the asylum is simply asking for laughter. Later, after Lisa infiltrates Daisy’s secretive cell, she gives a comical report in the TV room. During the evening news, Lisa, “stood in front of the TV and spoke loud enough to drown out Walter Cronkite,” so that she could give some news of her own (34). She explains how, “Daisy’s room is full of chicken,” and the bizarre ritual of eating the meat and saving the carcasses (34). Kaysen presents this entire ordeal in a manner that makes the reader feel comfortable laughing at these oddities of the mental patients. As expected, though, the fun ends just as quickly as it begins. Unlike like the previous downturns, however, the fun-stopper is very severe. All of a sudden, at the end of the chapter, Kaysen adds the news that Daisy has committed suicide. The chapter builds a sense that all the women in the ward are reasonably harmless and very human, although somewhat quirky. There is a feeling of comfort for a moment until all of a sudden a suicide is thrown in to remind the reader how unstable and abnormal the world of McLean truly is. If it were not for the drastic alteration of emotions, the suicide may have been taken with a grain of salt instead of with the severity it deserves.

[5] Following Daisy’s suicide, Kaysen uses the grave mood to explain her own suicide attempt and some of her cognitive difficulties dealing with patterns. At this point, she is beginning to question her mind and analyze herself. This constant, amorphous self-analysis is framed by the levity of comic situations. Following this particular reflection, Kaysen decides to create a few more laughs so that the reader does not fall too deeply into the bizarre psychology of her world. She doesn't want to explain too much at this point. This time, the subject is the seclusion room-an apparent contrast to the meaning of humor. Patients were able to, “pop into the seclusion, shut the door, and yell for a while. When [they] were done, [they] could open the door and leave” (46). Better yet, “the seclusion room was supposed to be soundproof. It wasn’t” (46). There is a set of manners for using, sharing, and being locked in the seclusion room. The ironies such as the seclusion room make the hospital humorous, but at the same time cause one to reflect at the frustrations of living under an institutions thumb that restricts more than encourages individuality and personality, which are the exact troubles in Susanna's mind.

[6] The same pattern of humor framing the true substance holds fro the remainder of the memoir, even at the finale. To begin the final analysis of herself, Kaysen deals directly with her diagnosis and factual definitions of her apparent disease then gives her opinion on the faults of those scientific approaches. After these technical discussions, Kaysen adds one last punch of humor before taking the final plunge into the conclusion. She tells the story of running into Lisa and her three-year-old son in Harvard Square. Lisa seems to have maintained her edge of humor while stabilizing her sociopathic tendencies. For a little fun before the two old friend part, Lisa, “grabbed hold of the flesh of her abdomen. Then she pulled. Her skin was like an accordion, it kept expanding…until she was holding the flap of skin a foot away from her body” (164). It was stretchy skin of child-birth. The way Kaysen describes Lisa’s actions in the square, it is difficult to determine what kind of grotesque thing she is up to, but then upon realization of what the action actually is, a comical relief passes. This little anecdote from Kaysen’s past serves a couple of purposes. First, it is the relief in the midst of analytical discussions. It also emphasizes the great ability of humans to change. Lisa always appeared to be the most socially dangerous, albeit funniest, of all the patients described by Kaysen, but this final image of her living as an independent mother while still holding onto her true personality not only gives comic relief from her actions, but also hope and emotional relief.

[7] So it seems that the humor is very essential to the successful structure of Girl, Interrupted. The comedy seems very natural when reading through the book, but it does something emotionally to the reader that is important to Kaysen’s purposeful progression through the memoir. It is the constant alteration of the mood of the work that enables many of the most significant segments to be illuminated. Structurally, the humor proves to be a factor, but in Kaysen's personal quest within the text to find herself, does the humor function equally well? Early, it is possible to see Kaysen’s humor as a result of her confusion. She doesn’t really have a grasp on herself, but sees something to which she can direct her attention to-the follies of those around her. She perhaps is jealous of the colorful personalities of her peers. Each patient is something special in herself and creates laughs by simply acting as a human in her own holds a great deal of power in both the structure and the meaning of the memoir. unique mannerisms. Not knowing her own personality may cause Kaysen to fixate on the intriguing personas that surround her. Her internal struggle is exciting and thought-provoking- of which she showcases fragments-while the external actions and characters of the other patients are the other exciting focal point. The humorous section themselves may, in fact, have meaning toward Kaysen’s identity as well. The humor is always flirting with the line of darkness. That delicate line, like Kaysen’s description of the border of insanity, often generates more thought than the straight-forward black or white investigations. Evidently, there are a multitude of purposes for generating comedy in this memoir, whether they are intended by the author or not. Either way, the humor of Girl. Interrupted holds a great deal of power in both the structure and the meaning of the memoir.

Works Cited

Kaysen, Susanna. Girl. Interrupted. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.