What does the comma in Girl, Interrupted mean?
A book review
Of course I was sad and puzzled. I was eighteen, it was spring, and I was behind bars.
When I first got wind of Girl, Interrupted a couple of years ago, I found out that some people do not use the oxford comma and that it's entirely possible to do so. All my life I have been using the oxford comma and it was the only grammatical way I knew to list items in a sentence. I didn't even know there was a word for that comma nor there's a whole debate about it! English is not my first language after all.
All this may seem a little silly to some but I was really weirded out about this whole comma thing. To me, it's akin to having your whole belief system shaken. So imagine my interest piquing when coming upon a book with a puzzling title. What does the comma between the two words of the title mean? In the context of that phrase, what does the comma signify? Does the whole title even make sense? And so I resolved to figure that out when I get the chance to read the book.
Two weeks ago I finally had the chance to read Girl, Interrupted. My copy1 had the movie tie-in cover which I usually hate but I kind of liked this one. You wouldn't know it was an actress on the cover if you didn't know it was Winona Ryder from the movie. It could have been anybody. I like how it was just one side of Winona's face with her big eyes as the main focus of the picture.
Trigger warnings
Kaysen's writing is raw and unflinching, capturing the confusion and isolation of life in a mental institution. She details what was going in her head before her attempted suicide and her various episodes throughout her stay in the hospital. When I say detail, I mean Kaysen's spiraling and repetitive thoughts right before an episode so consider this as a trigger warning. But if you have the bandwidth and capacity to take this all in, I encourage you to read this memoir as it is a big eye-opener. It gave me insights to the nuances of mental health illnesses that I have never read before.
Borders and book structure
Girl, Interrupted is a compelling memoir that details the author's 18-month stay in a psychiatric hospital in the 1960s. She was sent to McLean Hospital, famous for its poets and musicians clientele, after one 20-minute session with a psychiatrist she just met. Kaysen was diagnosed with borderline personality at 18 years old.
The book doesn't come in a linear narrative. Through a series of vignettes, Kaysen introduces us to her life in the hospital and the patients she lived with, each with their own unique challenges and personalities. Some of the chapters are titled in reference to space or borders. Let's take for example the first chapter entitled "Toward a Topography of the Parallel Universe" wherein Kaysen likens mental illness to a parallel universe.
And it is easy to slip into a parallel universe. There are so many of them: worlds of the insane, the criminal, the crippled, the dying, perhaps of the dead as well. These worlds exist alongside this world and resemble it, but are not in it. (p. 5)
Kaysen then goes on to discuss that the barrier between these two worlds can easily be crossed over. However, people suffering from mental illness do not cross the border immediately. At the start, they catch brief glimpses of this other world where everything is different, including time and the way everyday things appear to the eye. But the temptation to cross over is irresistible.
Most people pass over incrementally, making a series of perforations in the membrane between here and there until an opening exists. And who can resist an opening? (p. 5)
Another chapter, entitled Applied Topography, discusses how the hospital's layout have been built to separate the sane and the insane. The patient's room are on one side while the nursing station and staff rooms are on the other. The hallway, a border, separating the two sides.
In the subject of borders, Kaysen also ponders on the borders of sanity. What is the difference between sanity and insanity, and what makes one sane or insane?
Was insanity just a matter of dropping the act? (p. 41)
What the comma means
According to the Oxford dictionary, a comma is used to show where there is a break in a sentence. And that comma, that break, represents Kaysen's 18-month stay at the McLean Hospital. The break represents two things. One is respite. Respite from the demands of this competitive world.
But break could also mean interruption. In the last chapters, Kaysen tells us that the title comes from a Vermeer painting called Girl Interrupted at Her Music.
Interrupted at her music: as my life had been, interrupted in the music of being seventeen, as her life had been, snatched and fixed on canvas: one moment made to stand still and to stand for all the moments, whatever they would be or might have been. What life could recover from that? (p. 167)
Being institutionalized meant an interruption to her young life. While her peers are going to colleges, pursuing their dreams, and falling in love, she’s stuck in the hospital for a diagnosis she doesn't really believe in. Her life wasting away and down the drain in McLean, measured only by half-hour staff checks.
Kaysen also writes about the stigma former mental hospital patients face when they go out into the world. She talks about the looks former patients receive when interviewing for a job, applying for phone services, or getting your driver license. She even added her own referral letters from the hospital when she applied for her driver’s license and for a phone services. In a way, you’re life is still “interrupted” even when you get out. In Kaysen’s own words, they were all tainted.
The book also tells us how horrible the entire system of mental institutions in the early 60’s were. Kaysen was sent to a mental hospital after just one visit after all. Three activities tagged as “potentially self-damaging” are typically associated with women (binge-eating, shoplifting, and shopping sprees). Any non-conformist woman who deviates in a conservative environment can be easily labeled as insane.
Kaysen’s memoir is not just a story of illness, but also an exercise to empathy and compassion. Her story challenges the reader to think beyond stereotypes and to see the person behind the diagnosis. The memoir is beautifully and smartly-written. Kaysen is funny and ruthless. This book provides an important contribution to conversations about mental health.
Read if you like: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
A post script
There's are still so many things I want to talk about this book but I promised short, spoiler-free reviews (maybe we can discuss in the comments). I know I can do whatever I want with this newsletter but I think I still need practice fleshing out all these ideas in my head. Soon soon I'll write better.
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In case you missed this..
Kaysen, Susanna, Girl, Interrupted, USA, Virago Press, 2000, p. 169
I wrote my undergrad thesis on Girl, Interrupted because I found it such a brilliant memoir and Kaysen’s perspective so nuanced and strange. I’ve written about it a bit on my substack too! Loved this piece!!
beautiful review!! what’d you think of the film?