Do I have Bones?!?!

Sometimes I wonder about reality.  How do we know what is real?  To be honest, I try not think about it that much, because the answers seems so obvious.  When I started reading Girl Interrupted, the story of a young woman who in the late 60's was checked into an insane asylum, I started questioning what it means to be normal.  I began to wonder about reality and sanity, and what drives someone to be insane.  This story truly captures the horrors of being institutionalized during this time while also adding elements of humor.  The comedic relief balances out the disgusting descriptions of cruel treatments that took place during this time such as shock therapy.  She recalls how patients were forced to take mysterious drugs without knowing what the drugs were, or what side effects would take over their bodies.

At first glance, Susanna Kaysen seems like a normal girl, and I wondered why she had checked herself into the mental institution.  This was until she described an episode she had experienced where she bit into her hand in order to "make sure she had bones".  Leading up to this event, she expressed her inner thoughts in which she questions what is true.  She became so paranoid about whether or not she had bones, that she had to find out.  I was inspired by this particular scene of Girl Interrupted, because it made me think about all of the things I never had before.  What if we really didn't have bones.  We would never know, because we have always been told that we have them, we accepted this as the truth, but what if it wasn't.  What if everything that we have accepted as true, was actually a lie.  How do we know what is real?  How can we be sure? 

I think this book might be driving me insane. 

This book begs the question "Who decides what is normal?"Girl Interrupted reflects the tragedy of mental illness, a sane person trapped in a deep haze of uncertainty, a normal girl who lost her mind.  It demonstrates the control that exerted over the weak, and the harsh reality of mid twentieth century mental hospitalization.    Kaysen revealed the social implications of being institutionalized, which included losing all family ties (nobody wanted to be known as a relative to a crazy person at the time).  She clearly shows the relation between losing your mind, and losing your freedom.