"Girl, Interrupted": Patchwork of Interpretation

Suzanna is a girl, displaced.

When she arrives at the psychiatric ward, Suzanna feels as if she doesn't belong. This new place feels unstable, the other young women and girls who surround her seem to be in their own little worlds. Suzanne denies that she  However, as we had seen in previous scenes, she does not feel as if she fits into the world outside the ward either. She searches for connection wherever she can find it. Before being admitted to the ward, she has slept with two men, one of whom is a friend of her parents. Oftentimes, she gazes off from the action of realtime. Similar to the other young women in the ward, she appears trapped in her own little world on certain occasions moments. At her high school graduation, her thoughts distract her and she fails to hear the principle calling her to the stage.She tends to draw inward and retreat to the world inside of her, neglecting the world outside of herself.


Suzanna is a girl, misunderstood.

The therapist diagnoses her with Borderline Personality. Convinced that they do not understand her, Suzanna refutes their ideas and diagnosis. Yet, she too, does not understand herself. As if the cloudy air which surround her head mirrors her internal confusion, Suzanna constantly smokes and is rarely seen without a cigarette. Her habit reveals her agitation and internal distress. Upon first meeting her roommate, Georgiana, Suzanna glances over at Georgiana and sees that she reads a book entitled The Patchwork Girl of Oz. In the moment, Suzanna believes that the other patients at the ward are this way, "patchworks." Yet, she appears to convince herself that she is not this way, a patchwork, someone who "deserves" to be misunderstood, that there is no reason why she should be ousted and disconnected from reality.

Suzanna is a girl, interrupted.

As the taxi car drives her from the ward, we see a clear change in this young woman. She has become more connected, developed friendships, and learned to channel her thoughts into her passion (writing). Yet, she is still a girl, interrupted. She remains a "patchwork" and her borderline personality disorder has not simply disappeared into thin air. Her story simply accentuated the human experience of misunderstanding and interruption. In reality, we are all "patchworks" and conglomerations of various identities and experiences. Similar to every person who wakes up in the morning, Suzanna faces confusion and distraction. Temptation to hide away from difficulties she encounters bids her to fall into this trap. She desires to stow away within herself, feeling constantly interrupted by the outside world. Yet, through the friendships and experiences she has had during her year-long hiatus at the ward, her tendency to turn blindly inward and ignore the outside world, has been interrupted. Her experience has refreshed her perspective.