Mental Illness In Hannah Carlson's Girl Interrupted

Inside every human who wanders the earth lies opinions, strong and submissive, agreeing with the world or straying from its typical beliefs. A prominent argument in today’s world is the idea of mental illness and whether or not it is real or if its just an exit path to avoiding responsibilities. Interestingly enough, not everyone has formed the same perception regarding this topic and therefore it has created a social stigma allowing the false to be seen as true and vice versa. In the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the memoir “Girl Interrupted”, an article by Hannah Carlson and an article by Gail A Hornstein, readers will see an interwoven connection allowing mental illness to be seen in a deeper light; inviting people to see that these

Telling of her world, she brings the reader through a twisting world where all social issues within the ward stem from forced confinement. In the memoir, the idea of stigmas is confronted but altered to show the reader that the girls want to feel no shame towards their “mental illness.” This idea of being shameless is only possible because the girls believe that there is nothing wrong with them, or if there is, it is solely caused by the ‘annoying’ nurses who control them and their minds. Seeing that the girls feel no shame, this protests the stigma that comes along with having a mental illness. These specific people in the world are usually seen as incapable of doing what so called ‘normal’ people can do. They are seen as inferior, almost unworthy of respect, and are treated as youthful children when spoken to. These actions are what make people believe that there is something wrong with them, even if in the beginning there is not. I do not believe that the rest of the population is aware of how their actions affect the ‘mentally ill’ negatively. The memoir grants the reader to accept that stigmas are built on unstable ground due to their foundation being set in stone upon forced