Girl, Interrupted
by Susanna Kaysen

Girl, Interrupted: Style 1 key example

Chapter 19: Velocity vs. Viscosity
Explanation and Analysis:

Girl, Interrupted takes place almost entirely within the confines of the adolescent psych ward at McLean hospital, so it's fitting that Kaysen approaches her memoir with a clinical style. Take this example from Chapter 19:

In contrast to viscosity’s cellular coma, velocity endows every platelet and muscle fiber with a mind of its own, a means of knowing and commenting on its own behavior. There is too much perception, and beyond the plethora of perceptions, a plethora of thoughts about the perceptions and about the fact of having perceptions. Digestion could kill you! What I mean is the unceasing awareness of the processes of digestion could exhaust you to death. And digestion is just an involuntary sideline to thinking, which is where the real trouble begins.