A Girl Like Me, By Dr. Kenneth Clark

In the book Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Susanna Kaysen was only 18 years old when she agreed to enter a medium security psychiatric facility in Boston, McLean hospital in April 1967, after a failed suicide attempt. She insisted that her over dose on aspirin was not a suicide attempt, but after a 20 minute interview the doctor decided she needed to be admitted to a hospital. During her prolonged two-year stay at the hospital Kaysen describes the issues that most of the patients in her ward have to deal with and how they all differently deal with the amount of time they must stay in the hospital for. While in the hospital Kaysen experienced a case of depersonalization where she tried to pull the skin of her hands to see if there were bones underneath, after a failed escape attempt. Soon, after going to therapy and analysis she was labeled as having recovered from borderline personality disorder. After her release she realizes that McLean Hospital provided patients with more freedom than the outside world, by being free responsibility of parental pressure, free from school and job responsibilities, and being free from the “social norms” that society comes up with. Ultimately, being in captivity gave the patients more freedom then in society and created a safe environment in which patients wanted to stay in.

Technology, the advancement of knowledge and productivity through the application of tools, information, and techniques to create an effortless process, has ultimately lead to the declination of our society and our future. In “A Thing Like Me,” Nicholas Carr addresses the development of technology from the day it was created and how it initiated an immediate impact within the lives of humans leading to an unhealthy dependency. Carr establishes how technology, what was intended to be a tool, has become the “pacifier” of our generation. This “pacifier” causes a loss of freedom, not through the laws of the government, but rather with the values of freedom one holds within themselves. This freedom is the individuality that distinguishes each person from the next, and forms a desire for the development of oneself through the experiences of life and the wisdom that is acquired along the way. Technology has blinded man from this pursuit of self-enhancement and with the advancement of technology occurring daily, there is no resolution. Each day people are confined within themselves and the pieces of technology that will continually limit them in their lives. Freedom is more than just a concept of laws instilled by the government, it is the thought process found within each individual person and their “hunger” to become more. With technology, social media was created and immediately immersed within our lives. The society of today has

Dorothy Allison’s essay, Panacea, recalls the fond childhood memories about her favorite dish, gravy. Allison uses vivid imagery to cook up a warm feeling about family meals to those who may be a poor family or a young mother. Appeal to the senses shows this warm feeling, along with a peaceful diction.

The movie ‘‘Pleasantville’’, written, produced and directed by Gary Ross, approaches a period in America’s history which subsequent generations idealise as a better and more stable society. He portrays this time period of the 1950s as a time when people and life were less complicated; a time when everyone knew their place in society. However, as the film ironically shows, this was a time when people were more ignorant, racist and most certainly sexist. Ross demolishes this illusion of the great 1950s American society by showing how its defects are gradually changed from black and white to colour. Ross shows that ‘change is inevitable’ once a catalyst for change is added to the ordered life of “Pleasantville”. Once David and Mary-Sue begin

Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.

When John Howard Griffin wrote the book “Black Like Me” he made it so that it was set in the southern states of the 1950’s. Griffin was a middle age man during the era of segregation ,he decided to change the color of his skin to see how his kind will react to the new depiction. The setting was critical to the story for being in the post-slavery era people where blacks and whites were separate but not equal. The tone of the story is gentle yet produces a powerful meaning. The main message from this story is racism is a very evil subject.

Over fifty years ago, a Texan named John Howard Griffin embarked on a revolutionary journey—to darken the color of his skin and experience racism in the Deep South firsthand. While considered extremely controversial at the time, the experiences recorded by Griffin in his book, Black like Me, are still discussed today. The book has continued to inform readers about oppressive prejudice in America, and aided them in realizing that bias, while hidden, is still prevalent today. It has inspired a new generation to work towards equality, while warning them of the dangers of racial supremacy. Readers are exposed to the fact that many deny the existence of racism by convincing themselves that the small

Over fifty years ago, a Texan named John Howard Griffin decided to start a revolutionary experiment--to change the color of his skin and experience racism in the South firsthand. While considered extremely controversial at the time, the arguments and teachings of Griffin in his book, “Black Like Me,” are still scrutinized and discussed today. The book has continued to enlighten readers to the oppressive, violent racism in America, and aided them in realizing that racism, while it may be hidden, is still prevalent today. It has encouraged a new generation to work towards equality, while warning about the dangers of supremacy, to progressively improve society for all. Readers are exposed to the fact that many deny the existence of racism by

1. Kenneth Clark stated that when colored people are given the choice to choice between colored dolls and white dolls, they often chose white dolls to "indicate internalized anti black prejudice" (pg41). This shows that the research Clark made impacted American culture, reflecting how American culture is demonstrated by a child simply picking another race, other than their own.

The novel, Girl, Interrupted is a memoir of author Susana Kaysen’s life and her journey through early adulthood as she suffered with Borderline Personality Disorder. The novel captures her time at McLean Hospital, a psychiatric hospital located in Belmont, Massachusetts. Kaysen divides the novel into separate anecdotes of events and fellow patients she encountered during the two years she was admitted at Mclean.

There are many components involved when analyzing a short story such as, main characters, point of view, plot, theme, and setting. Sometimes the answer is in black and white and other times it takes critical thinking to come up with a response. Some short stories have an important real life lesson while others are simply easy to relate to. Symbolism also plays a role in short stories by giving an event, object, or words being said a deeper meaning than the surface that brings importance to the story. “The Fat Girl” by Andre Dubus, “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich, and “An Ounce of Cure” by Alice Munro are stories that contain most of the components of analyzing short stories.

The Clark doll experiment was completed by Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife, Mamie. The children were asked to choose between two dolls. One was white, and the other was black. Nothing else about the dolls was different except the color of the skin. The experiment helped the American Supreme Court to see that “separate but equal” schools for blacks and whites were anything but equal. It showed an ending of Jim Crow. In the experiment Clark showed black children between the ages of six and nine two dolls, one white and one black, and then asked several questions. They either pointed to the white doll or the black doll to answer

Consider Jane Elliott’s explanation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. to her third-grade classroom. To make the abstract idea of racism concrete, she separated brown-eyed children from blue-eyed children, proclaiming that the brown-eyed children were superiors. After the children experienced concrete racism, Elliott switched the roles of two groups and further demonstrated the concreteness of racism.

Racism, prejudice and stereotyping, as the main themes of the movie, control all the sub-stories that are somehow linked to each other. Moreover, as the stories go on and events develop, it becomes possible to see how characters start to have changes in their perspective and attitude towards each other, either in a good or a bad way. An incident which can demonstrate our thesis on racism and stereotyping and how it might change in just one moment which brings people closer could be shown as the conflict between the racist police officer and the African American woman who gets harassed by him, and whose life is saved by him on the next day. The first encounter of the woman and the officer resulted with the woman

People in society are like crayons in a box; some are sharp and beautiful, some have weird names but all are in different colors; but they have to learn to live in the same box. Every day, many people encounter other people, creating many social issues and racism is one of them. Racism is one of the most controversial problem in our society. This is the ideal that many people engage in consciously and the way some people think without even realizing it. Racism is a racial discrimination but discrimination is not always racial. People focus on all different racial groups of people and discuss their fairness, discrimination and prejudice by appearance in their environment. The racism and discrimination throughout American history represented by the stereotypical ideology set by society, the progress in reforming the society and empowerment for younger generation nowadays. This can be seen in Eudora Welty’s literature work, “A Worn Path”.