Humanities Homework Help

Kaysen’s Memoir pages 4-91

Instructions:

choose ONE literary strategy found in Analyzing Literature and analyze Kaysen’s memoir. In this analysis, you will do the following:

1. Identify specifically what she is protesting (look to the themes), for instance, lack of credibility, being silenced by medical health professionals, or ineffective treatment.
2. Identify the literary strategy she is using to illustrate this protest. As you support your findings, use direct quotes from Kaysen’s memoir.
3. Lastly, conclude on how this strategy is accomplishing the author’s purpose (e.g. protesting against treatment, or providing insight on mental illness, to name a few).

Example:

This response should be in approximately 200 – 300 words. To illustrate what I am looking for, here is a sample analysis:

Susanna Kaysen uses figurative language to show how being mentally ill makes one feel confined in their surroundings and in society. In the vignette, “Toward a Topography of the Parallel Universe,” Kaysen refers to the “parallel universe” as the worlds in which we live. She lists them: “worlds of the insane, the criminal, the cripple, the dying . . .” (Kaysen 5), showing that these different worlds coexist with one another. “Parallel universe” is a metaphor (which is a type of figurative language) for being mentally ill and how being mentally ill is like being in another universe apart from our own. With this metaphor, Kaysen provides an insight on what it is like to be mentally ill. Audiences come to understand that living in a different “world” makes one feel lonely and not a part of mainstream society, even though these worlds coexist. She also points out that there is fine line that separates these universes and slipping into them may be sudden or done “incrementally.” Once one has slipped into the parallel universe, they “can see the world [they] came from,” which is a scary reality. That reality is like living in a prison, which is what Alcatraz symbolizes (another figurative use of language), for the windows they see, as described by Kaysen, indicate the reality of now living in the parallel universe, which is confining and isolative. By using figurative language, Kaysen hopes her readers will come to empathize with people who struggle with mental illness, and see them as members of society, not separate citizens living in a parallel universe.

This analysis is 263 words, to give you an idea of length. I put in bold some of the words to illustrate what Kaysen is protesting (theme of confinement) and the literary strategy (figurative language) to exemplify how you can clearly state these observations in your analysis. Though you don’t have to bold them in your response, be sure you do clearly identify them, as shown above.