Daisy’s Suicide In Girl Interrupted.
In the memoir Girl, Interrupted Susanna Kaysen recalls her experience at McLean hospital where she was put with borderline personality disorder after she attempted suicide. In the book, she describes the events that took place during her stay in the hospital and introduces other patients who are important characters in the sense that they make the author think about the reality and what it is. Kaysen stayed in the hospital for almost two years, and she communicates her experience and reflections of that period in her memoir.
She met very different people at McLean ranging from a sociopath Lisa to Kaysen’s roommate Georgina who is considered to be one of the most “normal” patients here. All girls have different mental disorders and are inclined to suicide. Many of them attempted suicide before. But only one of them really commits it, and it is Daisy who kills herself after she is released from the hospital. Why did a girl who was considered healthy enough to be released commit suicide? This question leads the author to reflections on the methods of treatment and on the effectiveness of what is really needed: treatment of brain or of mind. However, some other questions arise from Daisy’s suicide: why she? Why not one of the other patients? Could it be predicted? It seems to be impossible to find a correct answer that would not leave any doubts. When we know about Daisy’s suicide, we feel that it was something that could be anticipated. It is obvious from what we know about her that she got lost in the reality and didn’t understand what is her place in life.
Daisy appears in the hospital seasonally and stays here from Thanksgiving Day to Christmas each year. This link to holidays is, maybe, an alarm signal: many people feel depressed during holidays if they are lonely and feel misunderstood. They think that they fall out of this happy picture of celebration, and they tend to fall out of life. Daisy is incommunicable and does not let anyone into her room, and rarely goes out of it herself. She appears only to take her laxatives and chickens with which she is obsessed. “Daisy hated anyone to be near her”, indicates Kaysen (1993, 28). This intentional loneliness is, probably, an evidence of Daisy’s alienation from the real life, and her inability as well as lack of desire to let the reality into her life.
Strange relationships with her father could be the reason of Daisy’s disorder. It is never directly said but it is clearly implied that Daisy’s father sleeps with her. Of course, incestuous relations could not but bring harm to the mental health of Daisy. Probably, subconsciously she realized that this kind of relations is wrong but she could not permit this knowledge to enter her day conscience. She accepted the situation as it is because she felt loved – at least, this way. It is likely that a subconscious conflict between the wrong and the right brought led to depression.
There is also a strange obsession with roasted chickens: twice a week her father brought Daisy a roasted chicken and she ate it in her room and collected carcasses. Lisa discovered that Daisy’s room if full of chicken carcasses. It is not clear why she did that and what reasons she had but it is obvious that it was not normal and that she should not be released from the hospital with such symptoms. Maybe, the “roasted chicken syndrome” was a display of Daisy’s relationship with her father who abused her regularly. Maybe, it was a symbol of a skeleton in the wardrobe – of her unpleasant secret.
Daisy liked a quote “If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home Now” that was engraved on the building. Probably, it was her hope – to find a home. She hoped that her stay in the hospital would help her overcome her difficulties and finally find a rest. Her suicide gives an evidence that her hope didn’t come true. Probably, she finally realized that and decided to put an end to her existence in which she could barely find any sense.
Daisy left the hospital before the Christmas to spend the holidays in her new apartment that her father bought her. “She’ll be back”, said another patient, Lisa, but she was wrong (Kaysen 1993, 31). Daisy committed suicide on her birthday, which can also give a key to understanding of her feelings. It is not a coincidence that she killed herself on her birthday. She decided to do to a better world the day she came into this one.
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