Girl, Interrupted

Fitting the norms of society is believed to be important. If you don’t fit the norms, something is wrong with you. This brings you in ways to the American Dream. You have to be a certain way, act a certain way, to achieve the American Dream. The American dream sometimes is more damaging than helpful. People in society try so hard to achieve it, they end up hurting themselves in ways.

In Susanna Kaysen’s autobiography Girl, Interrupted, you see her struggle with society’s norms. Not necessarily in achieving the American dream, but she struggles in whether she is actually sick or just not conforming to society’s norms. She expresses in the novel that there is such a hard fuzzy distinction between what is normal and what is not normal. She doesn’t know what she is, if she is following society’s norms or is “crazy”. She struggles with why conforming to the norms is such an issue. If you don’t conform, you instantly have a problem? She shows that the American dream in ways is more of a damaging concept; we all think we need to fit the mold, we need to conform, when in reality, it is more important to be yourself.