Close Reading: Girl, Interrupted

Dr Crumble: "No. You need to go somewhere where you can get a genuine rest, Susanna. And you're lucky -- because the best place in the world for someone like yourself happens to be a half-hour from here."

Step One:
Susanna's parents asked her dad's friend and colleague to talk to Susanna about her out of control behavior after she landed herself in the hospital.  The former doctor tries to encourage Susanna to open up about why she attempted to commit suicide, but Susanna does not engage in the conversation unless she is questioning the doctor or responding to his questions with a sassy comment.  The doctor says that Susanna needs to go somewhere in order to rest, and Susanna agrees but says she will go home in order to do so. At that moment she has no idea he her family has made prior arrangements for her to be sent to Claymoore.  After the doctor explains she needs to get genuine rest she realizes that home is not where the doctor meant after all.

Step Two:
I think that one pattern that is emerging is Susanna's parents constantly focusing on themselves, even though it is clear Susanna is the one that is suffering.  Her mom was worried about how Susanna was dressed at the party going on in her home and then she questions her further asking where she was since everyone attending the party had already arrived but Susanna had yet to make her way downstairs.  Later in the movie her parents are talking with Susanna and the doctor at Claymoore and her parents ask the doctor if she will be home for Christmas because they have no idea what they will say to everyone during the holidays about Susanna if she is not there.  It all seems to be related in that her parents tend to care more about how their family appears to be, rather than how Susanna actually is.

Step Three:
I think that my observations are supported by the fact that they asked Susanna's dad's friend to talk with Susanna, rather than hiring someone who she may feel a little bit more comfortable talking with about such a personal topic.  Not only is this friend retired, he also is a much older gentleman that Susanna probably is uninterested in talking to, partly because they have nothing in common, besides both knowing her parents, which is probably a negative aspect of this doctor in Susanna's head.  If your daughter was seriously struggling to the point where you think she attempted suicide, don't you think you would want her to talk to someone who is still in the field and who is willing to actually let her talk openly rather than jumping to conclusions?  It seems as if this is just another way for her parents to make sure that this side of Susanna is kept private.

Step Four:
At one point in the film Susanna says that she does not want to end up like her mother, and I think that she means she wants more out of life than living simply for the appearance of "looking good."  By telling Susanna, through a retired doctor, that she needs a genuine rest somewhere other than home is another way for them to "beat around the bush" so to speak by not getting to the core of the problem with Susanna but instead sending her to Claymoore where she almost seems to be getting worse.  Susanna has no control of the situation and she knows that she has to go, but I am not sure that her parents are going to get the outcome that they are hoping for.