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Otherness

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Submitted By jmerc004
Words 655
Pages 3
Jasmin Mercado
Miss DeLlamas
AP Language
9 December 2012
The Otherness Otherness is the concept of one not meeting the requirements of fitting into the social norm. These people are then rejected and left alone because they are too unique for “normality”. Blanche and Susanna have several comparisons and they both make their own statements about “otherness” which leads to their delinquency and punishments. At first, Blanche expresses herself as a young, caring, honest, and innocent lady, but it is later revealed that she is the complete opposite. Blanche becomes an alcoholic because of her incrimination towards her husband’s death. She feels responsible for her husband’s suicide and has emptiness in her heart. She begins to be treated as an “other” as she attempts to fulfill the emptiness in her heart by being sexually active with, “the kindness of strangers” (149). Due to her daily routine with several men, people begin to notice Blanche’s disproportion and are judgmental towards her originality. Blanche moves in with Stella and Stanley in an attempt to start new, but it is a downfall. Since she is mentally unstable, due to her past experiences, she begins to give in to the pressure that others have forced upon her and goes insane. Oh the other hand, Susanna who has been well-educated and raised by a wealthy family chose the path of being labeled a “freak”. Although Susanna can appear to be a normal person, she is not because of her otherness reputation; she had different goals. Since she was not accepted by her peers, she found sexual acquaintances; just as Blanche did. She was obligated to believe that she had a mental illness and discuss it in order to be released from the mental institution. Generally speaking, in Girl, Interrupted, Susanna implies that every person is unique in their own way. In the institution where she was sent there were young

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