Girl, Interrupted | Teaching Key Figures

Character Descriptions

This section provides a short description of all the major characters in the book. This can be printed out as a study guide for students, used as a "key" for leading a class discussion, or you can jump to the quiz/homework section to find worksheets that incorporate these descriptions into a variety of question formats.

Characters

Susanna Kaysen - This character is the principal protagonist of the narrative and is present in nearly every event discussed in the text. Her mid-to-late teenage years were marked with developing mental illness, which was eventually diagnosed as Borderline Personality Disorder.

Polly - This character had apparently been fairly normal until about age seventeen, when she had doused her head and neck in gasoline and set herself on fire.

Cynthia - This character received weekly electroshock therapy and always returned crying, although she reported she did not feel sad. Her formal diagnosis was...
(read more)