Incarceration in the Views of Kaysen and Abbott - Essay Example

?Incarceration in the Views of Kaysen and Abbott Incarceration is defined as the manner of putting an individual into captivity. The goal of incarceration is to punish and control an individual in doing unjust acts. It has three main goals which are “incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation” (Hinton 6). On the other hand, an individual with mental illness is housed in a psychiatric hospital which also encompasses the act of rehabilitating an individual (Videbeck 69). With the definition on hand, this paper tries to cite the similarities of the views and arguments of Susanna Kaysen, author of Girl, Interrupted, and Jack Henry Abbott’s, author of In the Belly of the Beast, in terms of being controlled and being captive inside a system, in which Kaysen’s incarceration experience was in a psychiatric hospital and Abbott’s incarceration experience was inside the prison. Susanna Kaysen was the author of the book Girl, Interrupted, which was published in 1994. The book was about her life while she was confined within the premises of McLean Hospital. She was incarcerated in the hospital because she was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. During her time in the hospital, Kaysen felt being deprived of the freedom she once had. She felt that she was placed in a “parallel universe that is unconnected to the outside world” (Klemens 3). She felt helpless being a patient in McLean Hospital because they may be able to have all the time they need, but the irony is that they are also captives of time. As patients, their lives were governed by the rules of the hospital. Their self-determination was removed from them, allowing the hospital to drive their faith and protection. Also, they were checked by the hospital staff every 15 or 30 minutes, which interrupts them in whatever they are doing. Also, the experience to be alone, unlike in the outside world, means being deprive of freedom and put into the seclusion room. Also, in the beginning, she compared the hospital entrance similar to a prison, and that patients were locked in their rooms like prisoners. Furthermore, the hospital staff resorted to medications in order to control and refrained them from misbehaving. However, at the end, Kaysen “accepted the fact that she is mentally ill,” and that her stay in the hospital will eventually shed light on her illness and recovery (Klemens 2-4; Kaysen). On the other hand, Jack Henry Abbott wrote In the Belly of the Beast, which was about his life in prison. During the 20 years that he was incarcerated, he described his experience as a terrifying one. Aside from his childhood experiences, he was incarcerated in Utah State Penitentiary and was sentenced to serve for 19 years in a federal prison. Throughout these years, he had experienced eating cockroach in order to survive, beaten physically and verbally, and injected with drugs to calm or control them. Moreover, he cited that there was an impartial treatment between races which was exemplified by the officers. Also, murder was inevitable inside the prison, even though there were guards inside the premises. He stated that most of the time, the guards allowed riot inside the prison for them to avoid being harassed by the prisoners. He saw the American penal system as a corrupt one which made the prisoners lived by the rules of it. Furthermore, he was also in solitary confinement, where he dwelled into the nothingness of the world that needs to “justify himself as a mortal being” (White House 32-33; NY Book Time; Abbott). However, Susanna Kaysen and Jack Abbott are two individuals who are of two different backgrounds who battled against their incarceration experiences as being described in their books. Susanna Kaysen was from a well-off family and was also well-educated. Prior to her admission to the McLean Hospital, she had a bright future ahead of her because of her education and simply because she belonged to an affluent family. However, at the age of eighteen, Kaysen decided to kill herself, and for this reason, she was sent to McLean Hospital. On the contrary, Abbot at the age of 12 was sent to a Utah State Industrial School for Boys. Also, he was there until he was 18 years old because he was not able to obey by the system. Furthermore, he was incarcerated in Utah State Penitentiary and was sentenced to serve for 19 years in a federal prison (Klemens 2; White House 32-33). Another difference is that Kaysen was subjected to the incarceration because she was diagnosed with a mental illness. She believed that she needed to be in the psychiatric hospital in order to be cured. She understood that in the time when she is already well, she will be able to experience the freedom she once had. Though she considered herself as incarcerated, she was still well taken cared. She never experienced seeing someone being murdered or stabbed. Her life in the hospital was decent, with clean sheets, medications, and proper food. In the case of Abbott, he was imprisoned because he did wrongful acts in the outside world. Abbott blamed the society and the system of what had happened to him and insisted that he should not be in prison. In his incarceration, he experienced being beaten and almost murdered. Most of the time, he, along with the prisoners, was not fed well and even starved when they did something wrong. These are the main differences of Kaysen and Abbott, their reason for being incarcerated, the manner of accepting the truth, and the treatment they had experienced during their incarceration. Also, Kaysen stayed and realized that she needed to be cured in order to be rehabilitated and take part of the activities in the outside world while the other insisted that the outside world had caused him to be what he was. Nonetheless, Kaysen and Abbott felt the same during their confinement or incarceration, which was the feeling of being removed with their freedom. They were obliged to follow the rules of the system where they were held captive. In Kaysen’s case, she was obliged to follow the rules of the hospital and be controlled by it for her to regain the freedom she once had. In the psychiatric hospital, she did not have a hold of her time and was always in a constant pursuit to understand and remedy the cause of her incarceration. During her incarceration, she felt that the patient, including her, was controlled and manipulated by the staff of the hospital. This control over them was manifested when the staff resorted to injecting sedatives to patients in order to control them or induce sleep. Similarly, Abbott also saw and felt, during the time, what Kaysen had witnessed and felt. When Abbott was incarcerated, he felt that his life in the prison was all about being controlled and following orders and rules, instead of feeling rehabilitated. In Abbott’s case, when a prisoner acts violently, the guards would also inject the prisoner with drugs, either to calm the prisoner or to induce sleep. The experience of Kaysen and Abbot being captive within the hospital and a prison allowed them to feel deprived and be less of a person. They both experienced, at some point, being controlled and unwanted by the outside world. There are a lot of similarities of the views and arguments of Kaysen and Abbott in terms of being controlled and being captive inside a system. They were not free; they were treated as if they were not the legal beholder of their lives. They were controlled, and this was the state they wanted to defy. With these two stories on hand, the question now remains if the two systems, the hospital and the prison, are really fit for rehabilitation or are they built to incarcerate people. Works Cited Abbott, Henry Jack. In the Belly of the Beast: Letters from Prison. New York: Vintage Books. Print. Hinton, Kerry. Incarceration in America. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2006. Print. Kaysen, Susanna. Girl, Interrupted. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Print. Klemens, Nadine. “Girl Interrupted: Comparison of Book and Movies.” Technical University of Braunschweig. Germany. 1 Sep. 2007. Lecture. NY Book Time. Book Review: In the Belly of the Beast by Jack Henry Abbott. Blogspot, 27 Dec. 2007. Web. Videbeck, Sheila, L. Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2010. Print. White House, Jack, E. “Jack Henry Abbott. In the Belly of the Beast.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 2.32 (1981): 32-33. Print. Read More