Girl, Interrupted
by Susanna Kaysen

a parallel universe in the sixties

Dale Adcock, Auger 1

The Sixties Group Assignments

The narrator describes 1968 as a time when "people [outside the hospital] were doing the kinds of things we [the patients] had fantasies of doing" [p.92]; a patient's paranoid "delusions" might turn out to be accurate descriptions of the U.S. government's clandestine activities. What other connections does Kaysen draw between her characters' disturbance and the social paroxysms of their time? In what way is this book a document of the 1960s?

Each group will be responsible for prepraring a panel discussion that addresses the above questions with reagrd to its assigned topic. In addition to the resources provided for your group's topic, you might want to investigate the General Sixties Resources.

Group 1: The Vietnam War and the Anti-War Movement

"The ongoing and escalating war in Vietnam was the focus of many of the major protests during the sixties. At the time of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, United States military forces in Vietnam numbered less than 15,000. Under President Lyndon Johnson the numbers grew dramatically, and by 1966 more than 500,000 troops were deployed in the area. Media reports from overseas became increasingly gruesome, and television transmissions showed the death and destruction created by the relentless bombing campaigns of U.S. forces. The nightly news reports counted the dead, and many major literary and political figures began to speak out openly against keeping U.S. troops in Vietnam. Escalation had not achieved the promised results. On January 30, 1968, the North Vietnam army overran Saigon, making a daring predawn attack on the United States Embassy. On November 30, 1969, newspapers reported that U.S. Army troops had massacred up to six hundred men, women, and children in a remote village called My Lai. Opposition to the war grew from many quarters, as the nation began to take a hard look at the United States' involvement in Vietnam."

"Vietnam." The Psychedelic Sixties - Literary Tradition and Social Change.
University of Virginia Special Collections Department: http://www.lib.virginia.edu/speccol/exhibits/sixties/viet.html

Your group's assignment is to investigate the history of the Vietnam War, its effect on the United States, and people's various reactions to it.

Group 2: Civil Rights and the Black Power Movement

"In the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s and 60’s, black people struggled toward the same goal that the slaves had struggled toward so many years before freedom.  This time it was not freedom from enslavement, but freedom to enjoy all the benefits of life in America.  At first the movement, under Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s leadership was a nonviolent one.  But gradually some people became impatient with this approach, and leaders with a more militant outlook gained followers.  It was a tumultuous time and often a frightening one."
(http://www.hardin.k12.ky.us/ehms/Teachers/bwagoner/CIVIL%20RIGHTS%20MOVEMENT%20DTUDY%20GUIDE.htm)

Your group's assignment is to trace the history of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements in the United States, and to examine the effects these movements had on American society.

Group 3: The Youth Movement

"The decade of the sixties was a tumultuous time to grow up. It was a period of change, a shift away from the commercialism of the materialistic Fifties. The youth of the day opted for a completely different existence to that of their parent’s generation, shocking them in the process." (http://www.arcomnet.net.au/%7eporter/YouthCulture.html)
"Seeking a better world, some used music, politics, and alternative lifestyles to create what came to be known as the counterculture. Americans in that era faced many controversial issues-from civil rights, the Vietnam War, nuclear arms, and the environment to drug use, sexual freedom, and nonconformity." (http://www.artsandmusicpa.com/popculture/60'scountercult.htm)

Your group's assignment is to examine the various issues and influences that shaped the way of life of young people in the sixties.

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The Sixties Resources

Dale Adcock, Psychedelic

General Sixties Resources

The Vietnam War and the Anti-War Movement

• The History Place Presents The Vietnam War...comprehensive timelines from 1945-1975...icludes pictures, quotas and analysis
  
  
• Vietnam Online...from pbs...an exhaustive look at the Vietnam War: the people, the places, the issues, and the outcomes...words and pictures

• Timeline of the Civil Rights Movement...overview with pictures