Wednesday, February 24, 2010
A Whisper In The Dark
After Sybil is sent away it took me awhile to figure out she was in an insane asylum because she does not actually know it right away either and we only get the story from her point of view. The concept of insanity is really creepy when you think about it because if someone says you are crazy all you objections are just considered part of your craziness. Some of Sybil out breaks of anger would usually just be considered a tantrum were looked at as the rantings of a crazy girl. For example when she hears her mothers voice she frantically “beat upon [her] door in a paroxysm of impatience…” (pg 237) She also picks up the habit of pacing back and forth in her room like the stranger above her. She does this so much that the carpet was “worn to shreds by [her] weary march…” (pg 236). Knowing all these things made did not make me trust the narrator any less because I felt like I got to know her so well in the beginning that I knew she was normal and not crazy. It just made me feel really bad for her. I could almost feel her helplessness! Although the mother daughter relationship was approached very differently in this text than in the others we have read I can still tell that both of them cared deeply for one another even in their absence. Sybil even says, when she sees the picture of her mother, that “[she] know[s] so little, and often long[s] for her so much” (pg221). This just shows they have an unseen connection despite the fact that they are not around each other. When Sybil gets the letters from her mom off the dog, the tone in the letter is even full of some amounts of love. Her mother, even not knowing it was her daughter, was full of concern for this young girl and saved her from her suicide. I think that if Sybil had grown up with her mother their relationship would have been a lot like the relationship between Ellen and her mother in the Wide Wide World. Both girls were brought up similarly when it comes to working and winning a man, so I believe they would have shared the same bond with their mothers.
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I completely agree that there is a hidden connection between Sybil and her mouther. The mother had "motherly" instincts and didn't want this young girl to die and go insane like she was so she wanted to save her. I think they would have also shared a bond somewhat like Ellen and her mother.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is pretty scary for Sybil when she is put in the asylum. She has no power to do anything. I don't think she was put in the asylum because she was crazy but was put there so that she would become crazy, therefore giving her uncle her father's fortune.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Sybil does not become less reliable as a narrator when she is placed in the asylum. I think in turn it is the asylum that makes her begin to mimic the actions of the stranger above her. The inherent connection between Sybil and her mother was interesting, because we don't know if her mother had a suspicion that it was her daughter, or if she just wanted to help the stranger beneath her.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that is was somewhat scary when Sybil got put into the insane asylum. I definitely got a sense of frustration, which I think added to the scariness of the situation. I also agree that there might have been some type of connection with Sybil and her mother. I think that one of the reasons that the story is so interesting is because we don’t exactly know what this connection is.
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