“Over the Rainbow” : A Plea to Escape a Dreary Life

In Mr. Lewenstein's English 009 class, we read the memoir Girl, Interrupted.  It's about a young woman trying to navigate her way through her mental illness. When her parents commit her to a mental hospital, she has to look inside herself to find out who she really is.  I liked the book.  After finished it, Mr. Lewenstein asked us to contribute a song to our Girl, Interrupted Soundtrack.  We were supposed to connect our music with our reading.  I thought a lot about it and this is what I came up with:

When I read Girl, Interrupted, I hear Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” in the film The Wizard of Oz. Here, Judy played Dorothy, a young girl yearning to escape her surroundings in Kansas. In the memoir Girl, Interrupted, Susanna Kaysen finds herself trapped in a parallel universe (see chapter one.) Both girls are depressed and frustrated teenagers. They’ll do anything to end their misery. Here is what is the most cool part of this selection: The real-life Judy Garland is basically Susanna Kaysen.

From a very early age, she was pressured and pushed and manipulated into doing things she didn’t want to do. Judy’s life became a pattern full of drugs, heartbreak and self-destruction. When she sings “Over the Rainbow,” she is basically foreshadowing both the story of her life, and the tragedy of Susanna Kaysen.  In both works – The Wizard of Oz; and Girl, Interrupted – the song could represent the road to freedom. Both girls need to find a way out of their depression. To do so, they have to learn once more to believe in themselves. 


I know Dorothy sang the song  before the tornado hit the farm.  It was early on in the movie.  She believes she’s all alone in her world and dreams of a better place.

That’s why I believe “Over the Rainbow” should appear early in Girl, Interrupted.  You should hear the song in the cab on the way to McLean– maybe it could be Judy singing on the radio – as Susanna sits silent in the backseat with her eyes closed. At this moment, Susanna doesn’t know what to believe or who to trust.  Her parents have turned her over to a psychiatrist.  He’s diagnosed her with Borderline Personality Disorder.  Now she finds herself on the way to a strange, new universe.  I’m not sure if Dorothy was crying when she sang this song. Or, if Susanna was tearing up in the backseat.  But clearly, it’s a sad, sad moment for both girls.  It deserves a sad, sad song. 

Judy Garland’s  “Over the Rainbow”	Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted
Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby.	“Take her to McLean,” he said, “and don’t let her out till you get there.” I let my head fall back against the seat and shut my eyes   (“The Taxi”  9).
Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue And the dreams that you dare to dream, Really do come true.	“In our parallel world, things happened that had not yet happened in the world we’d come from” (“Politics” 28)
Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly Birds fly over the rainbow Why then, oh why can't I?	“In a strange way we were free.   We’d reach the end of the line.  We had nothing more to lose” (“Bare Bones”  94).

In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy is sad and depressed.  She’s trapped in a an adult world where she has no say.   In the movie, Dorothy sings the song in the middle of a bland and gray landscape.  There is no color.  No movement.  There is nothing there that would remotely resemble happiness for a young girl.  It’s a little bit crazy that the movie star singing this particular song is also fragile and depressed.   At the time, Judy must have felt she had no control over her life.  Her mother pushed her beyond her limits.  The studio made her every decision.  She was seventeen  and worked like sixteen hours hours per day.   No high school.  No friends.   Every time Judy sang this song, she said she cried. She couldn’t help herself.