Part IV: The Bitter-Sweet Ending

After reading part four of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, I was extremely surprised as to how it ended. Although the ending was very sad, it totally pulled together the whole story for me. At first I didn’t really understand why Bromden would be made the narrator of the story, but the end made me realize that he is truly the main character when it comes down to it. He is the one who in the end gets to live and break out of “the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

            A main part in part four I would like to talk about is how McMurphy truly represented Christ in this last part. When he undergoes the electroshock treatments, McMurphy is belted to a cross-shaped table, which is an allusion to a crucifix. This Christ imagery shows an impending martyrdom on the part of McMurphy, and he even compares himself to Christ when he asks whether he gets to wear a crown of thorns. Of course, a martyr ultimately must sacrifice himself to save others which he does in the end of the book. I really liked how the author portrays McMurphy as Christ throughout this whole book. His symbolism that he creates throughout the whole story is genius.

            By the end of this book I had so much more respect for the character of McMurphy than I did for him in the beginning of the book. He saves these men’s lives while ultimately killing his own. It was a bitter-sweet ending because at the same time both Ratched and McMurphy win in that Ratched got rid of McMurphy through her tactics of Lobotomy, and McMurphy by getting the men to not be afraid of Ratched anymore, took over the hospital.

            Over all, this was an amazing book and I really did enjoy reading it!

Part III: McMurphy and his twelve disciples

During Part III, you really see how McMurphy is working his magic with all the patients to improve their mental state and bring them back to their state of mind of being men instead scared mental patients. He does this in several ways throughout part III starting off with Bromden. First when the night worker comes in and takes all of Bromden’s chewing gum, McMurphy offers his own to him showing him the friendship that he is worth, and in return Bromden speaks and thanks him, showing that he is regaining some kind of security knowing he can trust McMurphy with his secret. You also find out that Bromden has more in common with McMurphy then we thought because he too pretended to be deaf and dumb one summer so he could listen to everyone’s secrets and cause havoc. McMurphy also shows Bromden he can still be a man when he talks to him about the boat trip and tells him that it is a prostitute taking them and not his aunt. This in return causes Bromden to get an erection which symbolizes Bromden’s own self-knowledge of knowing that he can be the man he use to be again with the help of McMurphy as his friend.
McMurphy also helps out the rest of the patients gain a little more self awareness when he takes them out on the boating trip. McMurphy brings back the feeling of sexual drive to the men by presenting them with Candy Starr who is a beautiful woman, and the men experience the feeling of their old sexual drive again without having to feel ashamed like Nurse Ratched has them feel. In McMurphy’s opinion, this is the first step to helping the men regain their confidence and manhood in order for them to regain their good mental health they once had before.
Another thing that McMurphy shows the men is that they can use their “insanity” to their advantage instead of letting people put them down and scare them. When they go to the gas station and the attendant starts to disrespect them McMurphy shows them that they can use being what is thought to be crazy to help show that they are men and they aren’t scared. He teaches them that they can cope with the outside world in a different way other then conformity.
The last situation that happens that really helps the McMurphy change the way these men think is when McMurphy doesn’t help them when they’re out at sea. Like Christ did with his twelve disciples, he shows them that they don’t need him and that they are men and they can handle themselves. And this really shows a great improvement to their mental health because they actually have a difference in confidence in themselves when they get to shore and the seamen compliment them on their large catches.

In this part you see McMurphy is becoming the men's very own savior and is taking the men under his wings and showing them how to fly... But how long can he carry these men until he falls under the pressure of his own mental health?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest : Part 2

During Part II of “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, you find out a lot about the characters in the book. McMurphy’s presence in the ward stirs up some tension with Ms. Ratched, who refuses to fall to defeat even when they offer to send him to the chronic level of the ward. She sees this as letting him win because then that will show that she couldn’t beat him. But shortly after McMurphy’s uproar, he finds out that the only way he can get out of the ward is by Ms. Ratched signing papers saying he is ready to, which totally changes his attitude. When this happens, you learn about and see a totally different side of McMurphy. He went from being this brave man who doesn’t take crap from anyone, to a scared little boy who is afraid to disobey. The total power shifts back to Ms. Ratched in Part two.
McMurphy isn’t the only character you learn more about in this part. You learn a lot about all of the characters throughout part II. One big thing you learn about all of them is that almost every acute patient is at the ward by self admission, meaning they could leave any time they wanted to. When I read this I found that it shined a lot of light on what all the acutes have in common and why they all stay in the ward: fear is their common enemy. Fear is what brought them their, what is bonding them to each other, and what is keeping them from leaving the ward. To me the book made me look at the ward from being a crazy person’s home, to just a shield for people who are afraid to face their fears. Now I don’t believe any of the characters of this book are crazy at all. They are all just afraid to face life in itself and they need someone like McMurphy to help and guide them back to their lives. I think McMurphy also realizes this when he sees Billy Bibbit break down about not being able to leave, because right after that the power shifts again. McMurphy slams his fist through the glass window and takes his cigarettes from Ms. Ratched while also taking his power back from her. Someone needs to be the leader and McMurphy sees this and takes the job.


And last I would just like to add that at first I was very confused as to why Harding wife had come to visit. I didn’t really understand the whole point of that scene. But then after rereading in it I realized it brings some insight on why Harding has put himself into the ward in the first place. When his wife talks about his friends with “limp-wrists” this is implying that his friends are gay, which I think also implies that Harding himself might be gay, opening another political issue into the book.

The Lost Cuckoo's Nest

When I was trying to think about what to write for my first blog, I was having a hard time thinking of what to write about. So, in order to get an idea of what to write, I decided to look at what other people blogged about. I came across Erica’s blog and found her comparison of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and the hit show “Lost”, a great idea. It shows how the ideas of this book are timeless and still relate to today. So I am also going to write about that comparison.

“Lost” is a TV show about two groups of people stuck on an island that holds many secrets and powers. The powers are beyond the control of the one group of people who crashed on the island, and in almost all control by the the other group of people who we would call “the others”. This situation in the show can very much is related to the book “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” because the hospital they are living in also holds many secrets and powers.
With secrets, you find out that Nurse Ratched knows anything and everything about each patient. Also, within the whole ward there are secrets talked about at each meeting that the ward holds within its self. Just like in “Lost” there are secrets about everything that the island holds, the same thing is true with the Ward.

The Ward also has powers just like the island in “Lost” does, although in a different kind of way. In “Lost” the island has the power to heal. In “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” the Ward also “heals” people or at least what they call healing. They use the power of the Shock Room and Lobotomy in order to “cure” people of their craziness.

There are also similarities between the people in both the book and the show. In the show “Lost” you have the group of bad people called “The Others” and the group of good people who just happen to crash on the island. In the book, you have the group of bad people who would be all the workers who torture the patients, and the group of good people, the patients, who happen to be put in the Ward somehow. Some voluntarily put themselves in the Ward, just like in “Lost” how some people voluntarily went back to the island, and some didn’t have a choice in the matter. Also in “Lost” there is the leader of the bad people, Ben, and what you would call the leader of the good group, Jack. This is also similar to the book because Nurse Ratched is the leader of the workers or the bad group, and McMurphy is the leader of the patients or the good group in the ward.

Another two characters that are similar in both the book and the show are Chief Bromden and the character Sun in “Lost”. In the book Chief Bromden pretends to be deaf and stupid so he can hear all the secrets throughout the Ward without anyone knowing that he knows. In the show “Lost” Sun does something similar by pretending she doesn’t speak English. She is one of the more important characters in the first season because she finds out things that no one else knows that she knows.

As you can see if you think about it, this book in many ways can still relate to entertainment and things going on today. As I read on I hope to find more ways to show how this book is timeless.

Act II: Tragedy, Love, Greed.

While reading Hamlet, I’ve noticed a trend in all of Shakespeare’s writing. He always includes a mix of three key ideas: tragedy, love, and greed. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet, although in love, were not allowed to be together because of the greed of their parents not being able to get over their differences. This eventually left them to the tragedy of their deaths in the end. In Othello you also see these three ideas. Othello had such a strong love for Desdemona that he couldn’t stand thinking of her being with another man, he had to have her all to himself or she couldn’t live at all. This jealousy and greed ultimately led to their tragic death in the end.

You most definitely see this same idea in Hamlet. There are plenty of key points throughout this play that point out tragedy. There is the tragedy of Hamlet’s father being murdered by none other then his own brother. There is also tragedy within Hamlet’s own love life because is not allowed to be with Ophelia. Both of these tragedies are what carry the plot of this play.

Love is also a key idea throughout Hamlet. Not only is there a love connection between Hamlet and Ophelia, but you also see Gertrude falling for the dishonest uncle of Hamlet who ultimately killed her first love. Love also carries us through the plot of the play because love is the main way the uncle manipulated his way to get to the thrown. Without Shakespeare’s love twisted, Hamlet’s uncle would not have been able to get what he wanted, which was to be king.

Last, I think in this play, greed is the most important key idea throughout Hamlet. Greed is the main motive of murder. If it wasn’t for the greed of Hamlet’s uncle wanting the power of being king, there would be no plot at all to this play. Greed is what I would call the “backbone” of this play. It is also the greed of Hamlet’s father of wanting revenge that causes Hamlet to act out for the sake of his father.

I believe Shakespeare points out these three key ideas because these are the three biggest themes of life. They are three points that everyone can relate to because everyone will have felt them at least once in your life. I think by using these ideas Shakespeare has made his plays more relatable to the people reading or watching them. Those are also three themes that are timeless, no matter what greed, love, and tragedy will always be around.

For this particular blog I would appreciate if when you comment on it you could focus more on how I organized the blog under the three key idea of tragedy, love and greed. Also comment on if you disagree or agree with the idea of these being the main points of the play. I'd just like to know if you think I am on the right track or if you see the story from a different point of view.

Hamlet: Act I ... the characters within...

Throughout Act I in Hamlet, you learn a lot about the characters without Shakespeare specifically saying anything about them. Everything you learn about each character in the first Act is strictly by what they do and say so you as a reader have to make assumptions and draw conclusion about each character. This really helped me to really take in the story because it doesn’t just tell you what to think, but it allows you to draw in on personal experiences to figure out what kind of person each character is.

One of the characters who really stuck out to me is King Claudius. You don’t really hear much from King Claudius himself, but you learn a lot about the kind of person he is from Act I. You learn about how selfish he is when you find out that he seduces Hamlet’s mother so he can be King. You then find out how conniving he is when you find out that he poisoned Hamlet’s father. Without actually saying that King Claudius is a bad man, you automatically hate this man from the start and feel sorry for Hamlet.

Another character, who on the other hand you hear a lot from but learn more about him by what he does, rather then what he says is Hamlet. Right from the start of Act I you realize that Hamlet will be the complicated character of the book both external and internally. Through the weeping over his father’s death, and his pronounced love for Ophelia, you realize how sensitive a man Hamlet is. You also learn that he is a respectful son when he chooses to bite his tongue rather then speak out against his mother and uncle’s marriage. This shows what strong character he is. Although we don’t know that much about Hamlet yet, I feel as though you can never learn everything there is to Hamlet because that’s how “deep” he is as a character in this story.

The last character I would like to point out is Gertrude. Now this character I don’t really know about, but from reading the first act, I have a lot of questions that I will hope to be answered throughout this play. Right now I am undecided on whether Queen Gertrude is innocent to what had happened to her husband, or if she was in on it. Hamlet states that her and his father were truly in love, but now that you see that she was so eager to go off and get married so soon, how do we truly know that she was in love. I am wondering if she helped plot the king’s murder or she is just so naive that she just doesn’t see what Claudius is doing. Either way, I find it very hard to sympathize with this character and I feel she will be my least favorite in the play. As the plot thickens, I hope to learn more of her connection to what is happening with the corruption going on in the kingdom.

So far, I am really enjoying reading this play. I’ve only read the first Act and I am already drawing conclusion to which everyone may be internally and how they affect the story externally. I am looking forward to reading on and finding out what really happened the day the king was murdered and who was actually in on the scheme.

When you comment on this particular blog, I would appreciate if you could focus on the ideas that i pointed out about the characters. I would love to hear if anyone felt the same way I did about these characters or if you don't feel the same way give me your input on how your opinion differs. Also if you would like to give me a critique on my grammar and organization skills that would be very helpful to me.

Coleridge and Shelley

1. In "Kubla-Klan", I think the author is cautioning against imagination's indulgence. When the poem first starts off, he talks about this beautiful paradise with imagery to make the reader think that the poem is going to be about this wonderful imaginative place. But the poem quickly takes a turn to the total opposite by the end of the poem. He then talks about this place in the total opposite way by saying its "savage" and saying it has "caves of ice". By the end of the poem the author is telling the reading to beware and then he says "and close your eyes with holy dread, for he on honeydew hath fed, and drunk the milk of paradise." To me this says that the author is warning the reader to watch out what for what you imagine could be a paradise because in reality it might not be as great as you thought it would be. I believe Coleridge is writing this to everyone who has ever wished they had something other then what they have already. It kind of goes with that saying "be careful what you wish for". I think the purpose of this story was to warn people to be happy with what they have and to stop wishing they had more because sometimes it isn't as great as you would have imagined. 

2. When I read Ozymandias, I heard three speakers with in the poem. The three speakers I am referring to are the narrator, the traveler, and Ozymandias. The narrator reveals what a traveler said to him about a broken statue he saw in the desert. This then brings on what the third speaker, Ozymandias, says "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings, Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" This statement I believe is very important to what this poem is trying to say to the listeners. This quote that Ozymandias once says suggest that this man was once a great leader and had eventually fallen in his rein of power. Seeing that the statue is broken when the traveler describes it in this poem, this could suggest that the leader had fallen or been taken over by another. I think this poem is trying to tell the leader to not be over-proud and obnoxious about all that you do because one day it might come back around and hurt you. This I think serves as a political lesson of abuse of power from leaders and how eventually all powerful leaders will fall. 

William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper" - Poetry and Social Change

1) Do you agree with the editors of your textbook that Blake's poetry had the power to enact social change by appealing to the imagination of the reader?

I do agree with the editors of my textbook that Blake's poetry had the power to enact social change by appealing to the imagination of the reader. I say this because in both his poems he gets into the mind of a child who was put under these hard working labors and really makes you imagine what a child under those conditions might be thinking. Blake gives you two different versions of how a child might feel I believe in order to appeal to a greater audience and to get more of a reaction to his poems. First he speaks as a child with a more optimistic view saying that as long as he is a good boy and works hard he will be rewarded in heaven. This poem might enact social change because it makes you have hope for the boy and makes you want to try and make things better for children all over who are just working hard to be as good as they can. The second poem on the other hand is a more pessimistic view of how a child might feel under these hard working conditions. It talks about how the child feels disowned  because his parents sold him to be a chimney sweep. On the other hand this child feels as though god is punishing him and he blames the heavens. This poem might enact social change because it makes you feel bad for the hopeless boy in the poem and makes you just want to fix all the unfairness that these children have to face.

2) Why might the editors have included the Parliament transcript as a primary source document? How did it affect your reading of Blake's work?

They editors might have included the Parliament transcript as a primary source document in order for the reader to have a background on how the real conditions of child labor were and how dead on Blake was in getting the pain the children suffered through with his poetry. This affected my reading of Blake's work because once i had the background on how horrible the child labor was it made Blake's poetry sound all the more real and you almost believe it came from a child himself because those poems are exactly how you would imagine a child would feel under these hard conditions that they had to over come. It really helped me to get the deeper meaning and pain of the poem and it helped the poem affect me way more than it did before i had that background information.

Jonathan Swift teacher prep work

a) Questions I asked:

1) How do we know this is all really happening, could it just be a dream? I asked this question because I was wondering if this could be just a dream. They say that the man woke up, but maybe he just woke up in his dream. I figured that other people who read this might have the same question and it would be something good to discuss.

2) Who really is the normal human in this story? How do we know the man isn’t just a giant and everyone else is normal sized? I asked this question because everyone has a different point of view on things and when I read the story I took it as he might be a giant. So I thought this would be another good discussion question on how point of view effect’s a story.

3) Why didn’t the man fight back when the people had him tied up if he was so much bigger then them? Would it just be easier to go along with being a hostage basically? I asked this question because I thought it was interesting how he didn’t fight at all and just went along with the people and there ways even though he was so much bigger then them. I also thought this would be something good to discuss about fighting over going with the flow.

4) How come the little people are so closed minded as to believe that the man isn’t real, that he “dropped from the moon”? I picked this question because I think it relates to what Pope was talking about when he talks about the limitation to the mind and believing things that are outside the normal. This would be another good discussion question.

Significant Parts: One significant part I thought was this: “For as to what we have heard you affirm, that there are other kingdoms and states in the world inhabited by human creatures as large as yourself, our philosophers are in much doubt, and would rather conjecture that you dropped from the moon, or one of the stars;”

            I thought this was an important part because the little people talk about how it is impossible for there to be people as big as him. I think this relates to how Pope says that people are limited of the mind because they are saying that it’s impossible for him to be real, when they really they don’t know what can really be out there and they are being really close minded.

Predictions: I really didn’t have any predictions that I thought people would have a hard time understanding. I think this was a very easy story to understand. The only thing I would clarify would be why the man did not fight against people that were so much more tiny than he was. 

b) and c)Reflective Journal:

            I really liked working in the teacher groups. By putting all of our thoughts together about the story, it really helps to think more outside of just my own thinking. It helped me to get more than one prospective out of the book which helped me understand the story better on a deeper level. What one of us didn’t catch about the story, the other person did. It gave us a chance to really look at the story at a very well rounded perspective. I don’t really have anything bad to say about working in these teacher groups. It gives us a chance to work together and hear the perspective of our peers. Like for instance, I didn’t even realize that this could all be a dream until someone in my group brought it to my attention. This brought up another question for me to ask my self about the reality of this story. All in all I really enjoy these teacher groups and I think we should do more group work like this.

            I believe the way my group has approached are teaching method is very good. We plan to have different discussion points to focus on that stood out to us in the story. Then, we also have some questions that we will answer that we thought would clarify the story more clearly. All in all, my group has a very well organized way to teach the class about this story. I think we will do very well.

1984 Writing Assignment: Mind over Matter

In George Orwell’s 1984, the doctrine O’Brien proclaims to Winston plays a big role in maintaining the system of oligarchical collectivism upon which INGSOC is based. It also plays a big role in Winston’s ultimate fate at the close of the novel. 

            In the book, Oligarchical collectivism is basically a group of people ruling through mind control. In the doctrine, O’Brien proclaims “Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else. Not in the individual mind, which can make mistakes, and in any case soon perishes; only in the mind of the Party, which is collective and immortal.” Under this control people are convinced, not through physical evidence what is truth, but through the mind of The Party what is truth. As long as you think only through the mind of The Party, you know the truth. If The Party believes two plus two equals five, than that’s what it is true. When you look up at the sky and say “its blue” you’re not saying it because that is what it is, you’re saying it because that’s what you were taught to believe. This is what Oligarchical Collectivism is based off of, and what the doctrine focuses its point on. People will believe what they are raised to believe and people like Winston who stray from what is “true” are seen as a “lunatic” and need to be fixed.

            In order to make one “relearn” what is true as it says in this doctrine, pain is used as the main tool. To make Winston fall to the Party and their truth, they inflicted pain on him until he hurt so much that he wished it onto Julia, and at that moment is when you are fixed. On a page 240 Julia says “And perhaps you might pretend, afterwards, that it was only a trick and that you just said it to make them stop and didn't really mean it. But that isn't true. At the time when it happens you do mean it. You think there's no other way of saving yourself and you're quite ready to save yourself that way. You want it to happen to the other person. You don't give a damn what they suffer. All you care about is yourself.” In a very ironic way, the Party uses pain to make a person want it to stop so bad, you become an individualist, someone who would inflict pain on others just to save themselves and right at that moment that you become an individualist, that’s when you become a part of the Party, the Party based off of anti-individualism, Oligarchical Collectivism as the doctrine points out.

            In the book, Winston is pointed out as the rebel who never stuck to what the Party said was the truth. He always knew everything that was said was a lie. But in the end, the doctrine O’Brien proclaims is what leads Winston to his ultimate fate of joining the party in the closing of the book. Throughout the whole book, Winston knew that everything the Party said was an utter and total lie. He knew that two plus two didn’t equal five. On page 69 he says “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. He was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists; its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall toward the Earth's center.” He solemnly believed this as the truth until O’Brien proclaims the doctrine to him. Winston then starts to believe what O’Brien says, not necessarily because it made sense to him, but because when he believed O’Brien he didn’t have to endure the pain anymore. O’Brien told him “you must humble yourself before you can become sane.” If the pain didn’t stop Winston would go insane, so that’s what he did. He put himself before morals, before love, and this led to his ultimate fate: mind control of the Party. O’Brien’s words made him believe that it stopped the pain, and the pain basically drove him to insanity, ironically making him what the party called “sane”.

            In conclusion, the doctrine that O’Brien proclaims to Winston plays a big role in maintaining Oligarchical Collectivism. What he says is how they take over everyone’s minds that were still what they called “lunatics.” The doctrine also leads to Winston’s fate in that it convinces him to love O’Brien making Winston think that he makes the pain that O’Brien is actually causing, to stop. I guess when you think about it, this book proves that it really is mind over matter.

Your mind is Power

Okay, before I read this book I didn’t realize how well we have it. I never realized how things like love, freedom of speech, or even the ability to think at all were things that are in some places considered a gift or a privilege to have. I just assumed that these were the kind of things that everyone could have and no one could take away. I was wrong. After reading this book, I realized that, with just enough power and fear in the wrong hands, all of these privileges could be taken away.

You would think that being stripped of all your abilities that make you an individual would make you want to fight back, but this book proved the total opposite. By taking away every quality that didn’t have a set structure and made people have there own identity; “big brother” was able to control everyone. This made me want to put myself into the position of the people who were being controlled in this book because as I read about everything they had to live by such as: having set exercises to do everyday, or constantly being watch, or having “two minutes hate”, it made me think “why wouldn’t they just fight back?” But when you actually think about it, how could you fight back? Your stripped of you personality and thought to the point where you don’t even know who you are. Anything that made you think like an individual wasn’t real anymore. I think this is why things like this do happen all over the world. All it takes is one person to be able to get into someone’s head, to get one follower and then it becomes the domino effect: everyone will start to follow.

I guess that’s why everyone says “be a leader not a follower”. If there’s one thing I take with me from this book it will be that. As long as we’re all leaders, all people will stay equal in mind (the strongest part of our being), but once you become a follower of someone else, you’re then giving them that gain of power, of mind… and that’s all it takes.