Don't forget to check your Writing Improvements and Class Notes about writing
Bring a sheet with quotes - include page numbers
Purpose of an essay: "Looking at the text as a work of art, demonstrating clear critical judgment and explaining to the reader of your essay how the enjoyment of the text is assisted by literary devices, linguistic effects and psychological insights; showing how the text relates to the time when it was written and how it relates to our world today."
Make sure you are discussing what One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest shows us about human nature and the topic of the essay.
Power
l Types of power: manipulation of the Big Nurse - eg. Bringing up Billy's mom at the end
l Symbols: control panel - represents institutions - Chief escapes
l Gender: Mack ripping uniform off
l -setting - women didn't really have power in the time of the novel - even now women don't have power - Big Nurse has to use so many tools in order to maintain power
l Mack being a man - uses his masculinity
l Mack taking more power over ward - could be his charisma (along with manhood)
l Nurse does abuse her power
l Who won? - in the end, BN practically kills Mack - she rolls him into the ward to show him after the lobotomy to tell patients not to mess with him
l Schedule - all Acutes voted for the baseball game - Chronics need the schedule
l BN - OCD demands schedules
l Mack enters novel wanting to have control on the ward
l Mack's confidence - fishing trip - (what other masculine attributes)
l Eg. "One of his friends made her shut up real good" - this is a threat - scare tactic
l Nurse uses her words as power
l Mack - punches the glass - uses his physical self (but he also cajoles the doctor by being buddy-buddy)
l Nurse has the hospital administrator on side
l (what is revealed about the Nature of Power - how do people attain and maintain power?)
l (like a political campaign)
l Nurse keeps her cool almost all of the time
l Chief has no power through most of the novel - he's in the fog - does everything (except when he's supposed to be shaved)
l Why is the control panel so powerful?
l Chief throwing the control panel - showing something about society and institutions in general (freedom)
l The Combine - how much power - (society is The Combine) - made Chief's dad lose his power
l Fog is powerful for Chief
l The Combine is the most powerful ("I think it's more than just the Nurse")
Fear
l Every person in the novel has a fear
l Fear of the Big Nurse greater, or fear of The Combine (The Big Nurse represents The Combine)
l Is the Nurse instilling fear, fair in her eyes?
l Is the Nurse enforcing the rules or making them up arbitrarily?
l Threats, shock therapy, lobotomy
l (manipulates their problems with mental health)
l Is BN a threat?
l Shock therapy for going off track is severe
l Fear of society (Harding, Billy)
l Patients who are there voluntarily - The Combine decides who's sane and who isn't
l The Combine fears the patients (they are different)
l (is this true in our society?)
l (how does fear work in our society?)
l (how does Mack combat their fear?)
l Fear creates a lack of volition
l Patients are afraid to stand up for themselves (that's why Chief raising his hand is so important)
l Mack shows them they don't have to be rabbits (remember Harding's quote - "we're men now"
l Mack comes in and sings and laughs - different power dynamic makes patients less fearful
l What are Mack's fears?
l Does Mack assault the Nurse out of fear or revenge?
l Does Mack feel responsible for Billy's death? Is this why he assaults the Nurse
l Nurse uses the patients' fear - gives her more power
l Mack isn't really punished for the breaking of the glass (how many times?)
l "just like they're working on you" - Chief talks about The Combine - he doesn't want Mack to fight the system - he saw his dad lose against the government (his defining moment - beginning of psychosis)
l What are Mack's fears - he originally thinks he has a 3 month sentence - then he fears not being let out of the hospital
l Mood swings - boisterous - then quiet
l "He opens up his nostrils and sucks up fear from the ward" - referring to the attendant when Chief is in the closet
l Chief thinks the institution senses their fear with mechanical equipment
l (how much of the patients' lives is run by fear? Chief starts off too fearful for anything - speaking - putting up his hand - any self power)
l Nurse has fears of not listening "You're under the jurisdiction of me"
l "That's one fear hiding behind another" - Chief likes the power of Mack - helps him get rid of his fear
l (what is Harding afraid of?)
l (could you focus on your one character?)
l (how are you going to organize your essay)
l Mack isn't afraid of the Nurse - this gives the patients confidence
l Cheswick kills himself after he gains confidence
l "it feels safe" referring to the fog - he's in his own head - he thinks it's physical
Societal Expectations
l All three topics over lap - societal expectations cause fear - power comes as a result of the fear or lack of fear
l Expectations of the nurse (same as The Combine - which is our society)
l The Combine is like the mill - what the general populace thinks normal is
l The truth of life is that no one is normal
l Harding is only there because of what society thinks
l People like to fit in
l Chief is afraid of The Combine "society is in charge of who's sane and who isn't" "it's our job to measure up"
l Nurse is able to portray normality
l "wolves and rabbits" (is Mack a rabbit or a wolf) - Nurse is a wolf - power figure
l Cheswick thinks he's a wolf
l Bad to be a rabbit - society says
l (at the end of the novel Harding says "they're men now" - near the end of the novel
l Wolves want people to be rabbits so they can tell them what to do
l Patients consider themselves lesser rabbits
l Patients feel changed by the end of the novel
l Mack giving patients confidence - he says "you're no crazier than the average… walking around on the streets"
l Voluntary patients checked out at the end
l What's the main goal of keeping patients in the hospital? (cure or keep them away from society - this is similar to jail question)
l Characters change and progress throughout the novel
l Patients don't learn regular ways to interact - institution does not seem to help patients re-enter society - they seems quarantined
l Mack - doesn't follow conventions of society - family? Sleeping with underage girls
l What does Mack do to change the culture of the institution?
l Stand out too much - get cut down (Mack gets a lobotomy)
l How much have things changed since this novel was published
l BN - frightens people to keep the ward under control (opinion)
l Cutting out pieces of their brain - genuine medical practice or retribution
l Expectation of the Nurse - she can cure the patients (1950's or earlier psychological knowledge = very limited)
l Intent to cure - or maintain at a certain level
l Chronics need to be there - acutes are there because of society's expectations
l (look at Billy and Harding - what would we do now?)
l (is Chief actually cured? Can you cure schizophrenia with friendship?)
l Expectations of men versus women - Mack fits the role of masculinity (angry, buff, counter-culture)
l Men in the ward are mostly very unmanly (Billy - 32 year old virgin who worries about what his mom thinks)
l Harding most "normal" - only real reason he's in the hospital is because he's gay and doesn't conform to society
l Nurse - does not conform to society's norm
l No women's ward in the novel - are women in institutions?
l Disrespect towards women - normal in society - Candy - they are seen as objects
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment