Society, Hope, Power - Eng. 11

Bring a sheet (double sided) with quotes - NO NOTES - make sure you have 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."

Strategies - could focus on how characters show theme, or how symbols show (or both)

Society

- Patients - ashamed of people going to the hospital
- The asylum seems to be a way to keep people who are different away from mainstreams society
- "society says who is sane and who isn't"
- Example - Harding made to feel different and ashamed ["great forefinger of society"]
- Nurse Ratched tries to appeal to the rules of the institution - symbolizes society
- Patients don't care what society thinks in the end
- "Maybe there's something bigger making this mess" - the Nurse is not the problem - it's society as a whole
- What does the fishing trip symbolize about society?
- Ward is a microcosm of society
- Green jumpsuits represent conformity (movie doesn't do this)
- Big Nurse and attendants represent the Combine
- What is the Combine? - like cookie cutter - must fit in or must go away
- Would people care if McMurphy were in jail or asylum - idea that we're keeping people away from mainstream society (we generally put our mentally ill people in jail - concomitant disorders - addiction - crime)
- Who would be fine in our society? - Billy Bibbit, Harding
- Mack would probably be in jail in our society
- Mack and Big Nurse represent different parts of society
- Mack - freedom, spontaneity, rebellion
- BN - control, routine, conformity
- Schedule - would we change their schedule
- Today we treat mentally ill people much differently - we have different medication, better therapy [we still have EST, but we know what we're doing - much more specific]
- Combine - power, authority, conformity
- Society represses people who are different
- "machinery" - Chief feels everyone needs to be efficient -
- How do we know what society wants? [laws, doctors, government - people who have power]
- Social norms - change - we see that we now view gay people, First Nations people, black people, mentally ill, neuro-untypical people differently
- Chief being deaf-mute (and his trauma)

Hope

- hope and volition - connected - individualism - having self-power - see how Mack is strong - has hope and gives others more hope
-Chief is able to escape after Mack helps him
-how much do the patients trust Mack? - even after they know he takes their money - they still trust him - they feel a sense of INCLUSION
-does the Nurse affect the patients' hope
- Mack's motivation for taking men on fishing trip - to have fun - but this helps the men feel free and like men and real people - they feel like they are part of society - remind them there's an outside world that they can fit into if they have courage - also stand up to Big Nurse - the men take ownership at the gas station - Harding says "I never knew mental illness could have such power" - mentally ill people are people too
- One moment that gives everyone hope? - Mack becomes a martyr when he breaks the glass after Cheswick's death
- [picking up the control panel: "at least I tried, godamnit, at least I did that" - literally - lifting the CONTROL panel - then Chief actually escapes this way]
- Fog is the opposite of hope
- Nurse Ratched limits patients' hope [does she want to "cure" them?]
- Symbols for hope - look at Chief's improvements - seeing the dog out the window, lifting his hand to vote, killing Mack, lifting the control panel, talking
- Voting
- "they're still sick men in lots of ways, but at least they're men" - Harding - they can become part of society because they are no longer rabbits
- How does Mack's death affect the patients - it causes several of them to leave - he gives them hope
- Does Mack ever think Chief is deaf?
- Could focus on Mack
- Why does Mack stay in the hospital despite opportunities to leave - he wants to help the patients - feels responsible, attachment
- Easier to gain hope over oneself
- People with mental illness need hope in order to gain mental health

Power
- Symbols - control panel, rabbits and wolves, cigarettes, the Combine
- "the rabbits accept their role and recognize the wolves are strong"
- Mack punches the glass - gets the cigarettes which indicate power
- When Nurse takes away the cigarettes - the patients feel less like people with volition
- Nurse's power is the establishment
- Mack - rebellions' power - friends, actions
- Nurse gains power with words
- Nurse's power is more efficient - instills fear - brings up the past, threatens
- Mack inspires Chief to break out and gain his voice and volition
- Mack is supportive
- Mack helps the patients more
- [what does it say that Mack is dead in the end]
- Nurse's power is that of society
- Mack's power is individual power
- Chief being deaf-mute - shows the lack of power Indigenous people have had historically in our society - silenced
- Mentally ill people have been silenced throughout history - powerless
- Being silent and mute is Chief's way of controlling what he hears and says - he is able to hear everything without people taking him into consideration
- Are the characters powerful or powerless?
- Mack helps the patients feel powerful [think of his handshake] - he isn't in charge of them -
- [Cheswick also dies]
- What would happen if the Nurse were a man [probably a lot less rebellion - it would seem less terrible - they don't like the black attendants either - anyone with control over them is threatening]
- Could a woman have the same kind of power as Mack? [think of the way he charms the doctor]
- How does power shift between people [think of this generally - in the world - how does politics work - how are leaders elected and how do they maintain power? How do rebellions usually work? Think of the Civil Rights movement - Malcolm X vs. Martin Luther King jr.]
- Dr. Spivey also has very little power according to Harding - affected by the Nurse's manipulations
- She uses her manipulations on the doctor as well
- When Mack says "you fooled them all" - shows Chief's power
- Patients show some form of rising volition - cigarettes, Monopoly game and fishing trip (free will and volition)
- Most do have the power to leave if they want to - voluntary