Eng. 11 - block 3 notes on power, realty vs. illusion, conformity

Goal: to show what this novel says about human nature and control/power, reality vs. illusion, conformity

 

Ideas - find quotes - and credit the source - as a way of synthesizing or jump starting your essay

 

• When constructing your quote sheet, make sure you record the page numbers!

 

Controlling ideas

 

 

Power and Control

 

-"the nurse riding you like this…" Chief says this - Big Nurse seems to have control, but Mack says it's something more

[blaming the Big Nurse excuses people and society from responsibility]

• Cheswick - lobotomy - discussion with Harding, Mack realizes that Big Nurse actually controls the hospital - Mack doesn't realize this ["you'll end up over on that side"]

• Chief thinks Nurse controls the clock/time

• Symbols - clock, control panel, combine (conformity, control, power)
• "you don't have to apologize for my inadequacies" (Harding to Mack) - pillow - taking away power from Mack, but Chief has his power
• Nurse has power, but also loses her power
• "you know how society persecutes…" - the combine is a symbolic word - machine that causes conformity (cookie cutter/ hay bale)
• "what worries me, Billy is how your mother is going to take it" (Nurse to Billy)
• Monopoly game - together
• "if she can't cut below the belt, she'll cut above the eyes" - Nurse's power
• Mack rips off her shirt and strangles him and Nurse takes away his life
• Power and control and patients - insanity/sanity
• Is power bad?  Is there a way it's good?  VOLITION
• Does Nurse actually choose her staff the way Chief reports, or is this Chief's delusion - doesn't the Nurse have less power as Chief gains more control over himself?
• First Nations people
• Patients are voluntary - what does this say
• Society shapes people (perfect image)

• Window - restrictions in the ward - keeping Chief in the ward - Chief breaks it showing his progress - [also the he finally gets out of his own head when the ringing in his head stops, he hears the dog, and feels the linoleum under his feet]

• The Nurse SYMBOLIZES the power structure -making it about the Nurse minimizes the universality of the novel as well as limits personal responsibility - when the patients accept personal responsibility they become healthier

• Chapter 22 - (165 - old book) - "something bigger [is] making all this mess."

• Mack treating people like individuals help make them healthier

 

Reality vs. Illusion

 

• Nurse thinks she's helping everyone, but she's not (see Billy Bibbit and Cheswick)
• She thinks she's sane, but maybe she isn't
• Hospitals are where people get well -
• Mack's illusions - afraid when he realizes he's committed
• What about Mack's gambling?  Does he take advantage of the patients

• "only then did he consider that he was anything but sane" - Mack near the end

• At the very start we see Chief's delusions/hallucinations "black boys cleaning up sex acts" [Chief doesn't like anyone who might have power over him - Nurse, black attendants, time…

• Fog, time - these symbolize Chief's delusions - indicate his mental illness - he thinks these are "done" to him

• Wolves and rabbits

• Medicine - symbol - eg. Dilantin - not necessarily making them better (1950's psych drugs were not precise]

• Shock treatments - not very exact (actually destroyed people's brains back then)
• Shaver, combine - everyone's life is his/her own illusion
• Irony - Nurse's reality - her illusion is that she's helping people
• Dramatic irony - almost everything Chief sees - eg. Sexually abusing patients at night, machinery
• What if we viewed the whole novel from a First Nations viewpoint - machinery, sexual abuse, white power structure
• Chief feels small when he's the largest patient (irony)

• Patients give the hospital the power and responsibility = their illusion

• Kesey: society's illusions (what is he showing us about illusions vs. reality): for a female to have any strength, she needs to be more like a man
• Acting the way that you look ("McMurphy didn't let what he looked like shape him")

 

Conformity

 

• Ward can be seen as a microcosm of society
• Hay bales/combine - society wants people to conform to narrow rules
• Nurse represents society - her job is to "fix" those who don't fit in [can we relate this to our society?]
• Ward is for people to be fixed they are "mistakes of society"
• "McMurphy hasn't let...combine mill him" - though he looks rough he paints

• Nurse has the idea that patients are crazy

• Mack treats patients as individuals and they get healthier

• Nurse: "a good many of you are here because you don't conform to society…" - think about Harding - we now have legalized gay marriage, but at this time the judgment of society was too much for gay people"

• "a guy needs to conform…" "you gotta measure up" - the "therapeutic meetings along with the log book symbolize conformity
• Mack: "you're no crazier than the average 'a-hole'"
• Mack ridicules the idea of normalcy (owns it by calling everyone lunatics)
• "they worked on him" - Chief's view of how his father fared - also blames his mother (who is white = society = power structure) - people belittle father (sense of being First Nations/ culture / traditions)

• Self medication - Chief's father uses alcohol to escape society, Chief has his fog

• Wolves/rabbits - rabbits have less power, have trouble combining
• Individuality vs. society -