Finally

Happy ending. Just like really nothing we've read this year. Maybe this streak of one will continue with Frankenstein, though I doubt it.

At the beginning of the book I saw McMurphy as the guy that didn't care about the others one bit, he was concerned about himself, his time in the asylum, and how fun his time there would be. But I believe he changed, even though he acts mostly the same all the time. I think that seeing the things he saw in the asylum, how people were considered insane and being constantly demoralized, made him feel sorry for others. That's probably all it took for him to change radically, to feel sorry for someone probably for the first time in his life. With his actions now focused on helping others with defiant acts, he proves to them that nothing is established, they're not insane just by default as the Big Nurse made them believe.

McMurphy: Being a hero or creating multiple?

When we first started reading, I thought that McMurphy was attempting to make himself a hero for the rest of the ward. He showed a glimpse of hope and rebellion that none of the men had seen before. However, after tonight's reading I have reached more of an idea that I think McMurphy is on the ward to make heros out of all of the men, and build them up into confident men who are "man-sized again" (233). He knows that none of these men are truly insane and have simply lost their confidence and aren't willing to take on the real world, so they remain hidden in the ward under a woman who questions their masculinity without any sort of rebuttle. McMurphy however, questions the control that Big Nurse has over them and therefore creates an excitement in all of them which allows them to begin to come out of their shells. Not only did he cause the first words to come out of Chief's mouth since he had been on the ward, but he also taught Billy Bibbit to dance, and introduced him to a woman. He wants for the men to be free but also wants them to be able to do it themselves. I think the struggle lies within the men like Harding who refuse to believe in change and hope.

The Mute Can't Scream: The Chiefs Limitations in Communicating with Himself

I don't know how this "Big Idea" is suppose to work. I felt that was the best possible way to lead this off. The passage I want to focus on, to further develop this self-castration that I was talking about, is only a little into Part II, around when he talks about the meeting room. I found it interesting how he's now deaf and dumb to himself, truly locked in his own mind and without a thick fog. He reacts with fear, contradicting his physical appearance. When he remembers his times in the meetings, before the staff left and he had to clean up some horrific, malicious mess, he is invisible; he's just a "sponge and [a] water bucket floating around" (151). It turns out that he's scared here, too; terrified of their metaphorical dissections of patients "nude one the coffee table in front of them; vulnerable to any fiendish notion they took" (151). But I think he's a bit envious of this. When I read this, I was reminded of a lot of horror movies or games; where the main character is being chased by some killer or monster. Of course they run to some small, constrained space; one one, low visibility, and even less space. Like a locker. There he or she is. Trapped. Only able to gaze out at this bleak, dark, ominous world around them where he or she knows lurks some evil being. It's at this point where I feel like I'd want to give up, to get caught; the point at which so much adrenaline, a hormone to promote liveliness, is surging through me that I'd want to scream or run out or something. Just not be bottled up. And why wouldn't the Chief be feeling the same way? There's sort of this vision of relief in this "undiscovered land" that, in that moment, exists prominently. I think the Chief now just really wants to scream; to separate himself from the bird and the rabbits. All of this worry and anguish was initiated by the realization of him being the one fueling the fog, not some hunk of machinery. Thoughts?

An Intense Power Struggle: McMurphy vs. Big Nurse

So for the past few class days, we have been primarily discussing Chief's role as narrator, distinguishing reality from Chief's perspective, and the symbol/concept of the fog.  However, after reading tonight, I could really see how intense the power struggle is between Big Nurse and McMurphy.  To start, I think that this is a really complicated relationship; I feel that Big Nurse has brainwashed everyone into following her while McMurphy is looking to gain supporters and change the status quo.  This is shown especially during McMurphy's encounter with Harding earlier in the novel, who admits that he is the only person who actually was brave enough to say something about Big Nurse without taking back his words later.
The big battle this last chapter concerned McMurphy wanting to watch the World Series and switch the TV time.  To his expectation, the nurse disallows this because she doesn't want "turmoil by the switch of routines" (118).  While some of the members agree with McMurphy, there are other members who would rather not change routines because: "[Big Nurse] always has the capacity to make things worse for them" (121).  I feel that these members have been in for way too long and are losing their ability to make self-decisions.
Overall, this is a large debate between the Inside and Outside.  Since the nurse has power to work both in the asylum and live outside, she is really experiencing and living life.  However, her desire to keep the Insiders on a strict routine may be good at first, but I think it is overall detrimental to them; much of life revolves around spontaneous actions.  What do you guys think about this power struggle?

Big Idea Post Wednesday 12/4/13

So in the beginning of tonight's reading two particular passages stuck out to me. The first one starts on page 68 (illustrated version) where Chief starts talking about Big Nurse's time control efforts/ability. Now, we've discussed in class about how Chief is similar to Ben in the fact that he seemingly tells the unedited truth. Yet we've seen how Chief often narrates in a form of metaphor. As we discussed today, we don't 'really' have machinery in our heads, but it works similarly to 'machinery'. Chief isn't stretching the truth, he's just describing it in a way most easily understood by himself. Now does Big Nurse really changing the speed of the wall clock? It's unclear. Possible, but unlikely. What's more likely is that Chief is describing her ability to make them feel rushed and overwhelmed, or bored and sluggish. Yet, as he describes it, there's no advantage or increase in efficiency by her making the clock faster or slower. Well then why does she do it? It seems to be just another way she maintains control/power over the inmates. Chief says: "till the Big Nurse sees everybody is right up to the breaking point, and she slacks off on the throttle, eases off the pace on that clock-dial, like some kid been fooling with the moving-picture projection machine and finally got tired watching the film run at ten times its natural speed" (68). We mentioned today in class about how some of the methods in which the administrators maintain power over the inmates could be making them more crazy; do you think Big Nurse is aware of this? It appears that Chief is.

The seconds passage was less-illustrious, yet interested me because it was an interaction between Chief and McMurphy (75) which shines some light on their relationship, which has been a rare-occurrence so far in the novel, even though they appear to be the two main characters. Basically, McMurphy tests Chief by telling him one of the "black boys" is coming and alludes that he'll get in trouble/be punished if he's not in bed when the guy sees him. Chief has described himself to be deaf and dumb. The administrators already think of all the inmates as dumb, so being deaf would just add to him 'dumbness'. We discussed how the bird in the tree sits still for it's own safety; if it could only save itself by taking flight, would it do so? One would think. So McMurphy has already established himself as a manipulative person (especially shown in the blackjack scene) and he seems aware that Chief, in his impeccable observation, has already figured out how McMurphy manipulates. So, to not only test Chief but also to show Chief that he (McMurphy) has him (Chief) figured out as well, McMurphy makes Chief think his livelihood is in danger, and Chief acts, and in doing so reveals how he neither deaf nor dumb: "He stops laughing and whispers, 'Why, you sure did give a jump when I told you that coon was coming, Chief. I thought somebody told me you was deef'" (75). This subtle section of dialogue shines some light on their relationship; they understand one another and the masks that they both wear. For Chief, it's being deaf and dumb so as to be immediately dismissed, for McMurphy, it's the opposite.

Big Idea/Passage unpack

Alright, so my passage is on page 7 in my book so it's probably a little later in the other editions. It's essentially the part in parentheses that starts with "(Papa tells me to keep still, tells me that the dog senses a bird somewheres right close...)" The memory is referring to the moment that Chief is currently in right now. He is trapped in the broom closet, escaping shaving duty before breakfast. The Nurse is the dog in this situation. She can sense fear, and is not like the other nurses, who are "fish-gut eaters and [have] no class a-tall"(7). She is different and more intimidating than the rest. As long as he stays still, Chief can escape the assigned work. He just needs to keep quiet, and other asylum-mates' fear will distract the Nurse and she'll choose them for the work instead of Chief. Finally, when the bird makes a break for it, he gets shot down by Papa's "birdshot"(7).  In this case, the "black boys"(6) are the birdshot and drag him into shaving even though he wasn't assigned to it. Basically, the Nurse is the tyrant in this situation. While her job is to help the asylum-mates survive, she is basically doing the opposite. She creates more fear than there is already. These people are obviously not in the right mental state and the fact that she continues to threaten them with terrible jobs does not help them at all.