Cuckoo's Nest: Four

Unfortunately the end of the story didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to, but it was a twist because I didn’t think that McMurphy would lose his long fight against the Big Nurse. Nurse Ratched won, but with every win there comes a loss and that loss was McMurphy’s life. McMurphy sacrificed everything in order to show the other men that it was time to stand up against the Nurse, and the men learned a lot from it. They all believed in McMurphy, and he did not die in vain because those men all went through changes after spending time with McMurphy. He built up confidence in them, and they will never lose that confidence. Chief Broom escaped that terrible ward and was reunited with his family and friends after long years in the combine. Nurse Ratched as always regains control over the ward. She is now able to call it “her’s” again. The loss of McMurphy weighed greatly on most of the men, but it allowed for Nurse Ratched to take over again.

Cuckoo's Nest: Three

Nurse Ratched plays a major role in this book and I would like to blog about her for this entry. Nurse Ratched as described by Chief Broom is said to be very pretty, but at the same time she is everyman in the wards nightmare. Her main purpose is to instill fear into the men in the ward. She wants everybody to be afraid of her, and she wants to make it known that she has the upper hand when it comes to anything. She will always win no matter what. She constantly puts the men down instead of helping the get better. She does this because she does not want the men to be cured, she wants them to stay there. She is manipulative and can’t be trusted. She has spies all around the ward, and she knows everything about everyone. She does everything in her power to make the men feel weaker than she is for the sole purpose of preventing them to rebel against her, but that isn’t the case when it comes to McMurphy. McMurphy serves ad Nurse Ratched’s character foil in the book. McMurphy is doing everything in his power to change the others and to get them to rebel, which is why he took the men on the fishing trip. Nurse Ratched is starting to realize the McMurphy is no good and is ruining everything that she made. She is slowly starting to fall apart.

Cuckoo's Nest: Two

In Part Two we are really introduced to the character of McMurphy. At first McMurphy is considered the tough, rule breaking man of the ward. As the book goes on you begin to see the McMurphy slowly begins to become like every other patient, and he stops rebelling and just follows the Big Nurses rules. When he begins to do this he notices that the other patients aren’t looking at him the same way as they did before. This is when he realizes that he has an obligation to get the rest of the patients out of the trance they are in and give them a reality check. The fact that McMurphy has confidence in himself, and stands up to the Big Nurse shows the patients that he is somebody to be trusted and somebody who will protect them. He becomes somewhat of a role model to them. I would really like to see how far McMurphy’s character gets him in this book.

Cuckoo's Nest: One

When we were first introduced to the idea of reading the Cuckoo’s nest I really did not know what to expect. As we began to read the book it started to grow on me. Part One went into deep explanation of both Chief Broom and Nurse Ratched’s character. Chief Broom believes that the ward is basically for people who do not fit into society, or people who have been disowned from society due to their mental health issues. He explains all of the pressures associated with conformity. Those who do not conform are considered as mistakes. These people are then labeled ill and are sent away to institutions for the mentally insane, even if there is nothing mentally wrong with them. The ward is somewhere where the normal people of society believe that these people can be cured, and the people that are receiving treatment for no reason eventually begin to believe that there is something really wrong with them due to the way society looks at them. I find it very hard to define the word “insane” after reading part one because none of the patient’s are what we consider insane today. What Keesey’s main point is, is that if you don’t become what society wants you to become then you are frowned upon and you need to be fixed. This theme is also present in the book we just finished reading, 1984 by George Orwell.

Lantern Theatre Reaction

It was very hard for me to read the actual play because I really didn’t understand the language, and Hamlet isn’t one of my favorite writers. I became easily bored with the play, but seeing the play gave me a different outlook. I am more of a visual learner, and watching the play gave me a better understanding of the plot and characters. I thought that the character of King Claudius was played exactly the same as the character portrayed in the book. He was manipulative, but yet caring and sincere at the same time. I thought that the old but modern costumes were great. I also liked how the actors interacted with the audience during the play, especially when they directed their lines to one person in the audience and made them feel uncomfortable. I thought that was pretty entertaining. The only thing that I didn’t like was the simple set that they performed on. It really didn’t hold my attention, but once the actor’s came on to the stage I barely even looked at the scaffolding. All in all I believe that the actors did a great job, and I would go see the play again.

Hamlet Post 2

In Act two of Hamlet many of the characters have developed. At first I disliked the character of King Claudius but now after reading Act Two his character has grown on me. Claudius is worried about Hamlet’s well being because he thinks that he is going crazy and that something is wrong with him. He is more concerned with Hamlet than ruling is country, and that can be a very bad thing. Also Hamlet is beginning to not do what he is supposed to do. He is more worried about defeating Claudius than the well being of his country, family, and friends. There is also the play that Hamlet puts on in Act Two in order to get a rise out of King Claudius. This is Hamlet’s way of expressing how he feels, and making his feelings known to Claudius and his mother.

Hamlet Post 1

When I first found out that we were reading Hamlet, I really did not like the idea, but as we began reading the play grew on me. The first couple of scenes of the play gave me the basic background information I needed in order to understand the play. In scenes one and two Hamlet’s belief in ghosts is brought to our attention and I thought that this was interesting. All of the characters in the play are clueless as to why the ghost keeps coming to visit them, but they all assume that it is a bad omen. Also within the first two scenes the relationships between characters are shows. Like the one between Hamlet and his mother, and also Hamlet and King Claudius’s relationship. Hamlet loves his mother but he hates the fact the she is married to Claudius. Hamlet knows what Claudius’s real motives are and that is not the love for his mother but for the love of the throne.