Cuckoo's Nest Part IV

Leading up to Part IV, Nurse Ratched's authority over the men in the ward declined as McMurphy's influence on them continued to grow stronger, especially on the fishing trip. The men of the ward trusted McMurphy, admired him, and respected him. Nurse Ratched realized how influential he was on the men that she attempts to tarnish his profile by posting the patients' financial statements, highlighting the fact that everyone's finances have been declining except for McMurphy's. Everyone begins to question McMurhpy's character and motives, but Harding points out that McMurphy was never shy about his motives.

However, Nurse Ratched's attempt to divide the patients and ostracize McMurphy fails. The rest of the men, especially Bromden continually stick by his side. When Nurse Ratched orders everyone who attended the fishing trip to be cleansed, Bromden and McMurphy together fight the aides who try to force George to take a shower. Because of this, both Bromden and McMurphy are sent to Disturbed and sentanced electric shock therapy.

In his absence, the men's respect for McMurphy continues to grow, which causes Nurse Ratched to take him out of Disturbed. The guys encourage him to escape, and they formulate a plan after they have a drunken orgy with Candy and Sandy with large amounts of alcohol with the help of Turkle. However, their plans fall through. When the aides discover what happened the prior night, Nurse Ratched does some of her own investigating, finding Billy with Candy. She threatens to tell his mother which leads him to a crying plea to keep it a secret. She sends him to Dr. Spivey's office where he commits suicide on his way there. Then she asks McMurphy if he is satisfied, then retreats to her office. McMurphy smashes through the glass and attempts to strangle her. She is sent to the hospital and returns a week later with a large bandage on her throat, unable to speak. She orders a lobotomy for McMurhpy as a consequence for his attack. When he returns, he is in a vegetative state. Bromden, the one who always stood by McMurphy, despite his ways, smothers him with a pillow, putting his friend out of his misery. Having gone through enough Bromden throws the control panel through the window, and makes his own escape.

Part III

Two significant things happen in part III of Cuckoo's Nest; Chief decides to finally speak, and McMurphy's fishing trip. These two events add some spice to these otherwise somewhat uninteresting characters. Chief opens up to McMurphy at night when they are supposed to be sleeping and finds it difficult to stop talking when one of the black boys comes around to figure out Chief's chewing gum mystery. The fishing trip seems to give the men their metaphorical balls back as they become master of their own domains rather than submitting to Nurse Ratched's orders.

The night before the fishing trip, one of the aides come around and scrapes gum from underneath Chief's bed, claiming that he finally figured out how a broke man like Chief could afford gum. He says he never saw Chief go to the canteen to buy anything because he doesn't have any money, but somehow has gum to chew. After the aide leaves, McMurphy rolls over in the bed next to Chief and hands him a piece of gum, and Chief instinctively thanks him without realizing he broke his long silence. Both Chief and McMurphy exchange anectdotes, but quickly then realize they are making too much noise and that they may get caught. Before calling it a night, McMurhpy convinces Chief to come along on the fishing trip under the condition that Chief follows McMurhpy's workout plan to get Chief buff again.

The following morning, McMurhpy's fishing trip plans almost fall through, but with help from the Doctor Spivey, the guys and Candy, the "chaparone" hit the road. When they go to the gas station, the men follow McMurphy's lead of acting as a tough guy when they run into some trouble at the gas station, which boosts their confidence. However, this confidence subsides on the dock while the men working on the docks begin to verbally harass Candy. The once tough guys fall silent, leaving Candy defenseless. They also run into some legal trouble regarding the boat rentle, but McMurhpy decides to take matters into his own hands, punching out the captain and taking the boat anyway.

On the boat, they enjoy masculine activities such as drinking beer, fishing, soaking up the sun with their shirts off, and enjoying Candy's company, especially Billy, who could be regarded as the sweetheart of the group. They all seem to be somewhat normal, almost not even needing to be institutionalized; quite different than they seemed under Nurse Ratched's care.

With the progression of the plot, the characters further develop, especially Chief Bromden. The rest of the group show a sign of some relative independence rather than incompotence as seen during their days in the Combine. Regardless, they all return to the ward, with even Doctor Spivey enjoying himself.

Cuckoo's Nest Part II

The character of McMurphy really develops in Part II, and his influence on the other members of the ward is evident. He brings a more masculine and rebellious attitude that is in many ways admired and respected by the other patients. Since he arrived at the ward, the other members have been a bit more daring and bold about their grievences that they have kept long silent. However, a shift in his approach to Nurse Ratched changes as he no longer goes out of his way to get under her skin the way he previously did in Part I.
In Part II, McMurphy takes on the role of the main character, as he consumes more of the pages than narrator Cheif Bromden. More of the action of the novel revolves around McMurphy at this point rather than Cheif Bromden, however, because Cheif Bromden is the narrator, only his thoughts appear on the page.
At meetings, McMurphy seems to be the most vocal opposition to Nurse Ratched and the staff. However, his most important meeting was the one in which he silently reacts to the rationing of cigarettes. He strategizes his insubordination in way in which he can go unpunished; a shrewd and clever thought. He remains silent rather than vocally reacting, sticks his hand through the glass window of Nurse Ratched's office (where the cigarettes have been kept), breaking the glass claiming that it was so spotless that he forget it was there. Everyone in the meeting is stunned, and Nurse Ratched is even fearful.
Despite breaking the glass, McMurphy gets permission to assemble and train a basketball team. This establishes McMurphy officially as a leader of his fellow patients. They already admired him, but now he has some given authority over them because he is now the captin of their basketball team. Once the glass is replaced, one of the members intentionally bounce the ball through the glass, causing it to break and also deflating the ball, ending the basketball season. But not before a game between the staff and the patients in which McMurhpy gets a little physical with one of the black boys.
Another nod to McMurphy's leadership is the way Harding seeks McMurphy's approval of his wife. Harding is very excited to introduce his wife to McMurphy and asks his opinion of her after her visit is over. McMurphy however, is disinterested and claims he has better things to worry about.
McMurphy emerges as a leader in Part II whether willingly or unwillingly. His daring demeanor and unpredictability earns him the respect and admiration of his peers, and maybe even a little bit of respect from Nurse Ratched too.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest I

Reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest can be a bit difficult because of the style of delivery from the narrator; a distracted, mysterious "chronic" in a psych ward. Often he falls into flashback in which parts of his past are unveiled, but are never totally concluded, leaving gaps in the chronology of Cheif Bromden. We already know that his heritage includes American Indian, hence the title "Cheif", he was born on a reservation, and we have a physical description of him. We also know that he is the oldest member of the ward, and has been there the longest. In the ward, he is labled as a "walker" and a "chronic" which means that he is mobile and, by the ward's opinion, does not have a chance for recovery. He plays the role of a deaf and mute person, but as we understand, it is only an act. However, we still do not have much information on why he is in the psych ward.

The stream of consciousness style employed by Kesey is a very effective addative to the novel because of the setting and narrator. This feature lends more credibility and adds to the authenticity of the novel. It helps capture the full character of Cheif Bromden rather than having a third person, omniscient narrator.

Hamlet Act II

Love is a theme that is present in a number of Shakespeare's plays; including Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Hamlet. In each of these plays, boundaries are set on love between characters because of status; in the case of Romeo and Juliet, their families are enemies, in Othello, Roderigo could never get attention from Desdemona because she doesn't even know he exists due to the fact that she is the wife of the Venitian general, and in Hamlet, Ophelia and Hamlet, are separated by Lord Polonius' commands to Ophelia. All of these examples of love end in the same way; death.

Due to Shakespeare's common ending to love, Shakespeare may be implying something about who people should love and whether we should act on that love. Romeo's love for Juliet, whom he thinks is dead because of the potion she was under, drives him to suicide. As Juliet awakens to a dead Romeo, she also commits suicide. Their love ended prematurely with death. In Roderigo's pursuit for Desdemona's love, he meets with death. Othello can even be related to this theme of love prematurely ending in death because perhaps being of a totally different race from Desdemona was considered a flaw in their love by Shakespeare.

In modern times, love seems to be much more free than it was during Shakespeare's time. In the examples above, there is a major problem in who each character chooses to love, which ends in death; whether it be family relations, social class, or race. Love that crosses those lines never seems to live, but is always cut short in Shakespeare's plays.

Hamlet Act I scenes i-ii

The first two scenes of Hamlet do not give much background information of the main characters and the relationship between characters, but rather leaves the reader to figure out the backgrounds and relationships of the characters. The reader learns in scene two that Hamlet is the prince, and that King Claudius is both his uncle and now father. In that encounter, Shakespeare exposes a sliver of the type of relationship the two have. Hamlet's relationship with his father, which we cannot judge through dialogue, seems to be apparent through his heavy mourning over his father's death. Hamlet's encounter with his mother, Queen Gertrude in scenes i and ii is breif, therefore much speculation is required.
In the middle of the second scene (line 64), Hamlet is introduced as King Claudius' son and cousin, but is actually really the king's nephew. By Hamlet's response in line 65, it can be concluded that Hamlet is not very fond of his uncle. Nevertheless, King Claudius tries to comfort the mourning Hamlet and tells him that everyone loses their father at one point in time, but also gives him some sharp words that questions his character; specifically line 94 as King Claudius calls Hamlet's mourning "unmanly grief."
In the same scene, Hamlet speaks with his mother as she asks him to stay with her and King Claudius and not to go back to Wittenberg to continue studying. He does not place any words of affection or endearment towards her, and responds with "I shall in all my best obey you, madam" (line 120). This may be a cultural custom, but I see this as potentially a somewhat weak relationship between Hamlet and Queen Gertrude. In the following sequence, Hamlet's soliloquy, he appears to be upset with his mother for, in his eyes, betraying his father's love for her by remarrying King Claudius (lines 145-156).
At this point of the point in the play, it is premature to form any definitive opinion on Hamelt's relationships with King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, but the foundation has been set. It appears that there is hostility between Hamlet and King Claudius, and maybe even contempt. As for Hamlet and Queen Gertrude, Hamlet appears bit disappointed in his mother and perhaps upset in her perceived quick recovery from her former husband's death.

Coleridge and Shelley

"Kubla Khan" cautions against the indulgence of imagination by setting up the reader with vivid imagery, but then turning out what would seem to be paradise into the opposite. The first stanza describes a place with a sacred river, measureless caverns, and ten miles of fertile land (lines 3-6) and blossoming gardens, winding streams, and sunny areas (lines 6-11). However, the rest of the poem speaks negatively of this place; the speaker calls it "savage" and "enchanted" (line 14), and that a woman waits for her demon lover (lines 15-16). Witholding everything but the first stanza, the reader would most likely imagine a beautiful, peaceful place, but as the reader reads on, he/she would probably reconsider. The concept here is not to get carried away by overindulging in our imaginations. This may have been written for the American romantic poets who wrote much about nature and relied heavily on appealing to the reader's imagination.


In Shelley's poem Ozymandias, I can identify three speakers; the main speaker in the beginning, the traveller, and Ozymandias. The main speaker almost plays the role of a prophet in the sense that he/she is relating a story that has some type of social or political significance based in history. The traveller shares an observation of what seems to have been the remains of a statue or some type of monument. The traveller is the one who brings forth the information. The monument that the traveller speaks of is one of Ozymandias. Ozymandias speaks be saying, "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings, Look on my works, ye Mighty and despair!". This could mean that Ozymandias was some type of political or social authoritarian who was defeated, signified by the rubble of the statue. In other words, this may be speaking against proud leaders who become too domineering, leading to their own downfall.