One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Questions

1) Who was the cause of Cheswick's suicide? McMurphy or the Big Nurse?
      Although I think that both McMurphy and the Big Nurse played some part in Cheswick's suicide, it was ultimately McMurphy that spurred Cheswick's actions. If it really was the Big Nurse that had caused his suicide, then he would have already done it a long time ago, even before McMurphy would have shown up at the ward. But since Cheswick had started to feel more comfortable saying what he felt and had someone to back him up, he deflated when that all went away when McMurphy decided to stay out of the spotlight. McMurphy disappointed Cheswick into feeling like he could never win against the Big Nurse, ultimately causing his suicide.

2) What did the fog represent for the Chief?
        I think the fog that the Chief continuously reported was symbolic of his detachment from reality. After years of living in this mental ward and never talking to anyone, or having anyone talk to him, the Chief felt cut off from everything else. He had basically convinced himself that he deserved to be in the asylum, even though he was most likely not even insane to begin with. However, after McMurphy appears, the fog lessens. Once McMurphy starts to help Chief become a normal man again, the appearance of the fog is almost nonexistent as the Chief is brought back into reality.

3) How did McMurphy represent a Christ figure in the story?

      McMurphy shows several similarities to Christ in this story. First of all, when he takes the men fishing, it is an allusion to the story in the Bible where Jesus refuses to help his apostles while they are fishing because he knew that they had the ability to do it themselves. McMurphy does this very same thing with the twelve other men on the fishing boat. Another reference to Jesus is when McMurphy is going through the electroshock therapy and he has to lie on a cross-shaped table and even asks if he would get a crown of thorns. Also, towards the end of the book, McMurphy "dies" (gets lobotomy) for the benefit of the other ward patients, just like Jesus sacrificed himself for every one's sins.

4) Was Chief Bromden ever really insane?

      Because Chief was ignored whenever he spoke around people who weren't from his tribe when he was young, he taught himself to believe that he was unwanted by society. I think that this faulty idea is what made him commit himself to the asylum. He mentioned that he pretended to be deaf because people would never respond to him in the first place. This troublesome childhood is what drove him to the asylum, even though he really had no mental illness in the first place. He just allowed his mind to be warped by the Big Nurse.

Cuckoo's Nest #2

At the end of part one, McMurphy appears to be winning the argument between Nurse Ratched and himself. After McMurphy convinces the Acutes and the Chief to vote to watch the World Series, Nurse Ratched starts to show her aggravation at him, which she never would have done before. She wasn't even able to wield her power over the men to pull them back to their chores and away from the television. At this point in the book, the Chief isn't much more than a narrator. We sometimes forgets that he is even there until he mentions things about himself, which is very rare. However, he has gotten more involved in the story since McMurphy appeared in the asylum. He gets more involved with what the Acutes are doing and he inputs more of his own opinions and ideas about what is going on.

Cuckoo's Nest #1

The characters in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" seem to fit into the molds of three basic character forms; hero, antihero, and villain. Based on the first half of part one, I think that Mr. Bromden is the hero, McMurphy is the antihero, and the Big Nurse is the villain. Mr. Bromden hasn't been very prominent in the story so far, just playing the part of a narrator, but he possesses all of the qualities of a hero. He recognizes that what the asylum does is wrong. He also doesn't appear to actually be insane like some of the other chronics. At the beginning of the book, he is listening in on the black boys and the nurse, like he was planning to use information against them at some point in the future. McMurphy fits the role of an antihero because he wants to help the men in the asylum and make it a better place for them. The way he goes about this, though, is not exactly how most people would solve the problem. He goes against what the Big Nurse tells him to do. It is also mentioned that he gambles and might be a sex addict, which gives him the qualities of an antihero, because those aspects are not exactly admired by the audience. So far, it appears that the Big Nurse is the villain. She seems determines to make life even more miserable for the men in the asylum, even when they are already suffering severely from mental illnesses. She will not let them enjoy their lives, and enjoys making them live in fear of being tortured.

Great Gatsby #2

Fitzgerald does a fantastic job of revealing details to us a little at a time, allowing us to pass and change judgment as the story progresses. Address the following questions in relation to the development of Jay Gatsby: 1) What is the purpose of Meyer Wolfsheim as a character? How does he affect the way we see Gatsby? 2) What does the back story about Jay and Daisy's past do to our impressions of Gatsby? 3) What does the story of the rest of Gatsby past due to our impressions of him? 4) How does your overall impression of Gatsby change over these three chapters - do you like him more, less, and why?

1) Meyer Wolfsheim is used in the story to reveal more about Gatsby and his past in a more subtle way. He tells Nick about what an upstanding citizen Gatsby is and how wonderful of a person he is. This makes us relate to Gatsby more and makes us care more about him as a character.
2) Jay and Daisy's past gives Gatsby a more realistic background. Before, he was just an elusive neighbor of Nick's who enjoyed staring at the water in the middle of the night. Now, with the introduction of more in-depth emotions, Gatsby seems much more human to us.
3) Gatsby's past makes us more sympathetic to him. We understand now how he came into his money, but also how he missed out on most of it in the end, when Ella Kaye received what remained of the millions.
4) After these three chapters, I like Gatsby less than I did at the start of the book. Before these three chapters, he was mysterious and someone who we wanted to find out more about, which made him interesting to the audience. However, now that we know who he is, the mystery has worn away, and it is not really replaced with any exciting character traits to make him interesting. We see him as a nervous wreck when Daisy comes near, which makes him seem weak in my eyes, and therefore, less interesting.

Great Gatsby Reading Journal #1

Having talked about hero, antihero, and villain in class, I am sure that you are completely clear on what all three are. And knowing that, you also are aware that how you classify chraracters into one of these categories is a very personal thing. Looking at first three chapters of *The Great Gatsby*, make some predictions about these characters and (unlike Nick) classify them into one of the three categories - hero, antihero, and villain. Give ample reasons for your classification, with support for the text (that means quotes...and page numbers).

Having read "The Great Gatsby" so far, the most clear hero appears to be Nick Carraway. Going along with the true definition of a hero, he shares many of the same values with the audience and he is someone we can relate to since he is going through the story with us.

The antihero in this story so far appears to be Gatsby. We haven't found out much about him yet, but he seems like he has the qualities of a hero, yet he seems to also have a questionable background that might make his morals opposing to those of the audience. In chapter three, on page forty-four someone accuses him of killing a man, while someone suggests that he could have been a German spy. This could lead us to believe that has questionable morals.

When classifying a villain in this story, the closest character to the definition so far is Tom Buchanan. His morals are quite opposite to those of the audience. He cheats on his wife, beats her, and beats his mistress as well. In chapter two, on page thirty-seven, he is in a quarrel with Myrtle and finishes it by breaking her nose. Obviously, the morals that he possesses are quite opposed to the audience's.

Duck and Cover

What is the overt message in this ad? How do we know this? What is the covert message in this ad? How do we know that? Is this propaganda or simple persuasion? Explain.

The overt message of this ad was to duck and cover your head in case of an atomic bomb. We know this because of the repeated use of the phrase, "duck and cover" throughout the film. The covert message was that we should fear the atomic bomb. However, I do not believe that this message was intended due to the fact that it was made for children. I think that this video is just simple persuasion. First of all, the makers of this video repeatedly said "duck and cover," which made their message painfully obvious. Secondly, because this video was made for children, I do not believe that the creators would have placed any hidden message in the video because the children probably wouldn't have been able to pick up on it.

Destination Earth

What is the overt message in this ad? How do we know this? What is the covert message in this ad? How do we know that? How is this propaganda (include and be specific about how it uses the specific types of propaganda we have read about)? Explain.

The overt message is that oil has many valuable uses. The cartoon showed the different ways that oil can be used, such as making tires, roads, or gasoline. The covert message we should appreciate the economy of America and to not try and be like a communist society, like Mars was at the beginning of the short film. This is propaganda because of the vast differences between the overt and covert messages. The propaganda technique they used was transfer because they used the hatred of communism that most people have to make the audience side against the communist society that had been established on Mars.

Propaganda WWII

1. The overt message is to eat less bread.
2. The covert message is that if you want to be a patriotic American, then you will do you your part and make the sacrifice to eat less bread to support the troops fighting in World War II.
3. This is propaganda because the two messages differ greatly. This makes the viewer not realize that their point of view on tthis subject was actually given to them by the overt message of the ad.

"Clampdown" by The Clash

1. I think that this song is about trying to defy authority. They allude to different types of authority, like the Nazis, in this song. At one point it says, "Taking off his turban, they said, is this man a Jew?" This strongly implies that the song is talking about the Nazis. Later, they also mention training blue-eyed boys, which is what the Nazis believed everyone should look like.
2. I think that this song is suppose to sound ironic, because the tempo is upbeat and it is in a major key, which creates a light and cheerful tone, which greatly contrast to the quite grim topic.
3. This song is propaganda because it puts the authority in a negative light, making you not want to trust it or be a part of it.

Rhetoric, Persuasion, and Propaganda

The quotes that I chose were numbers 521, 534, 574, and 580. The quote that I chose to analyze was number 574. "The first step in liquidating a people... is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will forget what it is and what it was." I agree with this quote wholeheartedly. To me, it seems to almost be summarizing George Orwell's 1984 in a few sentences. In the book, Orwell demonstrated quite clearly how well the people of a country can fall under the government's control when they are fed lies about their history and how their culture is suppose to be. There was no outright persuasion in the book, but the citizens were fed quite a lot of propaganda, such as the posters that read "Big brother is watching you." This scared the citizens into behaving, thinking that they would be punished if someone was always watching them. If they had known their history, then they would know that that was not how a reasonable life was suppose to be and they would do something about it, but they didn't.