End of a quarter

Today was a short day so all we did was finish up the presentations on Cuckoo's Nest. Make sure you are thinking about your paper topics. Start with just something that stands out to you and then try to work that into a claim. I'll attach my notes from the presentations which might help spark a unique topic.

Upcoming: Eros essays are due Monday--make sure you read the prompt carefully.
Monday we also start our last book as a class!

Enjoy your actual spring weekend :)

Cuckoo’s Nest Notes Part 1

Fog—represents an escape from reality and is comforting but there’s also the possibility of getting lost in it
Examples of fog: sex, drugs, drink, work, gambling

Chief—unique narrator, able to see/hear both sides of the hospital, confusing but insightful, biased towards Ratched
Key Quote: “But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen” (8). What does this mean?

Nurse—thinks she’s doing the right thing, shock therapy was the new way to treat people effectively
Patients do need some type of help: peeing, Chief, chronics

Mac—violent been in several fights, raped a 15 year old girl, gambles for the patients money, faking crazy to get out of jail, big on laughter and his sexuality

Combine—treats humans like machines, no longer individuals, everyone must conform, treatment is the same for everyone, shock therapy acts like a restart

Role reversals—Blacks and females are in control of white males but how is it working?

Microcosm—the hospital is a smaller version of society as a whole

Sexuality—used as tool, combine needs to repress to dehumanize,
Nurse covers her boobs
Harding possibly homosexual
Billy innocent and naïve
Female in power seen as a bitch would it be the same with a male?
Mac flaunts his and gains status and power from it

Part 2
Harding’s wife—overly sexual puts her husband down for not satisfying her

Dog and car scene—Chief actually looking outside of the hospital, nature vs. machine

No-win situation—epileptics and the drugs, Mac and his rebellion, patients in/out of hospital

Cheswick—suicide after he loses faith in Mac; can’t rebel on his own
His death sparks Mac back into action

Decisions: Rebel or submit, Friend or foe, Clear or fog, silent or vocal

Consequences: medicine, restrictions, shock, lobotomy

Nurse: she won’t release Mac; needs to keep him until she can break him; destroy his image so he doesn’t leave as exceptional

Setting: isolated hospital out in the country; need to put any non-conformity away from rest of society


Part 3
Emasculation—several castration references, what does it mean to be a man?
Chief took his mother’s name, govt. only listened to her not his father

Chief—thinks he’s small, Mac will make him grow, literally gives him part of his manhood back
Starts to become human again: talking, no longer just sweeps, laughing

Basketball—actual therapy where the men work together, fight back against black aides

Mac—returns as hero after initial defeat in part 2

Laughter—brings the men out of the fog, makes them human again

Fishing trip—independence, they finally act on their own,
Contrast with sterile hospital setting, out in nature on the water,
uncontrolled environment men in control of selves; controlled environment unstable men
Biblical—12 disciples, fisher or men, picked misfits and sinners, changes the men’s behavior and attitudes, Mac is drained by the effort

Part 4
Women—bitch, whore, religion

How much of the story actually happened? Chief’s quote on page 8
Native American as narrator—outcast of society given a voice

Humanized Nurse by exposing her boobs and she lost her power/control

Historical—question the status quo, rebel against the norm (Civil rights, women’s lib. War)

Did Mac kill himself? Knowingly went after Nurse even though he knew possible consequences

Patients also knowingly let Mac be a sacrifice. He was the person with the most to lose yet they let him take the fall.

Biblical—Last supper with the party scene, no one stays awake to warn Mac
Mac “crucified” to save the others, Billy (Judas) betrayed him then killed himself out of guilt,
the followers initially deny him, Chief spreads the Gospel, the novel is the Gospel (the Truth p. 8)

Mac had to die in order to be a legend and an inspiration. A living vegetable would have been a visible warning to all who tried to rebel again.

Chief literally destroys the Combine in the end by ripping out the control panel.

Ratched as a dictator/communist ideas—ration out privileges, make everyone the same
Mac as America/capitalist—loud, liberal, sexual, out for his own good, wants people to embrace themselves

Mac and Chief on parallel paths—silent to talking, constrained to free, Mac saves Chief then Chief saves Mac

Nurse is finally destroyed when Mac shows her as human by exposing her sexuality (boobs) and literally takes her voice from her