Skip to main content

The Erie Silence Before The Storm

Chapter 11 of How To Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster discusses how violence in writing often has more meaning than just a way to hurt someone. In the story of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest however, it is not the act of violence that is concerning, but the threat of it.

The Big Nurse runs a very tight ship in the ward, with everyone playing their predefined roles perfectly. Once McMurphy shows up though, it starts to make pieces of the puzzle fall apart. His boisterous, loud behavior empowers the other inmates, causing them to follow his lead. However it is not only his rhetoric that makes him revered, but also his physical size and obvious strength. This is not lost on the staff of the ward, and his history of violence is discussed in the group meeting on page 45, and again in the staff meeting on page 154, going as far as  to describe a scenario where a poor resident is trapped alone with him and is attacked.

McMuphy has created a deep fear in the community, not because he has hurt anyone, but simply because he seems to be the only person who could. The doctors know that he may just be a ticking time bomb waiting to blow a fuse and seriously hurt someone. We see some of this aggression when he does not get his way. On page 141 during the group meeting where his vote to watch the world series is turned down, he starts roaming around the room yelling at those who did not vote, cursing and screaming. He does not hurt anyone, but the tension of The Big Nurse attempting to restore order in vain and the massive beast of a man raging comes close. It is not the violence that means something here, but the lack thereof. McMurphy knows in the back of his mind that he needs to keep his cool in order to survive. He can only rebel so far, because The Big Nurse still runs the show no matter how hard he tries to fight it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Apocalypses in general

I was doing some thinking, and I realized that of all of the different types of apocalypses often portrayed in media, it seems like a pandemic is the only one you could realistically survive. I am going to break down each type and why I think this is true. Zombies So this is probably this first thing everyone thought of when you read the word apocalypse. And this is an interesting case. As zombies are portrayed, they are not very smart and do not have great fine motor skills. Because of this I do think that if a zombie apocalypse started here in the US lets say, it could very easily be contained to the continent as zombies could not fly a plain or drive a boat to get anywhere else. However unless you escape, I doubt someone could survive long in the landscape as you would constantly be fending off the millions of zombies that are constantly trying to kill you. Bullets and food supplies only last so long. You cannot settle to farm as the land is too hard to defend indefinitely, and e...

A Look At The Estranged Mr. Tom Sachs

"Work like a slave, order like a king, create like a god," the many quips and quotes from Mr. Tom Sachs paint a picture of genius that is harrowing, yet strangely inspiring. A sculptor by trade, his workshop named "The Studio," specializes in creating unique art pieces drawing inspiration from all sources in pop culture and our modern society. But Mr. Sachs himself is a character I find fascinating. He has a view and outlook on art and society that is really unique, and he finds appreciation for the most simple objects in every day life. "I want labor to be the point, because everything in our lives is miraculously made with no idea of how it's done. As an active and critical consumer, and as someone who has attempted to make the flawless and failed, I wanted a transparency of construction here. If we know how it is made and how it falls apart, we will know how to rebuild it." One of his main rules for creation is that an object has to show that it wa...

Legendary ECM Records Enters The Streaming Space

On the 14th, a short announcement went up on the ECM Records website news page , breaking the long pattern of reviews and new releases. In three succinct paragraphs, the prestigious record label announced that they would be on all major streaming platforms by the end of the month, a move that many thought would never come. The german label, founded in 1969, has been a driving force in the advancement of jazz and classical music. As Richard Brody points out in his article on the subject, even from the beginning the ECM releases have been at the forefront of musical progression, and has managed to garner quite the collection of talented musicians such as Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, and Vijay Iyer. But even beyond jazz, Steve Reich's classical work " Music For 18 Musicians " is widely considered one of the best modern pieces of classical music, and has garnered great following since its release. Additionally the label has a history of rerecording works from the middle age...