Blog Response

After reading Andrea Copello's blog post regarding Part 1 of the novel, I was able to make several connections that had eluded me before. I had not realized that Marlow spoke of the places he would be exploring as being full of light and it is interesting to note the change between that and the way he describes them when he is actually there. What turned those lively and luminous places into the dark, unknown and eerie places they are when Marlow later describes them? The answer is simple: imperialism and the search for power.

Another connection I had failed to make was that between Marlow's descriptions and those made in Dante's Inferno. It is interesting to note the tone Marlow employs when describing these occurrences and settings, and how they bear resemblance to those Dante describes as the setting for condemned souls to suffer and carry the burden of unsatisfied souls.

Although it may seem a bit radical, I agree with this comparison. Life under the British must have felt like Hell to the natives, who turned to look for a God-like figure to save them from their misery, and found one with Mr. Kurtz.

Accidental?

Although it may not seem like it when viewed from a distance, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness bears incredible resemblance to the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Even though the books are completely different in both content and meaning, they have several elements in common, which, when seen with a certain perspective, can help readers further understand these texts. Both Conrad and Kesey use fog as a symbol of uncertainty and create a strong main character that ends up having an incredible influence on the narrators of the stories.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the fog is used as an allusion to the things the Combine is doing to keep the patients blind to their true intentions. It stands for uncertainty, self-doubt, and the confines of social structures. Although its meaning is slightly difference, the fog also makes an appearance in Heart of Darkness. In this case it represents the dangers of the unknown, and it serves as a critique to the "missions" Europeans had when colonizing Africa.

Yet another similarity between these two texts is the fact that they have a strong character, which the narrators soon start to idolize. In Kesey's novel, this character is McMurphy, whose great leadership skills and charisma earn him the respect of the patients until he becomes their symbol of hope. Conrad, on the other hand, presents his strong character in a much more subtle way, and it isn’t until the end of the second chapter that the reader realizes just how important Mr. Kurtz became to Marlow and the influence he has on the area. "He had the power to charm or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch-dance in his honor…" (pg. 93). Despite his questionable intentions, Mr. Kurtz is undoubtedly a major character in this area of the Congo, and he even had some of the natives rebelling because they wanted him to stay. The "party" the patients had in OFOTCN may help illustrate this point, and further proves the similarities between these two works.

Even though they are extremely different, there are some aspects of Heart of Darkness that remind me of the previous novel we read in class, and I will have to continue reading in order to see if these comparisons are true for the entire book, or if these coincidences are just that, accidental. 

How Much Can be Determined?

People often have the misconception that you need to know every single fact in order to know everything. However, life teaches them otherwise.  Often times the most important things are those that go by unsaid, and such is the case with Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. As you embark on the journey of attempting to read and understand this ironic novel, you often start to wonder just what exactly the author means to tell us. As a reader, you are left wondering whom exactly Marlow is, what his views on slavery are and what he is really trying to accomplish. By using irony as the literary device that steers this novel, he persuades his readers to second-guess every action and situation Marlow encounters, allowing them to make reflections upon their own lives.

One of the first surprises one encounters in this intriguing novel is that the original narrator is not the one actually telling the story. He is recounting a story told to him by the real narrator, Marlow. This use of expected vs. actual situation irony makes the reader start to question many elements of the novel. If we are not even aware of who the actual narrator is, what can we be sure of?

Marlow´s attitude towards the natives also raised a lot of questions. It is unclear whether Conrad is being ironic when he talks about the European’s ¨noble task¨ or when he says that the blacks are not all that different. One thing that is clear is that Marlow is shocked by the things he saw in Africa, and that is the reason why the story is being told in the first place. But, where is he going with it? What does he intend to show the others on the boat by retelling his own experiences? What should we, as readers, expect from the book? What are Conrad´s true intentions?

Straightforward Newman

The first example of irony in this song can be observed merely from its title, "Great Nations of Europe." Although it is not evident in the first verse of the song, it soon becomes clear that Newman believes European nations to be anything but great.

                "Now they're gone, they're gone, they're really gone.

            You never seen anyone so gone."
            soooooooooooooo
            he had them torn apart by dogs on religious grounds they say
            the great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way."

This, as a clear example of the type of irony where what is said is the opposite of what is meant. After everything the Europeans did in America, their influence is all but gone; it can be observed in almost every aspect of our society.

            "He met some friendly Indians whom the Church told him were gay,

This is yet another example of irony, where Newman emphasizes the feeling of superiority Europeans had and the extreme measures they reached in order to prove this. The ironic part comes from his use of the word "holy," when their actions were anything but that.  

Parts of the song that are not ironic are the first paragraph, when he describes the time period and how Europeans had already colonized most of the eastern hemisphere. It is also true that they first arrived to the Canary Islands and that "Columbus sailed for India [but] found Salvador instead."

Of Change and Miracles

          Sometimes we underestimate the effect one character can have on an entire novel. It may seem unreasonable to think that the mere presence of a single person can completely alter the way of living of an entire group of people. Due to the influence McMurphy has on every single person in the ward, they all end up changing in one way or another, whether they do it consciously or it happens without them noticing.

               

          One of the characters that goes by mostly disregarded until the end of the story is Billy Bibbit. He is a thirty year old man whose mother works at the hospital and is one of Nurse Ratched's close friends. At the beginning of the book  he comes off as being shy, insecure and afraid - a fact that is accentuated by his evident stutter.

                With McMurphy's help, he, as well as just about every other patient in the ward, starts to come out of his shell. He goes from acting like an immature child and tattling other patients' stories by writing them in the log book to a much more confident, outgoing and charming character during the months McMurphy is with him.

                One of the defining moments this character has is when they go out boating. McMurphy invites one of his "friends", Candy, to join them and out of all the patients, Billy takes a special liking to her and starts flirting with her in his own, timid way. He starts to act out when they get to the gas station following McMurphy's example, however, when the loafers outside the bait shop start attacking Candy, he keeps his mouth shut. This proves that although McMurphy helped him start forming an identity, he is still extremely afraid of those that have some kind of power over him, such as the Big Nurse, his mother, and most importantly the Combine and those in the outside world.

                McMurphy is an idol to these inmates. He came in and from the beginning started challenging authority, making himself heard and attempting to change the things he didn’t agree with. The patients started seeing him as their savior, the one that could give them back the voices they had lost many years ago. If he was there, they felt that they became almost invincible, but when he wasn’t no one stepped up to take his place.

                The fact that Billy accepted McMurphy's arranged date with Candy shows how much he had changed since the beginning of the novel, but it still wasn’t enough to save him. The day of Billy's death, the Big Nurse appeared and popped his blissful bubble, the one all the inmates that participated in the night's events found themselves in, and it was too much for him. Reality came crashing down, as well as all the social pressures he had been under before McMurphy's arrival. He couldn't handle taking responsibility for his actions and thus, when left alone, he ended his own life.

                Change occurs around us every single day. We may not notice it but it is always there. However, as much as we would like to believe, sometimes even change isn’t enough, especially when it comes to building character. You either have it or you don’t. You can try working on it in order to make it stronger but when it comes down to it, not even McMurphy could make miracles.

Power is determined by the size of your…bra

One of the biggest influences we can see throughout the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the power women hold over men. Although most of the characters are male, they are always being dominated by female figures.

The clearest example of this is nurse Ratched, and the matriarchal society she runs inside the ward. Even though Doctor Spivey is the expert, he is not exempt from the nurse's power, and he still looks up to her and consults with her every decision he makes regarding the patients. The same can be said about the other workers at the hospital, including the black boys. Although their status of aides does mean that they are below the nurses, Kesey still makes it clear that they report to the Big Nurse, as can be seen in the following passage: "'Mr. Washington!... Come down here!' He puts his hands in his pockets and starts shuffling down the hall to her. He never walks very fast and I can see how if he don’t get a move in she might freeze him and shatter him all to hell by just looking." (pg. 87).

At this point in the novel, the only one bold enough to stand up to the nurse is McMurphy, and although he manipulated some of his ward mates to act up alongside him, even he was forced to back down. Everyone in the ward is scared of the Big Nurse, and although she clearly holds the most power over all the characters in the book, she is not the only one that does so. 

Another important female character that has made several appearances so far is Harding's wife. In this case, they also make reference to her attractive female qualities as a sign of a certain power that she is able to hold upon men. "He has also stated that his wife's ample bosom at times gives him a feeling of inferiority. So. Does anyone care to touch upon this subject further?" (pg. 39). This is a clear example of how the men in the ward are influenced by women's attributes, and how the size of a woman's breast is a sign of her superiority over them.