These Are The Questions That Haunt Me

While reading Heart of Darkness (HOD) many questions came to mind.  The first one came to me on page 68.  Marlow, one of the main characters, beings to speak about his experiences.  He mentions darkness many times.  Is Marlow surrounded by darkness? Could the title of the novel be referring to him?

On page 79, Marlow begins to encounter black people.  He refers to them as criminals which is ironic because he pities them.  Is this the beginning of enslaving african americans?  How did it all begin? If they are seen as criminals, why does Marlow pity them?

On page 88 Marlow mentions the word "wandering" many times.  Does it have any significance?  Will it reappear in the novel? Is his whole trip just a big wandering journey?

On page 92, a man named Mr. Kurtz is mentioned. It is unknown who exactly this man is.  Is he a spy? Is he really in charge of the most important station? Will we eventually meet him in the future? Why is he so important?

Whether the answers to these questions lie ahead are unknown.

The Colonizers

"Great Nations of Europe" by Randy Newman is ironic, honest, and hilarious!  It expresses the idea of colonization and how the citizens of each undeveloped country should prepare themselves.  The line that I find most ironic is:

"..hide the groceries too.."

He was obviously being sarcastic about it.  People did not have groceries back in the 16th century! It's humorous due to the way in which he uses it.  He tells them to hide certain things and then mentions the groceries.  The line I find to be most true is:

"Hide your wives and daughter.." 

The colonizers back in that time would most likely rape the women, no matter their age.  Most of the women would probably be used as house maids and would be taken away from their home.  

From Zero to Hero

Chief Bromden, the native american in OFOCN, had a drastic change in personality at the end of the novel.  Before McMurphy had arrived at the institution, the Chief acted as if he were deaf and dumb.  He would go around cleaning the ward and no one ever suspected anything.  The employees would allow him to be present in staff meetings because they thought he couldn't hear them and Nurse Ratched would never questioned whether he was faking it or not.  The only person who did realize the act was McMurphy.  On page 75, McMurphy tells the Chief to watch out for the attending. Without thinking, the chief immediately laid down.  It was not until McMurphy started to laugh did the Chief realize that he had made a foolish error. This foolish error led McMurphy to discovering his secret.  McMurphy said to him quietly, "Why, you sure did give a jump when I told you that coon was coming, Chief.  I thought somebody told me you was deef."  From that moment on, the chief was more careful about what he did even though McMurphy never shared his secret with anyone in the ward.

As time went on, the chief got comfortable with McMurphy.  On page 186 he finally spoke to him when McMurphy gave him a piece of gum. He replied with the simple phrase, "thank you." That night the chief started to talk uncontrollably about how long he had been acting and everything he had heard through out the years.  McMurphy told him not to worry about his little secret and like before, he did not tell a soul.  It was not until after the fishing trip that the chief started speaking to everyone.  He became McMurphy's close friend and they went through a lot together.  The chief got as big as he used to be, he gained confidence, and he lost fear of the EST.  On page 243 he firmly stated, "I won't cry or yell.  Not with McMurphy here."  In the beginning of the novel he would always start to yell when it came to the shock therapy.  He would also describe the fog.

By the end of the novel, his head was clear.  The fog was gone and he knew exactly what he was after.  He came out of his bubble and became friends with the people of the ward.  One night he even got drunk with the other patients when Candy and Sandy snuck in.  The change was definitely seen on the last page when McMurphy came back from all of his "special therapy".  He looked like a vegetable and the other patients did not believe it.  They started to say that Nurse Ratched had made a man look just like him.  In order to keep McMurphy's legend alive, the chief suffocated him so that the people would not remember him as a vegetable.  In a way, the chief was McMurphy's hero.  He finished McMurphy's work and eventually escaped.  He went from zero to hero.

Power, Authority, and Fear

Through out the novel OFOCN (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) by Ken Kesey, women are constantly present.  They portray many things, but the most important elements are power and authority.  A perfect example is Nurse Ratched.  She is the head nurse in the mental ward and every man fears her, even the employees that are above her in status.  On page 58 Harding, one of the patients in the ward, has an interesting discussion with a man named Randal McMurphy.  Harding says that all of the patients are rabbits and Nurse Ratched is the wolf.  Just like in the circle of life, the rabbits must fear the wolf.

Other then some feminine details, Nurse Ratched is seen as a man.  When Kesey describes her, he uses masculine features.  For example, on page 64 a patient says, "Her face is quite handsome."  Normally, a women's face is described as beautiful or pretty.  Handsome is an adjective used to describe men. The only point in time where the patients of the institution do speak about her being a woman is when they mention her breasts.  Many times they talk about how big they are and how ironic it is that she has them.  In my opinion, her "big breasts" symbolize, in a way, the amount of authority she has.  Her breasts are not the only thing mentioned about her feminine appearance in the novel.  On page 38 it says:

"She walked right on past, ignoring him just like she chose to ignore the way nature had tagged her with those outsized badges of femininity, just like she was above him, and sex, and everything else that's weak of the flesh."

Although she is a woman, no one dares to challenge her except Mc Murphy.  Mc Murphy is referred to as the patients' savior.  With just spending a week in the institution, he has successfully gotten under Nurse Ratched's skin.  This becomes a rivalry of who has more power in the ward.  In time, a rebellion takes place.  No one decides to do the house chores and everyone starts to challenge her in the group meetings.  Only when McMurphy visits the pool for the first time does he realize how much authority she has.  After speaking to a life guard, McMurphy decides to behave himself and everything goes back under control.  Many of the patients do not understand his change of attitude until he tells them that she is the one who decides who gets released.  

In order to keep control in the institution, the Nurse uses fear.  Her main resource is the shock therapy.  As soon as someone misbehaves, she sends them to the "Shock Stop".  Although it is quick and painless, it creates fear because it is unpleasant.  On page 162, Harding finally explains the EST to McMurphy.  Once someone goes through it, the person becomes calmer and is "cured".  The patients never return to their normal state, which makes it easier for her to keep control.  On page 164 McMurphy says that she is the heart of the problem.  Only he recognized the fact that she is the cause of fear.  She is comfortable with the idea of being the head of authority, therefore she punishes the patients for the rebellion that had occurred.  She wanted to assure the patients that she was still the boss.  Only when McMurphy stands up and challenges her once more does it become questionable whether she will continue portraying power and authority.  

Fog: Comforting or Disturbing?

Fog can be seen in many ways and the way it is seen varies from person to person.  In my mind, fog is something that blocks vision.  A person can't see through it clearly which causes it to be slightly disturbing.  In many circumstances, fog isn't seen as a positive thing.  It can be used as an adjective for hiding something or  a way to describe something that a person barely understands.  However, this is not the case for the Chief in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos' Nest.  The novel is written from the point of the view of Chief Bromden, a Native American Indian who is seen as deaf and dumb to the people of the Mental Institution.  From pages 3-67 it is unclear whether he finds the fog comforting or disturbing.  

He first mentions it on page 7 when they take him to get "shaved".  Due to the unpleasant description of what is occurring, it seems as if the fog is not comforting at all.  It is disturbing since he is clearly going through pain.  From that point on, the fog is not mentioned until page 36.  He uses it in a flashback of when he was with a girl he really liked.  They were in a factory and the Chief describes everything that he remembers of that memory.  He says, "Her fingernails peeled down my hands and as soon as she broke contact with me her face switched out of focus again, became soft and runny like melting chocolate behind that blowing fog of cotton."  The memory seems to comfort him, making the fog in that specific point in time comforting.  He isn't giving in to it or running away from it.  It is just there.  In a way, this type of fog represents the Chief.  To the people in the ward he is just there since he doesn't speak and acts as if he were dumb.

In page 37, the fog is mentioned a final time.  Whether it is comforting or disturbing is unclear.  He is going through the shock therapy once again, and in the beginning it seems as if he wants to get away from it.  In the end, he says that he will someday give into the fog like others have.  Does the fog comfort the patients since it cuts them off from their senses?  This is what makes the meaning of the fog unclear.