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With Ashley Brooks, Levanah Cohen, Luan Quy, and Tibor Barankay

By Orylee, dash, and Sophie

In this podcast the first section of “there there” by Tommy Orange along with our first impressions of the book and the characters are discussed. The book covers some heavy topics and as readers the host on the pod were very surprised and eager to learn and understand more about the book. This first section left a lasting impression on the host.

Ep. 1. Paradise Lost explores the themes of gender and sexuality present in Ernest Hemingway’s “Garden of Eden.” Episode one is a recap of what has happened so far, and a discussion of the themes present in the book so far.

This episode discusses the literal and figurative aspects of the novel, diving into specific characters storylines and the dynamic connections between them. Also discussed is the symbolism present throughout every chapter and the gut reactions of the hosts while reading the book, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.

Link to Podcast: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i3D4MR0Cnzv1hyFSVCOp9duuYjSkmgzL/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qSnMl9c_XFvk_0-b4fw35pxEB2fCSE8y/view?usp=drive_link

In this episode, we talk about the literal and figurative meanings of the first 100 pages of the book. There are moments where we talk about elements of the zoo, religion, his transition to another country, and fear and dominance in the story. Dive in to have your own slice of pi.

The Brief and Wondrous Guide To Getting a Girlfriend is a podcast discussing and relating issues to the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. In this podcast, we give a summary of the book, have an advice section to give listeners advice based on the book, and talk about some of the figurative meanings in the book.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AyxO9a-oWolZWZB9XKgX7TdJahcjabDw/view?usp=sharing

What does it look like analyzing one of the most banned books in the United States? Join Behind the Book, a podcast that tackles the first 109 pages of The Bluest Eye’s Insane story with a mix of humor and thoughtfulness.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oE5XH9Ar3mCdm0Mn_qh7QPZj_DRTfVPt/view?usp=drivesdk

The Fuku Chronicles analyzes The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and specifically the development of the characters and perspectives. We dig into the literary vs figurative aspects of the book as well. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C4OQPFigceMBeJvAaeCLKJIUTaQe9kd_/view?usp=sharing

Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QWFdKqAr8pCpb8pGQUL6FYXWx4pMxqP9/view?usp=sharing

In this episode, we discuss There There by Tommy Orange. We cover the cast so far, the book’s motifs, and read a couple of moments from the story.

The Darkness Creeping around the Corner podcast, discusses Toni Morrison The Bluest Eye, taking a look at the Literal and Figurative devices in the text.

https://www.wevideo.com/view/3653818641

Link to Podcast - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X-G_sx3wcRloodQ71crJulOvKoiuHvOQ/view?usp=sharing

This podcast episode provides an in-depth discussion of the first 97 pages of Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple.” The conversation covers the key plot points, character dynamics, and thematic elements that have emerged so far in the story, including Celie’s abusive relationships, her fascination with Shug Avery, and the parallels drawn between different characters’ struggles for independence.

Link to the Podcast - https://drive.google.com/file/d/16IeopWi6VjX0GqfllOY6LJsIGV2JDchi/view?usp=sharing

Every time you open a new book, it is like opening your eyes to a new reality. You ask yourself what life would be like if you were in that book approaching the same situations the characters were. Our mission is to go deeper into that thought by colliding with the realities of a reader and a novel through discussion and reflection. We choose to H.O.N.O.R rather than judge.

In this episode, we uncover the different events that the two characters have experienced throughout the section of the novel and highlight what stood out to us. To stay within the theme, we make comparisons on how our real lives connect with the lives of these characters living in a apocalyptic setting ultimately trying to survive while in constant distress. Join us on this journey to navigating our first thoughts of the book and what we predict will happen later on.

Due to the School District of Philadelphia half day for Staff Professional Development, SLA will follow the below schedule on Friday, 12/13:

08:15-08:55 B2 Band

09:00-09:40 C2 Band

09:45-10:25 X2/Y2 Band class

10:30-11:10 D2 Band

11:15-11:55 E2 Band

12:00-12:30 Lunch/Dismissal

I decided to draw a picture of the title of the book that represented the patients in the ward.I put a lock as the O for One that represented the patients being locked in the ward and I put the key in place of the T for Nest to represent the ward and how its like a prison for the patient is the ward.They don’t have control over their mind and are being controlled by the Nurse Ratched and the rules of the ward.The novel’s setting in a mental ward, dominated by the tyrannical Miss Ratched, highlights the oppressive power of mass society..It is an oppressive environment not only for the black patients in this book but also for the white patients as well because they are all getting the same amount of physical treatment.The way the ward is set up it isn’t geared towards making the patients better so they can go back into society and “fit in”,they want to make their condition worst by using these brutal tactics.The book continues to touch on one’s control over one’s body and weather it is possible for someone to escape the ward and I think it is possible to do and I think that one patient if not more will find a way to escape because of this quote on page 87 that states “you can’t keep a bird in a cage”.This represent the human desire for freedom over their mind and body and I think that some patients that aren’t too far gone like the chronics can have a chance to be free from the ward and maybe have some sense of normalcy after getting out.McMurphy, the protagonist, plays a crucial role in challenging the status quo within the ward. His rebellious spirit inspires other patients to question their circumstances and seek liberation. Through his actions, McMurphy demonstrates that escape is possible, but it often requires courage and a willingness to confront the oppressive forces that bind them. His influence encourages the other patients to envision a life beyond the confines of the ward.I feel like he would be able to function in society with the right amount time and it the “therapeutic practices” haven’t fried his brain yet.The patients in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” still aspire to escape the ward, even though the journey is complex and fraught with obstacles.The narration illustrates that true escape involves both physical and psychological liberation. McMurphy’s impact on the patients highlights the important challenges of an oppressive system while striving for personal freedom, even in the face of adversity. While the idea of escape is compelling, it is essential to recognize the limitations faced by the patients.The ward’s institutional environment is designed to suppress individuality and maintain control. Even if some patients find ways to resist or rebel like McMurphy, the systemic nature of their confinement poses significant challenges. Ultimately, the possibility of escape is not just about leaving the physical space but also about achieving a sense of self-empowerment and mental freedom.

In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” the character Randle McMurphy is the most rebellious patient in the ward which is extremely important to the narrative. McMurphy’s rebellion not only challenges the authority within the mental institution but also symbolizes a more broad idea of the struggle with conformity and authority. His actions and the consequences highlight the importance of individuality and rebellion when dealing with oppression of authority. When McMurphy first arrived at the asylum it was the beginning of a rebellion against the oppressive environment that nurse Ratched created. Him refusing to follow the rules and him standing up for other patients inspired them to reclaim their identities. On page 150(online pdf of the book) McMurphy was speaking with other patients about how they all “kiss her ass so much and bow and scrape and let her walk all over you.(pg 149)” This was his way of influencing them to rebel and not to follow the rules but while also telling them he’s going to cut back with the rebelling sense he found out nurse Rachet can keep him there. He says “ you have to swallow your pride sometimes and keep an eye out for old number one.” He sees his “battle” with the nurse ratched as a game and he wants to win. He later then thinks about it and realizes that his rebellion will help the other men in the ward find themselves and gain their confidence/pride. This realization causes him to abort his plan of following the rules and continue with his rebellious ways. McMurphy’s rebellion is compost important to the novel as it shows the significance of individuality in a society that has oppressive authority figures. His character is a representation of the struggle for personal freedom as he fights against dehumanization. McMurphys rebellion has caused the patients to realize their own worth and caused them to believe in themselves. An example of this is when McMurphy encourages Bromden to speak and stand up for himself. My drawing represents the power that McMurphy holds in this book. Although McMurphy has no real authority he holds so much power. He is able to rebel against oppression and encourage others to do so. He’s a complicated character but one thing that’s clear is that he did many things that were unselfish to help others gain something. McMurphy has the power to show others their worth and show others the truth. His unwillingness to stop rebelling even though that means he will get punished because it will influence others to help and find themselves is truly powerful. So overall my point was to show that McMurphy’s role in this story was one of the most important roles.

I made my artwork about the scene in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey in which one of the secondary characters Pete has an outburst in the ward’s group therapy discussion. For my artist representation, I started with the few descriptions of Pete I read the novel and built off of them in the way that I thought would represent him best. I drew Pete with thinning hair similar to the character of George Costanza from the TV show Seinfeld, with hair on the sides of his head and thin combed over wisps of hair on his crown. In the specific scene that I chose to represent on page 49 where Pete says, “ Ya see, I can’t help it …I was born dead, not you. You wasn’t born dead…I had so many insults I died…I been dead fifty-five years”(Kesey).
I think that Kesey’s description of depression, through the character of Pete, was incredibly realistic. This sad and empty feeling that was described in Pete’s outburst is why I decided not to give Pete pupils in my artist’s representation of this scene because I wanted the viewer to understand that he really and truly feels dead inside so I tried to make him look like such. I think that the reason that I chose this scene in particular is because I have personally related to this. I was diagnosed with major depressive disorder when I was around twelve years old and it has been something that I have struggled with for as long as I can remeber. I can say from firsthand experience that this way of describing how depression can feel was incredibly captivating. Kesey’s manner of representing the vast effect of mental health on a person had a way of making me feel seen but also somehow a bit disturbed. This is such a raw and unadulterated feeling for anyone to go through and seeing it reproduced so profoundly and uncanny on a page was kind of jarring. I am personally not a huge fan of this book so far but I can say that I am very fascinated by the way that Kesey depicts elements of mental health like his description of Pete’s depression or Bromden’s schizophrenic hallucinations. I have only personally experienced one of the two but I do think that since he is really good at demonstrating what these disorders feel like internally in a really profound way. For this reason I would guess that a person who has experienced schizophrenia or knows someone who has would probably feel represented by his style of writing and/or can validate his mode of representation for these illnesses. In summation, I think that Pete’s character is most influential in terms of making people feel more related to the overall narrative because so many of the characters really lack anything that most readers can relate to which, I believe, is a very important part of any piece of writing because it is one of many ways to keep a reader engaged.

¨The vote is closed, Mr. McMurphy.¨ ¨Let me talk to ´em.¨ I begin to walk over to the chronics side, can’t even remember the last time I talked to the bunch but I´m desperate. One of ´em best raise their hand, they might be old but everyone likes a good ol´ ball game, better than cleaning the latrine and what not. ¨What about you buddy? You want to watch the World series? Baseball? Baseball games? Just raise that hand up there–¨ ¨Fffffffuck da wife.¨ What´s wrong with these guys man. No one likes a good old baseball game? I mean come on, just need one hand. ¨All right, forget it. You, partner, how about you? What was your name–Ellis? What do you say, Ellis, to watching a ball game on TV? Just raise your hand…¨ The nurse continues, keep on going on about how the voting is closed. Chronic or not, we´re men. I´m sure one of us would like a good ol´ game, world series. Just need one of them to raise their hands. Just one, I mean come on. I look over at the indian, he looks nervous. Can´t remember what was wrong with the guy? I think he was deaf, but I´m desperate. Deaf doesn’t mean blind, I´ḿ sure he likes a good old ball game, I mean come on for cryin’ out loud. Just one of you damn screwups, just raise your hand. Can´t let the nurse get one on me, come on, come on. ¨You, Chief, what about you?¨ I cry out. I´m not even sure he can hear me or not, If I´m honest, I´m not sure I´ve ever heard the guy talk, not a sound comes from him. But he´s been here awhile nevertheless, don´t you want a change of scenery, do indians play ball? Come on man. The nurses’ voice echoes in my mind, ¨The vote is closed.¨ ¨The vote is closed.¨ ¨The vote is closed.¨ ¨The vote is closed.¨ I look over at the chief, looks like something is stirring inside of the guy. I mean, he looks up at me, then his hand. His shoulder moves slowly, his arm bends. The guy looks reluctant, but it´ll do, just need the guy to raise his hand, and he does. ¨Good on you chief, glad one of you gentlemen had some sense.¨ I give him a slap and happily look at the nurse. She stares at the chief, like her anger switched or somethin´, redirected on the chief. And now that I think about it, isn’t this guy supposed to be deaf or somethin? How could he have heard me? These guys get some magic power or somethin´ to mind read? I look back at the television, I can see the guy´s reflection. He looks nervous, I mean, is he really deaf? Why would he be nervous? You know now that I think about it, he was the only one that really shook my hand, I mean he looked terrified like he could hear me. He looked scared too, when I was laughin´. I mean, what if this guy is some type of foney, you can hear me can´t you? I give the guy another look, he’s given a side eye to the nurse, he looks like a deer in headlights, what´s up with this guy? I look back at the nurse, her face is red.. I almost let out a laugh, good ol´ ratchet can’t seem to hide it. She´s angry, and the rest of us are watchin´ her. I was best not to let her get one up on me, now look at her. What´s up with these folk? Everyone’s starin at the nurse, I suppose we´re all thinking about it, whether this guy is really deaf or not. I mean maybe, maybe they know already, and they´re hidin’ it. I best not ask, wouldn’t want to get the little get in trouble since he´s lettin me watch the world series/

Something I wanted to include was McMurphy´s reaction to Chief Bromden raising his hand, naturally he´d be excited but I think something that has been true for the majority of the story is McMurphy´s type of heightened sense of awareness, as if he could see through people easily. That´s why I wrote about him thinking about whether the chief was really deaf. I tried to include excerpts from the book because I still wanted to keep some of the books narration, or truthfulness to my own twist on the inner narration of McMurphy, while including a realistic kind of outsider point of view that came in the form of him not wanting to ask. I tried to make sure to make his narration kind of sound like a southerner, because he´s described as a large redneck or red haired man which is usually connected to the south.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kessy. Narrates of the importance of the impact when someone has control over you. To counteract this effect, you will have and cause others when you test an authority’s power. In the book McMurphy was tired of seeing how the Big Nurse controlling and manipulating all of the patients, but they do is complain. “Hell’s bells,” McMurphy says, “listen at you. All I hear is gripe, gripe, gripe. About the nurse or the staff or the hospital. Scanlon wants to bomb the whole outfit. Sefelt blames the drugs. Fredrickson blames his family trouble. Well, you’re all just passing the buck.” He goes on to say that the Big Nurse is just a bitter, icy-hearted old woman, and all this business trying to get him to lock horns with her is a lot of bull—how it wouldn’t do anybody any good, especially him. Getting shut of her wouldn’t be getting shut of the real deep-down hang-up that’s causing the gripes. “You think not?” Harding says. “Then since you are suddenly so lucid on the problem of mental health, what is this trouble? What is this deep-down hang-up, as you so cleverly put it.” (pg) That “deep-down hang-up” is that they are scared of what will happen to them if they defy the authority of what Chief Bromden calls “the Combine,” with Big Nurse as the head of it. When McMurphy realizes they just want him to do all of the fighting back because they are afraid that their release will be delayed, and when he finds out they are they voluntarily, he can’t believe it: “He looks frightened. McMurphy stands up in the hall and says, “Are you guys bullshitting me!”” (pg). But they all tell him reason they don’t leave is they are really afraid. Just like how they all are afaird to stand up for themselves because they know the consequences that they will face. I to have the same fears when it comes to testing authority power. In middle school when I was in 9th grade we had a person come over for mini-course and they were teaching us about arts. At the time half of the class was not paying any attention and was just messing around. The person got so mad where they went very unprofessional and have used many behaviors to express his frustrations. One was using profanity words to all of and over all abusing all of his authority and power to be heard. At that moment as I have looked around I saw all of my fellow students feeling very uncomfortable. I truly felt like standing up and saying something but I couldn’t because I didn’t want to face any consequences if I were to. Just as McMurphy was stunned after hearing that all of these people still chose to be there even after seeing what the Big Nurse has been doing, I have felt the same way when the rest of the students in the class still choosing not to say anything to our school staff after all that. I even tried talking to some of my friends but they also chose to keep their heads down not do anything about it. McMurphy is not only talking about his fellow patients’ actions and the consequences for themselves, but he is also confronting his own cooperation with the whole system. He is starting to realize that his “allies” are really just using him to do what they won’t, even though they have the freedom to escape whenever they choose. McMurphy has more to lose than they do. So, he is beginning mistrusting them and realizing that he really is all alone in there. He also knows that when it all comes down, none of them are going to join him or even stand up for him. I think that’s where I might have been, too. I wanted the teacher’s bullying to stop, but I knew that no one had my back it would all come down on me.

In all of the chapters we’ve read of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, there is a nurse named Nurse Ratched, more commonly known in the book as “The Big Nurse.” I chose to portray her this way to depict the power, control, and fear she has on the inmates of the asylum. I blended the red accents in her white uniform and obscured her face with a shadow to capture the essence of her character: a symbol of authority and fear. The composition allows viewers to put themselves on the dark floors of the hospital where the nurse’s demeanor embodies the emotional and psychological tension she imposes. Her head turned shows her disregard for identity, focusing on the rules and system she upholds. The significance of this piece is the exploring perspective and asking viewers to question how they perceive figures like her.

The decision to hide her face is one the most important parts of the artwork. It hides her features, allowing the viewer to interpret her character in the hospital. She can represent a figure of power and control and for others, she is a source of fear and vulnerability. Hiding her features ensures her identity is entirely shaped by perception. This artistic choice highlights the power of perspective and what it can cause people to do.

The choice of red accents in her uniform was done purposefully as the color red is seen with power, fear, and terror. Its emotional texture is a reminder of Nurse Ratched’s demeanor. The red coloring adds a layer of indifference that defines her relationship with patients. This choice shows her role as a nurse and oppressor, blending a facade of professionalism and manipulation.

Her head turned in the image, shows how she distances herself emotionally from the viewer, seeing them as nothing more than another inmate. It is done to make the viewer feel small compared to her, which also helps give soundness to her nickname “The Big Nurse.” Her face at that angle also suggests an avoidance of accountability for what may occur in the hospital but also gives her that feeling of always being aware of what is happening. It invites the viewer to feel who she is, overseeing the inmates and experiencing the control she wields over the inmates.

The dim lighting in the background is done to isolate her and the viewer. The flickering lights contribute to an environment of uncertainty and unease. The setting represents the system she upholds, designed to confine, control, and suppress. The background being empty also lets the viewer imagine what may be hiding in the shadows behind her. It serves as a silent commentary on the dehumanizing nature of the institution and what it is doing to its inmates.

The portrait of Nurse Ratched is not just a depiction of her fictional character but of the dynamics of authority and perception. The face covered by a shadow, red accents, and eerie setting contribute to creating an image that is unsettling and thought-provoking. It lets viewers imagine what power may mean to her and questions them on what power means to themselves and how they see figures of control. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is full of characters that have significance and power but Nurse Ratched is the strongest of them all.