Lit log #1 (Q2) - Valeria Escobar

The narrator in this book makes it hard for the reader to believe or understand what he describes, but his perspective of things also made me realize how common it is for people to see the world in completely different ways, which can be hard for others to understand. In Bromden’s case it makes him look delusional and unstable, but I also see why he has such a unique take in life. Bromden’s perception of things and how the world functions is way more complicated than how the average person sees the world, but in his delusions of machinery, I noticed how similar it is to how other people see the world. The machinery aspect is very specific to Bromden because it’s connected to his past and the sort of things he was surrounded by, which is why it makes sense that he sees the world with connections to machines and mechanisms. Being in a ward separated from the world and separated from everything Bromden knew before, I can very easily understand how you start trying to make connections to things you already know and understand, which for Bromden it is machines. One example of this is when he’s describing the Big Nurse, which very frequently includes connections to machines. At the beginning of the book, Bromden describes her as a “tractor” when she’s talking angrily to the black boys. He says, “she really lets herself go and her painted smile twists,..she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside…”(28). Further into the book he then describes her voice as an “electric saw ripping through pine.”(125). He knows how these machines and sounds make him feel, and it makes sense he uses past feelings or memories he knows and recognizes to describe other things, like the big Nurse. It also helps the reader get a closer look into his feelings towards the Big Nurse, which all seem to be negative. He also sees the whole ward as this machine filled with wires and other electrical things. Sometimes his descriptions of machines are a lot more vivid and dramatic, like in page 76 when he was talking about the hospital at night, which we then found out was a dream. “Not a sound across the hospital - except for a dull, padded rumbling somewhere deep in the guts of the building, a sound that I never noticed before-a lot like the sound you hear when you’re standing late at night on top of a big hydroelectric dam.” (76). He sees the ward as this machine that is organized and controlled, which at first I thought made him an unreliable narrator, but he uses these references to express how he feels about things.

Bromden’s perception of the world and his surroundings is very specific to his character, but I still see a connection between how he chooses to view the world and how me and the people I know choose to see the world. I have a couple friends who do wrestling and even outside of a wrestling environment, they’re always talking about wrestling and making references to wrestling even if no one understands them, which reminds me a little of how Bromden talks about machines. I also noticed something similar with my dad. He loves to mountain bike and when we’re walking around in any setting he talks about how a specific spot could be good for a jump, how he imagines himself biking while we’re walking. People are always making connections to things they do or like to do. Bromden’s on a different level because he uses these connections to machines as one of the only ways he expresses his emotions and feelings towards things, but regardless, I think his machine references are normal because that’s who he really is. He sees the world through his own, unique lens as well as everyone else. People, who have found their passions or a strong connection to something, see the world in their own way. I don’t think my perception of the world is so specific to one thing. I don’t find myself using references to a very specific thing I like and I think that’s because I haven’t found something I’m too passionate about like some of the people I know.