PROJECT: Lit Log #1-Mashrur Chowdhury

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.