“Survivor Type” by Stephen King is a short story written as the diary entries of a surgeon (Richard Pine), who while trying to smuggle a large quantity of heroin on a cruise ship, finds himself stranded on a tiny island in the Pacific with no food or supplies. There are some interesting themes and ideas that are portrayed in this story. For example, the story connects to the real world because it's talking about being stuck on a stranded island and trying to survive. Mostly, this explains how someone can become insane without being adequately treated with high amounts of trauma. For example, Richard Pine's last diary entry showed that he became insane already: "Who cares, this hand or that. Good food good meat good God let's eat." Ultimately,
The story Monster, by Walter Dean Myers, provides a theme for the readers. In the story, Monster, Steve Harmon, a sixteen-year-old boy, creates a script and writes notes about his character’s time in jail. Harmon is in jail for felony murder of Mr. Nesbitt, a drugstore owner. Along with Harmon, James King is also accused of being involved in the robbery and murder. Throughout the story, Harmon writes a script explaining what would be going on throughout his time in jail and the courtroom, along with the character’s personal notes. In this plot, an evident theme is present. Without a doubt, the lesson taken away from Monster is: Trust one’s self and issues will be solved with less harm.
The movie “Walkout” is about young Chicano/a activists who demand educational equality. In 1968, students living in East L.A were treated unequally. Since, most of these students were Chicanos they were given few resources. One example was presented when Paula visited the Palisades library. In East Los Angeles, bathrooms were close during lunch breaks and students were forced to janitorial labor as forms of punishment. Throughout, the movie some themes that arose were regarding identity (What is a Chicano?), walkouts as forms of protest for equality, and gender expectations. After Salvador Castro read the poem “I am Joaquin” by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez, the Chicano/a activist’s had a hard time understanding who they were. Many Chicano/a’s identified
The novel “The Outsiders,” by S.E. Hinton can be defined as an emotional, heart breaking, and lesson teaching story. Ponyboy Curtis and Johnny Cade were the youngest in their gang of Greasers. They were all wild boys, who liked looking “tuff” and being known as criminals. Ponyboy and Johnny were not as intimidating as the other greasers, Two-Bit Mathews, Dallas Winston, Darrel Curtis, Sodapop Curtis, and Steve Randle. One night, Ponyboy and Johnny were both out on the street. Out of nowhere some drunken Socs began to chase and beat up the boys. One of the Socs was drowning Ponyboy in a fountain. Johnny saw the danger Ponyboy was in and pulled out his switchblade. He stabbed Bob Sheldon and killed him. The boys did not know what to do, so they ran away to Windrixville, and lived in an abandoned church. They cut their hair and Ponyboy bleached his. Eventually the boys came to their senses and planned to turn themselves in. Dallas came to pick the boys up, but first they went to Dairy Queen to eat. When they drove back to the church they noticed that the church was on fire. Ponyboy and Johnny forced themselves into the church to save the children stuck inside. Ponyboy ended up with a minor concoction and some small burns on his back. While Johnny was not as lucky, an extremely large, heavy, and blazing hot piece of wood fell on him. Both boys were sent to the hospital. Johnny remained in the hospital much longer than Ponyboy. Johnny felt weaker and weaker every day and was getting worse by the minute. After a long and depressing journey, Johnny passed away. Therefore, their group of Greasers would now be presented with how loss and grief could drive people into making illogical decisions.
Imagine being stuck in a mental hospital for twenty years where everyone thinks you are deaf and mute. This is what happened to Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Chief Bromden, or Chief, has lived in a mental hospital for over twenty years. He was admitted to the hospital after serving in the Second World War. He is a six-foot seven-inch tall schizophrenic Indian who has convinced the whole ward that he is deaf and mute, and he is the narrator of the story. He is not a very reliable narrator due to his schizophrenia, so some of the events are distorted. Throughout the story, Chief Bromden is reminded of events from his childhood, which reveal little bits and pieces about his character and his uncommon past. The ward he is on is controlled by the Big Nurse, who has emasculated everyone and has complete control over everything and everyone there. She requires everything to be done her way and like clockwork. That all changes when Randle Patrick McMurphy arrives. McMurphy, mandated to the mental hospital by the courts, starts challenging the rules made by the Big Nurse as soon as he arrives, to help improve the lives of all of the patients on the ward. McMurphy also takes some of the patients on wacky adventures. For example, he convinces the Big Nurse to let him and a few other patients go on a fishing trip with his aunt. Except, instead of his aunt, he hires a prostitute to take them in her place. He also starts a basketball league with all of the patients as a way to exercise, but that ends after the basketball breaks through the Big Nurse’s window multiple times. The patients are divided into two groups: the chronics, who have no hope of being cured, and the acutes, who are not nearly a...
Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a mental hospital. The main character, or protagonist is Randle P. McMurphy, a convicted criminal and gambler who feigns insanity to get out of a prisoners work ranch. The antagonist is Nurse Ratched also referred to as The Big Nurse . She is in charge of running the mental ward. The novel is narrated by a patient of the hospital, an American Indian named Chief Bromden. Chief Bromden has been a patient at the hospital longer than any of the others, and is a paranoid-schizophrenic, who is posing as a deaf mute. The Chief often drifts in and out between reality and his psychosis. The conflict in the novel is between McMurphy and The Big Nurse which turns into a battle of mythic proportion. The center of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is this battle between the two, which Kesey uses to represent many of our cultures most influential stories. The dominant theme in this novel is that of conformity and it's pressure on today's society. In the novel conformity is represented as a machine , or in Chief Bromden's mind a combine . To the Chief, the combine' depicts the conformist society of America, this is evident in one particular paragraph: This excerpt not only explains the Chiefs outlook on society as a machine but also his self outlook and how society treats a person who is unable to conform to society, or more poignantly one who is unable to cope with the inability to conform to society. The chief views the mental hospital as a big machine as well, which is run by The Big Nurse who controls everyone except McMurphy with wires and a control panel. In the Chiefs eyes McMurphy was missed by the combine, as the Chief and the other patients are casualties of it. Therefore McMurphy is an unconformist and is unencumbered by the wires of The Big Nurse and so he is a threat to the combine. McMurphy represents the antithesis to the mechanical regularity, therefore he represents nature and it's unregularity. Another key theme in Kesey's novel is the role of women is society and how it contradicts the males. In keeping with the highly contrasting forces of conformity verses creativity Kesey proceeds to compare the male role to spontaneity, sexuality, and nature and the female role to conformity, sexual repression and ultimately the psychological castration of the male. Nurse ...
Overall I feel that this patient-practitioner role reversal which Kesey strategically inserted into this plot holds a great value in terms of social commentary. The disorders of many of the patients were displayed accurately as well as Bromden’s Paranoid Schizophrenia, or Nurse Ratched’s Psychopathy, and added to the authenticity of the environment which Kesey created to develop his critique on social conformity. The only disorder which I feel was wrongly displayed would be Mcmurphy’s “psychopathy” as he does not seem to meet any of the criteria of one with antisocial personality disorder. In conclusion, this book has a great literary value in the context of genuine empathetic care and patient treatment in the 20th century. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to ponder the subject further.
“The author describes a man who had given away a small fortune, forsaken a loving family, abandoned his car, watch and map and burned the last of his money before traipsing off into the ‘wilderness’ west of Healy” (Krakauer 71). Even though some believe that he was crazy and he was just like every other energetic young guys who think they can just go into the wilderness and survive, McCandless was different, his mentality was not the same as other people which is why he was so determined to go accomplish his dream, he was not thinking in the world's way he had his own view on life that was deeper than other people. He did not survive but he did what he set his mind to and I believe that is all that would have mattered to
Throughout many student’s school career they will have read various books for several of their classes. Out of the Dust might have been one of those books, but for those who haven’t read it yet I recommend you make an effort to read it as soon as possible. This novel gives you great insight into what it was like to live during The Dust Bowl and all the hardships people went through in that time period. Furthermore, it displays the story in free-verse. Another thing that this novel shows is to persevere through hard times.
“ It’s crazy, all that blood and violence. I thought you were supposed to be the love generation”. Conservative mother, Estelle Collingwood says to her daughter Mari in the beginning of Wes Craven’s cult classic The Last House on the Left (1972). With the war in Vietnam in full swing and the long term effects of the Manson family murders, the peace and love counter culture was at the end of an era. American society had become more violent and corrupt, as were the films Hollywood was starting to release. And with the new generation’s style of filmmaking and recent MPAA rating system, filmmakers were pushing the boundaries of their films and shocking audiences and critics to the core. With new filmmakers kicking down the door of Hollywood every year, it’s no surprise that soon-to-be horror icon Wes Craven would fit perfectly into the new generation of Hollywood. Craven’s early films fall into the exploitation category. They were severely gruesome, repulsive, appalling, and ended up being banned in several countries. Craven would go on to make films that reflect on contemporary society by using a number of recurring themes and formal filmmaking aesthetics that included:
In the short story Big Boy by Jesse Hill Ford, Hake Morris allows his son, Big Boy, to play football in Somerton because he believes it will give him something to be proud of, when it in fact does the exact opposite.
The novel, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer tells the story of a notable traveler named Chris McCandless. The novel, oddly begins with his death, but one can learn new information about his life and all the adventures he has had. Despite the fact that almost everyone believes Chris is crazy, he is able to help us determine what it takes to survive: resiliency. Resiliency is the ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like (dictionary.com).
Morace, Robert A. “Interpreter of Maladies: Stories.” Magill’s Literary Annual 2000 1999: 198. Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Apr. 2010. .
Its Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini is about facing the problems that occur in life and having the capability to deal with those hardships. I love this realistic fiction book because of the way the author portrays the thoughts of the main character. This story is something that relates to many lives today. Its so interesting to hear what a person going through this situation is thinking of. I love the ongoing theme of acceptance whether it was when Craig was making connections with the other patients, or when his family was telling him how their support will always be there.
I chose to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey for my research novel and I’m currently on page 100. The story is told from the perspective of Chief Bromden-a cagey, half-Native American patient in a mental hospital-in a stream of consciousness style. Assumed to be deaf and incapable of speaking by the patients and hospital staff, Bromden exposes and details the deplorable abuse the patients of the hospital endure, which the public does not see. Thus far, Bromden describes how the newly admitted Randle McMurphy pulls antics such as resisting the hospital’s set time schedule, launching butter at a clock, and persuading Dr. Spivey to convince Nurse Ratched to hold a carnival for the patients in order to rebel against Nurse Ratched’s
An even more dramatic illustration of dissociation (without, however, repression) is depicted in Donald Wyman's horrifying experience. In the summer of 1993, while working in a remote Pennsylvania area clearing timber, Wyman suffered a terrible accident. A huge tree fell on him, pinning his left leg. He knew he would die before anybody found him if he did not take matters into his own hands. So he made a tourniquet from a rawhide bootlace and used his chainsaw wrench to tighten it. He then went about methodically cutting off his left leg with his pocket knife.