Uneasiness

Marlow conveys an uneasiness all along the novel that even himself endures along others. His attitude towards Kurtz is not clear. Whether he is for or against him has been ambiguous even for him. The desire to meet Kurtz draws him away from his duties and furthermore, readers are drawn away from sense too. Inexplicably we are eager to meet Kurtz, maybe because some times people want guidance like Kurtz's: unconditional. 

Marlow has been secluded from the rest of his crew by the charisma of someone he does not even know. He sympathizes with this persona and seeks to meet him, but why? After being attacked by "savages" Marlow lingers on the thought that their search for Kurtz is futile because he is probably dead, and mourns for not being able to meet him. Marlow saw his possible loss and said, "I couldn't have felt more of lonely desolation somehow, had I been robbed of a belief or had missed my destiny in life…." (page 87). He felt abandoned, yet he has not met Kurtz. Marlow was holding on to something beyond materials and beliefs: Kurtz gave Marlow his legacy so he could hold on to it during his trip. Marlow was sent to stop Kurtz, nearly a savage, from his misdeeds and ended up admiring him. Marlow had traveled to the ends of earth and certainly wanted more of that presence. People attach to whatever or whoever gives them guidance, but Marlow is drawn over the edge inexplicably. I have beliefs and attachments that are part of my everyday life, but following someone (possibly dead) through the Congo river and admiring them seems irrational. 

Until now Kurtz has provided nothing, but suffering to Marlow. His voyage seems useless, but I believe it is not so. Kurtz's accomplishments seem admirable and like me, Marlow wants to understand what is it in this savage that has gained him idolization. In my irrationality, Marlow's uneasiness justifies because I feel equally ambiguous towards Kurtz. Knowing very little of this man, I think he accomplished what no one had before therefore he is worthy of my understanding. Kurtz beat colonization from both colonizer and colonized perspectives, making a whole new society. He created something quite similar to a theocracy with him as a leader. Kurtz is unconditional and he successfully won the "savages" support with his charisma, giving them something to hold on.

Living Dead

Heart of Darkness, written by Joseph Conrad, snatched my attention when Marlow began to recount his travels in Africa working for a trading company. I found a certain resemblance between the dehumanizing colonizing society Marlow encountered in his early days and the cataclysmic society presented in the t.v show, The Walking Dead. While The Walking Dead sees a group of survivors in a zombie apocalypse try to survive and reestablish society, but loosing social order and society's values, Marlow presents the decay of society in the colonization of Africa.

When Marlow arrived at the Company's station he encountered black natives in their final attempts to survive European order. These men were imposed a new social order and organization that ultimately failed, and it transformed them into nothingness. "They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now,--nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom." (page 28): Marlow's description of these lifeless people reminded me of the zombies in The Walking Dead. Once a person dies, they eventually become a lifeless wanderer full of disease and nothingness. These soulless corpses eventually take the few survivors to the edge, making them loose their minds. They kill their relatives, become greedy, commit suicide and in the end, they will all end up like the zombies. For now what Marlow saw in Africa is uncertain, but the way Europeans stripped Africans from civilization is similar to the way Rick or Shane dehumanize and try to kill each other when they should have tried to survive together. The natives and the zombies have no opportunity to regain humanity, but colonizers and survivors do. Yet both survivors in The Walking Dead and European colonizers lost civilized and controlled ways. 

Regardless of what made Colonizers savages, or the pressure zombies put on survivors in The Walking Dead, they all end up decaying in the bits of society they have left. Marlow says these men have almost no human life left in them, the same as the zombies Rick fights against, but in the end these inhuman creatures can overrun humane people. The restrains civilized people oppose on uncivilized people take them to the brink of humanity and the preassure of survival or imperial growth imposed on themselves, pushes them over. They take the leap and dehumanize just like zombies or slaves that they see as empty bodies in death.

Marvelous Irony

Certainly Newman satirizes the brute and savage conquest of the Canary Islands. Irony is evident in the broad and amateurish explanation for their name. Actually the Guanches were conquered and these were said to worship dogs. Coincidentally Canary derives from "Canaria" meaning dogs". Following, Newman uses irony again saying there are no more Portuguese there. Now the Canary Islands pertain to Spain because coincidentally they conquered them. The song ends more burlesque and ironic than before saying "There on the horizon is the possibility that some bug from out of Africa might come for you and me destroying everything in its path from sea to shinning sea like the great nations of Europe in the 16th century". Newman suggests that now dark skinned people from Africa will do the same that Europeans did, but he is obviously being sarcastic. He does not think in any way that they will do it, but that is his way of mocking both easter and western world.

Possibly the beginning of the song is not ironic because it sets up the context. Europeans gathered on the shore after they all conquered and dominated what they could and then it was time for them to look West. This could be wrong because even "West" is a relative term. It could also be "East".

He who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

From McMurphy's arrival to Nurse Ratched's ward, up to his death, several changes in the other patients occurred. Most evident is Chief Bromdem's transformation from a delusional schizophrenic with no confidence to a "Big" free man. This is all due to the rehabilitation that McMurphy induced in the patients with his uprising towards Ratched's abusive power. Kesey suggests that even selfless beings like Bromden can take control of themselves and liberate themselves from others (mostly society) grinding and crushing.

In the beginning of One Few Over the Cuckoo's Nest Bromdem was overwhelmed by a poor mental state therefore he was hid by the fog. He was almost invisible and had no personality, but he was satisfied being almost no one. Even though he was physically big, a war veteran and football player, Bromden convinced himself he was extremely weak because of others oppression over him. As McMurphy begins to "pull out patients out of the fog" even the Chief takes a stand and lifted himself out of it. "No. That's not the truth. I lifted myself." (page 123). Slowly the Chief got ahold of his own voice and began to use it. He was no longer the pusillanimous automaton that simply lived. He began to build himself towards the Big Chief.

Bromden developed his own individuality as he saw McMurphy taking a stand against the Black Boy's and the Nurse's authority. He had the initiative to fight alongside McMurphy and eventually defeated the control that insanity imposed over him. "It's fogging a little, but I won't slip off and hide in it. No… never again…" (page 248) said Bromden as he realized he would hide no more. McMurphy inspired courage and determination in Bromden throughout rebellious actions that ended up instigating him the need of freedom. McMurphy was a hero and a savior for the patients after sacrificing his own health so Bromden killed him to finally give him rest and freedom. Bromdem's transformation from being almost invisible to being a hero similar to McMurphy is evident, but he is certainly more than that. It is up to one to challenge authority and control to find freedom even though sometimes a savior is needed to ignite an insurrection. Kesey portrays a structure like any society where repression must be fought because those who enforce authority are just as sane and mortal as those who obey.

Executioners

Women are depicted in a harsh and recriminating way In One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest: they deprive men from almost everything. Personally, I know a man who I believe has been unmanned by a woman, much like many of the patients in Nurse Ratched's ward. This man goes "cuckoo" most of the time and deviates from that, but occasionally, when he is unsexed and emasculated, he reacts. Unfortunately he always fails and in the end he is oppressed by that strong, demanding, and big woman.

There is a trend in Kesey's novel, where always it is women who command, give orders, and direct men's lives. Right from the beginning, not just the Big Nurse is presented, but along we are told of Hardings seducing wife. Harding believes he may give her reasons to "seek further sexual attention" (page 39). Then it is told that McMurphy is charged of raping a little fifteen year old girl. McMurphy claims she said she was seventeen, but it really made no difference since he believes she was willing to do it. There are a couple other women like Billy Bibbit's mom and the nurses, but the spotlight is on Ratched even though they all strain men in one way or the other. As a big breasted middle-aged woman, Nurse Ratched conveys Kesey's perspective of woman perfectly: they dominate men in a social order were men are treated as inferior sinners, at least in the ward. Ratched's indifference and superiority are her notable defenses to men, "even going so far as to step up to the Big Nurse in the hall one time and ask her, if she didn’t mind tellin’, just what was the actual inch-by-inch measurement on them great big of breasts that she did her best to conceal but never could. 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 and of the flesh," (page 138). McMurphy expresses his sexual discrepancies towards the Big Nurse to minimize her and appeal as the strongest, but she is ultimately given more reason to continue emasculating men. 

This depiction of woman is certainly the correct one for someone like Nurse Ratched or the woman I mentioned before, but still, not all women are like this. The woman I previously mentioned reminds me of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to great extent because of her resemblance to the Big Nurse of course, but also of  McMurphy. She works up to the same social order of her as the sovereign, but like McMurphy, she uses sexual jargon and insinuations and intimidates her man.  When McMurphy tried to intimidate Nurse. Ratched with his sexual comments, she was given more reason to think that McMurphy was actually mentally ill and not so "ordinary" as she thought before. Women are seen as the fixers and castrators over men since men are numerously mentioned to lose their "nuts" and even self castrate themselves along the novel. Men are weak and at the mercy of women in Kesey's novel, breaking the common or natural order of life.