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Monday, February 13, 2017
Literary Lens Essay--blog task due February 23
What lens are you using in your literary lens essay? Why? How's it going? (Notice, the word "lens" has no "e" on the end unless it is plural.) Write 180+ words.
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For the Literary Lens Essay, I am using the deconstruction lens on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and I am quite honestly regretting it. I thought that it would be more interesting for me to use a lens that is not quite as common as the feminist lens or the Freudian lens, but I now know why no one uses this lens; this lens is too challenging to understand. I have borrowed three separate texts from English teachers and I have six tabs on deconstruction, Derrida, and differance open in my browser 24/7 and I had to take a conglomeration of all of them to partially understand it. It is very frustrating because the lens takes apart a word’s definition so how can you define the lens itself? I am a page into my essay and I am not going to stop using deconstruction lens because I have put in too much effort to understand it to quit. I have a Google document that has four pages of notes on deconstruction, and about one-fourth of it is me complaining about this lens. I feel like this is something that I will use and appreciate more with time, but right now it just ticks me off. This is probably a great learning experience for me, even though I say that as satirically as possible. Another thing about this lens is that I want to imbed humor into the paper but deconstruction is sucking the life out of me. I just wanted to challenge myself, but I had no clue what I was getting myself into. Alas, I am too stubborn to quit now. To get out my feelings on deconstruction through this blog task rant has been very therapeutic for me though and a form of procrastination so I do not have to continue writing it. Hopefully, my paper will get easier to write as time goes on.
1 Kueter M I am using the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because this book conveys a deep meaning that only one with the feminist lens could only see. Women are shown as incapable of caring and only wanting to humiliate the men they are in charge of, whether it be a patient, spouse, or son. Ken Kesey wants to make women look like they are arrogant, disrespectful, and out for the humiliation of all the males. According to many of Kesey’s depictions throughout the plot, it is a woman’s duty, has been and always will be, to submit to men’s authority. Thus, when anyone sees a woman with power, she is considered evil. Kesey is trying to imply that all human problems come from emasculating female authority. A major example of this degrading feminist viewpoint would be Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched is viewed as a ball-cutter and an overbearing woman because she holds a position of authority. If men were to hold the exact same position as her and treat the patients the exact same way, they would be viewed as strong and powerful leaders and be commended for their actions, maybe even receive an award. However, when women do this, they are viewed as too controlling and wanting too much power. I think my essay is going very well and I never run out of things to say because this book has such a deep meaning behind it.
I chose the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because during the time in which this book was written, women were struggling to make a living and this book turned the status quo on its head and challenged conformity. However, at the same time this book is extremely sexist and portrayed women as evil and corrupt when holding positions of power. An example of this would be Vera Harding. Vera Harding does not occupy her certain gender based social role when she carries her purse like a book and is taller than Harding. Vera Harding is not the perfect example of a wife and thus is hated by Harding and everyone else in the ward. This portrayal of Vera Harding and other women in the book may have even reverted women back a couple steps because the fear of women being in power is ignited again thanks to Ken Kesey. Kesey’s depictions are sexist and he searches for ways to weaken the feminist movement and destroy all the advancements women have achieved during the past years because Kesey feared women and the power they might obtain in the world. I believe that my essay is going very well because I feel very passionate about my topic which makes it easier to write.
For the literary lens essay I chose to write on the religious symbolism in One Flew Over The Cukoo’s Nest. I found this the most easiest for myself to pick apart the book and really understand the topic I am writing about. I have successfully already found many sources to help me find out more than I already knew about so that I could input that information into my own essay. Right now I am trying to figure out how to spread and put enough information into each topic to fill five pages without rambling on about random things and I need to know how to flow better without just listing a bunch of different scenarios where religious imagery is present. I feel like I am doing good picking appropriate scenarios for the essay though because with enough research back into the book and looking at other sources to explain the importance of each. I am primarily focusing on McMurphy in my essay because I see him as the main character for religious symbolism the Ken Kessey is using. Overall I feel like I will do well on this essay.
For the literary lens essay, I am choosing to use the Feminist Lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I chose this lens because it was easiest for me to pick out because there were so many versions of it and times it appeared throughout the book we read. The author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest has tried to make men appear as larger than women in some ways. In this book, they are made to be submissive to men and are basically will respond to whatever they have told. While the women who were in charge during this book, they are also shown as evil, crazy, and demanding in their roles of the book. An example of this would be Nurse Ratched simply because she is always displayed as a "bad" person and only wants the power and not to truly help the patients in some aspects. I believe that this is not too hard for me to write because I understand the feminist lens well and I can put myself in the shoes of the women themselves. It makes it easier to write about a topic that you have a great understanding in.
I have started writing my essay using a marxist lens. I started with the marxist lens because both Lord of the Flies, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, both books deal with different social classes or use the characters as symbols for them. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the men in the institutional ward represent the oppressed class, and the nurses and staff represent the dominating class of people. The political tendencies of the book have the nurses ruling over the patients like a dictatorship. Having the ward ran like this gives the most power to the elite class of people in the hospital. In Lord of the Flies, the author shows the power struggle of representative government systems. Jack represents communism and a totalitarian leadership, while Ralph portrays a democracy. Between both characters through the book, readers can see the power struggle between the two. The younger kids in the book can also represent the oppressed class, they go to whatever side benefits them the most, but they do not get a vote when following Jacks rules. So far, using the marxist lens has not been to challenging because I feel I have a good understanding of it.
7 Jensen I have not started to write my essay, but I will be using the Feminist lens for the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I'm choosing this lens because throughout the whole novel this is the lens I looked through the most. I also feel that this lens would be the easiest for me to understand. You can tell throughout the whole book that Kesey struggles with women. I even learned that he was not on the best terms with his own mother. He tries to belittle women such as, billy bibbits mother, Nurse Ratched, Chiefs mother, the skanks, and even Harding's wife. They are shown as being nothing but sex slaves, and the men struggle to take them seriously. For example Bromdens mother is depicted as the reason why the whole tribe fell. She basically made her own husband not even a man, as Chief describes it. Even the whole point of the book was Nurse Ratched taking all their masculinity. When she doesn't come across as being feminine almost at all. Gender is a huge issue in this book and it intrigues me. So far I have not written my essay, but I'm very confident on this lens for this book.
The lens I plan on using to write my essay is the psychoanalytic lens, for the book, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The reason why I plan on using the psychoanalytic lens is due to a lot of the dream sequences that Chief Bromden has throughout the book. Also, Chief Bromden daydreams a lot throughout the book and I plan to use these daydreams as well in my essay. I feel these dream sequences that Bromden has all throughout the book will be quite easy to analyze, due to the nature of the dreams and how he himself tries to explain what he thinks they may mean. I feel this way due to a dream sequence can be interpreted in many different ways, each analysis will most likely be different due to different perspectives of people. So far I have not started composing my essay, but I plan on starting within the week. Another reason why I chose to use the psychoanalytic lens is dreams kind of fascinate me. I find it interesting how different students interpret Bromden's dreams and like to hear how they came up with their analysis.
For the lens essay I have chosen to analyze it through the Feminist lens in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The reason I chose to write through this lens is that throughout the novel we see how Ken Kesey depicts women as castrators. That the only way women can be in control of things is if they belittle men and take their masculinity away from them until they are ghosts of their former self. All the women in the novel (besides the disturbed ward nurse) were shown to belive that they had too much power over men and Kesey does not believe this should happen. Also when I write the essay I will go into depth on how Kesey only shows women in a negative and sexual manner. I believe that this essay will go well because in the book there are numerous quotes and examples to help back up my views. Such as just since the Big Nurse who happens to be female is in control that this is wrong in the world because women should just be submissive and listen to what their husbands, fathers, or boyfriends say instead of being allowed to be in control of situations.
For the literary lens essay, and I am planning on writing about the religious/spiritual theory for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I decided to write about this theory because I think many parts of this novel relate to religion and I think I will enjoy writing about the relations of the book and the religious references. Although I have yet to start putting sentences and paragraphs together into an essay, I already have many points made that I will be able to include that I took notes on for the previous forums. Also, we did talk about some of the Christianity allusions made by Ken Kesey in this novel during our group discussions that I think will help tremendously while composing the essay. Having ideas from my peers will help me enhance my writing and allow me to open up thinking about ideas that I had never thought about before. While preparing for the forums, I read through sites such as Cliffs Notes and Sparknotes to make sure I had the general understanding of the text correct in case I missed any blatant points from the novel, and I think now I will be able to focus on analyzing specific points from the book that correlate with the religious theory.
6 Thompson I have decided to write about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and to use the Freudian lens. I have decided to use the Freudian lens in my essay because it was the one that was the easiest for me to understand and pick out. I could pick out a few examples with the other lenses but not enough to write five pages worth. With the Freudian lens I decided to split my paper into three different sections describing the Freudian lens with the psyche, which is the superego, ego, and id, then explaining how the patient’s sex drive influence decisions, and then how some of the patients repress themselves because they feel like they won’t be accepted by society. Right now, my essay is progressing pretty decent. I have two pages done and plenty more to talk about. What I currently have is that Nurse Ratched is the superego of the psyche because she is the one in charge and runs the ward. Ratched wants everything to be perfect, “morally right”, ethical and does not take any rebellion that gets in her way which is exactly what the superego wants. McMurphy is the id of the psyche because he goes on his gut feeling and doesn’t think about the consequences. McMurphy is the prime example of the id. Then the ego of psyche in Cuckoo’s Nest is the one that I am struggling to find. I don’t think there is one in the story because there is not a sane person in the ward not even the workers that is why the ego, which is the balance of id and superego, isn’t there. That is all I have so far but have plenty to still talk about for the remaining three pages.
1 Koehn For the lens essay I have decided that I am going to analyze “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” with the Feminist lens. The reason I am choosing to write with the feminist lens is because throughout this novel we see that Ken Kesey in a way is Antifeminist. Through the feminist lens we can conclude that the Ken Kesey doesn't believe women should be able to have the same power as men do. Nurse Ratched for example is seen as a very powerful women and Ken Kesey portrays her negatively throughout the novel. While as the prostitutes are seen in a more positive light because they are carefree and are submissive to the men's wishes. From the way Nurse Ratched dresses we can also conclude that she also thinks that if the patients were to see her in a feminine manner than she wouldn't have as much power, therefore she dresses accordingly to try and cover her feminine qualities. I believe that this essay will be challenging to write because the feminist lens can sometimes become confusing. However, I am hopeful that that I will be able to complete the five pages due to the numerous examples in the book that can be examined through the feminist lens.
I chose to write my essay through the feminist lens over the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The reason I chose this lens is because there are clear examples throughout the entire book where Ken Kesey will depict the femininity of women and demasculinize men. Although this is a common lens for most I find it easy for me to dive into and really look deep into what has been provided for us. With a slow start to my essay I have found it difficult to extend my thoughts past a simple statement. Despite the setbacks researching on what others think about the book has been rather helpful and impactful to my essay as it yet again gives me another point of view of looking at things. By going through my own notes I have found criteria that fits right into the feminist lens in nearly every part. For example, it is very clear that between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched there is an undeniable tension. This tension is built up and tested throughout the whole book until the very end when McMurphy flips. McMurphy is sick of all the drama Nurse Ratched has created so he rips the Nurse’s shirt exposing her breasts. By exposing the Nurse’s breast this demasculinized her as she was one that everyone saw as masculine and in power.
6 Beckman I will be doing the Freudian Literary Theory for my essay because it is the easiest for me to decipher. I have not started it yet, however, I have come up with some main topic points that I will be following. First off, I want to explore the relationships that these men from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest have with others. For example, Billy Bibbit has this insane relationship with his mother in which he does not think that he can get close to any other woman besides her, for fear that his mother will hate him. I also plan on going into the relationship that the Big Nurse has with each individual man because she is a sort of mentor figure (specifically her relationship with Billy, McMurphy and Chief Bromden). I will also be talking about how McMurphy does not feel at ease until he ends up messing things up for some reason and how he always has to feel like he is in control of the situation at hand. One of the biggest things that was capitalized on in the book was the fact that the men were lustful all the time.
3house I haven't picked a lens yet and I probably won't pick a lens until the weekend but I will more than likely write upon "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" because that book is bonkers and full of bamboozlement's and it speaks to me. I always write my best after some procrastination. Everyone will being doing the same types of lenses and that bores me. I don't like conforming to the masses, even something as simple as an essay; but alas, my grade depends on it, so I will, probably. Isn't it sad that the weight of a grade outweighs the individuality of a student? But my answer might be within the Reader-Response literary lens. It is what the reader takes out of the work and how they perceive. I could write about anything and everything. How do I connect this book to my life and experiences? How does this book connect to other books I've read, to history, to mythology, to religion. This lens is a culmination(idk if this is the right word) of all the other lenses but it's based on what you think not what someone else has already stated and you will just restate. SOURCES. but I need sources. How can I have sources if it's supposed to be a reader-response lens, not a reader-google-response lens. Alas, my troubles are laid out and I will probably pick a lens that i can just google and find 5 different sources that says the same thing in a slightly different wording to preserve my grade because isn't that what high school is all about? A's and test and test and A's.
1 Konz I chose to write my essay using the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I was trying to decide between this lens and a religious lens but I chose the feminist lens because there is a lot of observations to be made about the gender roles in this book. The Nurse and the wives of the men create many issues for the residents of the ward. Even though I think there are also a lot of religious comments, they are more direct statements from the characters instead of implied. I wanted to choose a feminist lens that would demand analysis and further understanding of the book not only to further my learning but also to provide additional information that will help me reach the 5 page minimum instead of searching for direct quotes from characters about religion. As of right now, my essay is not exactly effortless. There is a lot of information that I need to find and my current problem is organizing my thoughts to create a solid essay that doesn’t jump around between different topics. Organization is important when writing essays like this so that the reader is not confused and to create one cohesive paper to display the knowledge gained from reading the book.
In my literary lens essay, I have chosen to analyze ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ through the feminist lens. Ken Kesey’s characterization of Nurse Ratched grabbed my attention right away, and kept me interested for the entire novel. He develops the psychiatric ward as a dysfunctional matriarchy, opposing society in the 1950s. Women are in control, but only because they emasculate men. Nurse Ratched is portrayed in a negative light throughout the novel. Whenever something unfavorable happens, she is blamed. In my essay, I would also like to address the sexism in this novel. ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ was written during the 1960s, the same time period that the ‘Second Wave of Feminism’ began. I see this book as a sort of rebuttal to the legitimacy of concerns of gender inequality. Kesey only portrays women in a positive light if they are submissive, like the prostitutes. But when they are brave enough to have an opinion of their own, for example Nurse Ratched, they are a ‘castrating bitch’. While I think it is important to analyze both sides of this argument, it is obvious to me which possesses more validity. In my essay, I will elaborate on my opinion.
For my essay I will be composing, I will be using the feminist lens over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The way Kesey has talked about women and men in the book made it easy for me to choose this lens. He has shown the ways that men and women are categorized upon other people. Kesey shows us in the book that women are objects of the masculine population when he describes nurse Ratched and Harding’s wife. Another example of this is with the women that Mcmurphy claims to be with. Mcmurphy is trying throughout the entire novel to make nurse Ratched become his submissive and listen to his commands but never fully achieves this. Going along with that, nurse Ratched does not allow any of the men to control her no matter how hard they try. This shows how the power of women will rise and they will become more important. In my opinion, I feel that the way people (men) described and treated women in this time era was with no respect or with any say. In the 1950’s and on women have become more and more noticed and allowed to have a say in society.
Adam and I are writing about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest using the feminist lens. Some of the ideas we have are as follows: All of the “insane” characters are men. Women represent order. Nurse Ratched clearly dominates the men and wants as much control as possible--she controls nearly every aspect of life in the ward. The men are so brainwashed by her that they are there by their own will. McMurphy brings disorder to the ward and disrupts Ratched’s perfect order. The other nurses are all women as well and contribute to the everyday functions. The black boys are the other peace keeping force however their methods are… less desirable. The women are the ones who come visit patients in the ward because they have that freedom.
I think the reason, Nurse Ratched would argue, the men are in the ward is that they lack a proper superego influence. That’s where Nurse Ratched comes in--women represent the superego. The men have their own id, which is suppressed by Ratched, and there ego, again dominated by Nurse Ratched.
We haven’t really started our essay yet, but we have talked about it.
1 Klamm I am using the archetypal/mythological lens. I am using this because it will be fun to relate the characters in one flew over the cuckoo's nest to the archetypal characters. These characters include the hero, scapegoat, loner or outcast and the villain. I feel as though I can relate these to people in the book and expand on the topics enough to make a complete essay. I can also use archetypal images like colors to expand on topics like Bromden seeing green sludge. I can also talk about the quest that Bromden goes on throughout the story to eventually establish his own identity. I feel as though it may be harder to relate universal myths to one flew over the cuckoo’s nest because i do not think there are distinct myths to relate it to. I have had a hard time starting this essay because I do not know how I want to start it and how I want to go about talking about the specific people related to this lens. I feel as though I will go paragraph by paragraph on the different characters and images and talk in depth about them in each paragraph.
For this essay, I am writing about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, through the Feminist Lens. You can see that throughout this story, the woman are seen as super powerful who emasculate and belittle the men. Women take control over the patients, and it becomes a women dominated society in the hospital. In their therapy sessions, she manipulates the men to spill all their secrets in an effort to keep the ward under her control. These women, led by Nurse Ratched, are negatively portrayed as overpowering and threatening. This is also shown in the characters of McMurphy's past lover, Harding’s wife, and Billy Bibbit’s mother. Chief Bromden’s mom also fills this role, as she undermines his father and powers over him by acting in non-traditional ways. Through these relationships, you can see the sexism that is present in the book. Ken Kesey uses this novel to show the negative characteristics of females and the more positive characteristics of the male characters. Nurse Ratched also expresses her femininity through what clothing she wears. At the end of the story, when McMurphy exposes her, he shows how she is actually female which takes away power from the Nurse.
1 Harvison For the Literary Lens essay I am choosing to write about the different mental disabilities of the ward. This theme will fill a psychoanalytic approach, as I will hopefully distinguish what each patient goes through, how it affects their actions, and compare each patient. I plan on also analyzing how Kesey compared each patient to a “normal person” or even questioning if anyone is “normal”. Without doing much research so far, I can tell Kesey is very strange and believes no one is quite the same. He defines normal as an obedience to society by being able to go to work, have a family, and provide for yourself. However, I believe many normal people may not have all three of those and they do not belong in a mental institution. I plan to point out these expectations of society and question their truth to how someone needs to act normal. Really is there any definition of a mental disorder? They come in many different forms and degrees and really depend on how a person can handle everyday challenges. I think it will be really interesting to explain Nurse Ratchet-- especially since she was a nurse in World War II and probably has a type of PTSD or needing to have control after having a lack of in the war.
1Top Writing through a lens rather than my own opinion, I have found to be quite difficult. I chose to begin writing my essay about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest through a feminist lens. I started with an outline and began to think about the few women that had played a role in the novel. Ken Kesey has shown throughout the novel that he views women as power hungry and demeaning control freaks. This is not a challenging concept to accept; he is a sexist. Trying to take authority and control, McMurphy does his best to be above Nurse Ratched without being questioned. Although when talking about the Big Nurse, there are derogatory words and feelings toward her when she tries to dictate the men; again, another example of feminism. The prostitutes, Sandy and Candy, who enter the plot are disrespected and taken advantage of. From the beginning we learn they are prostitutes, and later find that they bring the men alcohol which they also mix with medications. The women have a negative influence on the men, and everyone knows it. Feminism is omnipresent and completely obvious in _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_.
For my literary lens essay, I am working with Spencer B. and we are going to use the Freudian lens to analyse One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. We are writing using the Freudian lens because there is a lot to be done with dream analysis of Chief’s dreams, as well as the prevalent sexual themes that appear starting in the third part. I would say that the essay is going well and we are making good progress, but we have barely started researching for the paper. I feel that we will be able to complete the essay with enough information because the Freudian lens is a common one, but the nine pages with a partner may make it a little difficult with the time we have left. It has also been difficult to understand a big deal of the essay as are class has not technically been introduced to it. Overall, it should be an interesting essay to work on, but troubles may arise because of limited time with only having a week and a half left to complete it as well as other activities and reading another book at the same time.
I chose to use the archetypal and mythological lenses in my essay because I like the idea of understanding why certain characters act the way they do and what recurring images or ideas could possibly mean. While I am not always right, I think speculating gets you a lot further than just simply accepting it. I haven’t exactly started it yet but I have started writing ideas and assigning archetypes. I think it’s easy to come up with common archetypes like the hero, villain, and loner, but assigning them can be somewhat harder. The major characters like McMurphy, Bromden, and the Nurse are easy to assign, but I think that the minor characters (who still play a very impactful role in the story) tend to be more difficult. Another part to the archetypal lens is that there is more to it than just the characters; you can look at symbolism, color analysis, and omnipresent themes. Another aspect I want to incorporate into my essay are the various quests the characters can go in. With the traditional archetypal theme, the hero (McMurphy) goes on a quest, but I think it would be interesting to also look at the quest that Bromden goes on as the loner’s fight to become vital.
1 Vielmette In my essay I am choosing to do the archetypal lens and maybe some of the Freudian lens to add a little more explanation to the book as sometimes one lens isn't enough. However, I may or may not add the Freudian because it will honestly come down to whether I need more to write about or not. I like the archetypal lens I feel also has a lot to it as there is a mountain of symbolism in the book that I can write about and hopefully I won't have to move onto the Freudian as. Regardless of how little I have wrote on the essay (which is 0) I still have a fairly good idea on what to write but it's just starting it at the moment that is troubling me. Also I haven't even started research at the moment so that is another thing that I have to worry about. Once I start the essay I could finish it in less than a week for sure as I remember a lot of the book and it's just putting my ideas into words on paper.
1 Campbell For my essay, I will primarily be using a psychological and psychoanalytical approach. I will be discussing the topic of awareness. Mainly, I will be focusing on our awareness as everyday people when we fall into a rut and the awareness of people that have a mental illness. I will be talking about how we fall into a routine that we do every single day and how we need to acknowledge that we are in a rut and that we should change that. As for people with a mental illness, I will be talking about how a person that has schizophrenia doesn’t understand that they have multiple personalities and discussing how that if they were aware of these other personalities it may be easier for them to deal with their mental illness and make progress while in therapy or other forms of help. When reading ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ the different mental illnesses that were discussed kept me very interested. While reading the book, I would find myself potentially being able to figure out what mental illness a person suffered from. Therefore, that is why I want to focus on that aspect for my essay, because I want to do more research and become even more knowledgeable about mental illnesses.
3 Wheeler For the essay, we (Kaitlyn Huska and I) are using the psychoanalytic lens. We chose this because we have both taken or are taking psychology courses, and it was something we had prior knowledge and resources for. We are focusing primarily on Freud’s theory of psychosexual development and the personality structure, Erik Erikson’s theory of personality structure, and Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. I have a lot of worksheets, diagrams, and my textbook from my college course I took over the summer, so we have a lot of information available. We are applying the theories to Lord of the Flies and its main characters. The essay is going very well so far. We have completed almost all of the actual composition, and have only transitions, citations, and the intro/conclusion paragraphs left to complete. I am very happy with how well the essay is going, and I think Kaitlyn and I have made a great team for this assignment. We managed to power through most of the writing over the last couple weekends and it has turned out quite well. I thoroughly enjoy using a psychoanalytic lens to examine LoTF because it allows me to use what I know to discover new things that I didn’t know.
Quanbeck and I will be writing our essay together to conjoin our thoughts and write 9 pages. While the task seems dauntless, we will work extremely hard throughout this week to make the essay the best we possibly can. We have decided that we will be writing about One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, and we will be using the feminism literary lens. I feel like there is a lot to write about for One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest using the feminist lens. Quanbeck and I are hoping to talk about the matriarchy of Nurse Ratched and her dominance over the men that are at the mental institution. We also are hoping to discuss how there are no women present in the asylum (even though they would have been separated from the men) to drive home that men need women in their lives in order for them to stay someone sane. I am really looking forward to diving into the novel a bit more to research the feminist lens. I think that this will challenge me as a student, but it will be a very rewarding experience and help expand my knowledge of this novel.
I am using the marxist lens with a reversed power ladder in order to write my Literary Lens Essay. Out of all of the other lens I feel that I can write at least five pages with this lens. The others not so much. I am scared that I won’t be able write the daunting five pages because I did not care for the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. To me it was very slow and boring. I also had a hard time pulling out meaning and symbols from the book. I did pick a few important symbols from the book but again I am scared that I will get nowhere near five pages. I have yet to start this grueling essay but I feel once start I feel that I will either struggle immensely or power through it and make it through. Hopefully it is the latter. If I even tried to write with partner nothing would get done and it would go all down because nine pages on a single topic that I’m already struggling with is pure utter death.
I, along with my partner Reindl, am using the Psychoanalytic/Freudian lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Together with Reindl, he and I are choosing this lens conjunctively because we found that much of what occurs in this novel can be analyzed in this way. WIth all of the patients having various thoughts, actions, and reasons for being in the hospital, one can find various aspects to analyze. We also feel as though with this lens Reindl and I feel as though we can really dig into this novel. Finally this is the lens that I feel most comfortable about and is the lens that I used whilst reading the novel for class. Currently, Reindl and I are summing up our ideas on a separate research page, here we are collecting ideas as well as facts and resources that will be helpful in the future phase of actually composing the essay. However, we are just about finished up with the brainstorming process and we will soon ready ourselves to begin typing up the final product. I found researching for this prompt to be rather difficult, but thanks to Reindl’s help, I am understanding more fully as to what is expected of us, and what things we need to research to help our writing.
3 Roby I am using the Archetypal/Mythological lens to analyze The One That Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I have chosen this lens because I feel that I am better at analyzing characters as the hero and the villain. Reading deeper into the meaning of the text or looking for symbols is not my strong suit and I thought that it would be best to stick with what I am good at. In The One That Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy is the hero and Miss Ratched is the villain. McMurphy came into the ward trying to change the routine. Miss Ratched gradually broke him down, letting him have small victories along the way, to his eventual death. I feel though that McMurphy did do his job as a hero though, as he did open the eyes of the other patients on the ward and showed them that they do not have to bow down to Nurse Ratched. While on the ward, McMurphy made the patients feel like they are worth something, not just crazy people living in a hospital and his impact lasted on the patients.
7 Johnke I have decided that I am going to compose my essay based on the feminist lens. I will be analyzing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest due to the near reversal of the lens it presents and the unique qualities the book henceforth gives. During the time that Kesey wrote this book, women were quite significantly suppressed still and were most definitely not equal. Women were not supposed to work as head doctors--even though Nurse Ratched is more qualified than Doctor Spivey. Construction work was left up to men and a great variety of other jobs, women were not “qualified” for. The irony of this mentality is that though there are physical differences between men and women, mentally both are mostly equivalent. I decided on this topic because I find it fascinating how much we have progressed in around 75 years. Also, the fact that people thought that women were less superior and had these notions about inequality surprises me. Honestly, I have yet to write a word for my essay--procrastination at its finest. I plan on starting my essay on Friday and once I get started the essays never seem to take too long.
7 Myers For my essay I am using the feminist lens to write about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because I thought most of the symbolism throughout the book had to do with feminism. I believe that the main reason that Ken Kesey wrote this book was to scare people away from the feminist movement that took place in the 1960’s. During this time, women were fighting for equality on a political and personal level. Kesey was clearly against this movement. This is clear in the book because of the main female characters he introduces. He showed the readers what will happen if women were in control/power with characters like Nurse Ratched, Vera Harding, and Billy’s mother. Kesey also showed the reader how he believe women should be: easy and dumb. He did this with the two prostitute characters. I am struggling with what topics to use in my essay because I feel that there are many ways to analyze this book with the feminist lens. Other than that, I feel that my essay will be successful because I feel passionate about this topic.
In my essay I chose to use the feminist lens in criticism of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I think throughout the novel this is a prominent problem. The females are represented as castrators or pleasure givers. This is not a fair representation of women at all. Throughout the novel women are downplayed and made out to be the bad guy. Nurse Ratched carries out all of the lobotomy procedures on the men. She is also the person on the ward that everyone hates. She is in control which shows a gender role switch but throughout the novel she struggles to keep this control position when it is challenged by McMurphy. Towards the end of the story the patients have control and Nurse Ratched is no longer in charge. Another instance is when Harding is talking to his wife, they present her as a slut and a bad wife. They hint that she sleeps around with several other men apart from her husband. This gives the women a bad image. Another female presented in the novel is Candy who seduces Billy Bibbit, contributing to my point about women are for pleasure. Women are portrayed as people who take away men’s masculinity. This is represented in procedures such as the lobotomy. Also when Rawler cuts off his own testicles, Chief says, “all the guy had to do was wait.” This implies that the ward would have eventually castrated him. In my opinion a better approach to the novel as a whole would have been to include both male and female patients. In addition the nurses would represent both genders. The black boys that assist the nurse shouldn’t all be men and all be black have different genders and races. This is why I believe that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest favors the men.
3Bowman I have decided to use the spiritual/religious lens when writing my essay pertaining to the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because of the immense religious symbolism, allusions, and slams found throughout the novel that are quite intriguing, and in some cases, hilariously obvious. I think this lens will provide me with an abundant quantity of material to write about and elaborate upon. Furthermore, I chose this lens because I believe it can also be taken personally and be elaborated upon with our own personal interpretations and experiences aside from those others have already established. So far, my essay is not going to bad. I have created a respectable introduction and have ideas for the contents of my body paragraphs. As of now, the greatest challenge that awaits me is actually sitting down and taking the time to establish my thoughts into the format of an essay. However, I have a strong feeling that when I do sit down to write this essay, the thoughts should (hopefully) flow well and culminate into a fascinating and intriguing essay for others to read if they so choose to.
I am using the feminist lens on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I am using this lens because to me it is the easiest to pick out, and I understand how to use it. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest I can pick out so many feminist lens throughout the story. Women are shown as crazy, evil, and they seem to be the bad people throughout the whole book. The only way it shows that women can be in control is if they take away a man's masculinity and to me that is not right at all. Ken Kesey is very anti feminist, he doesn’t think women should be able to have the same power as men do, which again is wrong. Nurse Ratched is very powerful, but yet Kesey shows her as such a negative character throughout the novel. I have not started my essay yet, but I plan on starting it this weekend. I know I will get to five pages because this lens interests me and I saw many examples of it throughout the novel. This lens also frustrates me how they portray women so I know I can go on about the topic for a while.
In the essay I am writing for Lord of the Flies I am utilizing the Freudian lens to inhibit a deeper look unto the specimen of the novel. Lord of the Flies has provided our culture a deep look at what truly lies within humans. The entire novel works allegorically and is composed with a keen brilliance only achievable from the likes of Golding, meticulously examining human nature and bringing some extremely weighty themes into play. Truthfully it feels as though I am cheating using this lens and applying it to this novel since the entire thing is basically one giant metaphor. If one were so inclined to look just a bit further into the thick brush that is the boy's current state, and how their minds maneuver along the journey with superego, ego, and id in mind. It is astounding the amount of pages one could churn out in direct correlation to the innate evil of men and the behavior of the boys all in correspondence to the Freudian lens. I am truly excited to see how it will look when all's said and done, for I found Lord of the Flies to be one of, if not the best novels I have read certainly in school, but even my entire life.
3 Moelter By using the Freudian/ Psychoanalytic lens to analyze the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I am using the lens that most suits how I analyze novels. This lens works great for this novel as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has various examples for analyzation. Having many patients and nursing staff members, there are many minds that do not have the same way of thinking. Having all different ways of thinking allows for multiple personalities to analyze and many different actions that come with their personalities to analyze also. Thus far I have completed an introductory paragraph and some basic background ideas for future paragraphs. I feel that this lens has lead me to view the characters on a deeper psychological level than any other lens would allow me. I have been brainstorming with other people using the same lens as me as I have a difficulty starting essays. After writing the introductory paragraph, I should be able to continue writing the following paragraphs with ease is my goal for this upcoming weekend. I am looking forward to writing this essay with the knowledge and literary theories I have learned.
7 Huska We (Charlie Wheeler and I) are using the freudian literary lens in our essay. We decided to write about lord of the flies and we thought that this specific lens would give us the most to write about as most of the book is about hidden and unconscious meanings. Both of us have previously taken a psychology class so our background in this subject helped us greatly as well. Our method in the paper was to take a paragraph to explain the methods we used to analyze and then we took paragraphs to go more indepth. Focusing in on each character and their unconscious gave us a lot of momentum to write and put everything we learned on the page. We divided and conquered the essay while also making sure to put our thoughts into what the other was writing. We have the required nine pages right now and all we have left is the citations, introduction, transitions, title, and the conclusion. I admit I was a bit worried that we would not be able to get the full nine pages but once we got going we could not seem to stop.
7 Grode In my literary lens essay, I will be using the Freudian or psychoanalytic lens to analyze the book Lord of the Flies. I will be using this lens because I have always looked further into symbols and how everything is the way it is, instead of just what is tangible. I believe there is always a deeper meaning to things than just brushing the surface. There is a reason people act the way they do. It will be easier for me to write on the id, ego, and superego of each character than it would be for me to write with any other lens. I will also write on the various symbols throughout the novel, such as the fire, the conch, and deeper symbols, such as the shift from civilization to complete brute savagery. I chose Lord of the Flies instead of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because I feel as though I know the book Lord of the Flies better and it will be easier for me to write on. I plan on starting my essay within the next couple days.
While reading Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I found myself most predominately noticing details from a feminist viewpoint. For this reason, I decided that it would be best to write my literary lens essay discussing where this is seen in the novel. Obviously, women are over sexualized and seen as castrators in the book. There is even an event in the book where a man cut off his own testicles to put an end to his life. This is blatant on Kesey’s part, as there are many other ways that are less painful and still get the job done. It should also be noted that there are few if any positive woman figures in the book. Kesey’s novel includes two prostitutes and a controlling nurse as the main women. The nurse often tries to take the men’s masculinity away. She hardly misses an opportunity to call them out on their inadequacies. She also takes away their cigarettes and doesn’t allow them to watch the baseball game. These are fundamental things that men did in this time period, and she keeps them from participating.
My favorite literary lens to use is psychoanalytic. I use Freudian theory when reading because it makes the most sense to me. I notice Pi Patel’s love for animals and disdain for people. When he is talking about animals in a zoo in chapter four, Pi convinces the reader that a zoo is much better for animals than the wild, but later on in chapter eight he says the only reason zoos are not always safe for animals is because of people, mostly visitors (even though visitors are exactly what keep a zoo open--It’s a catch 22). During most of the first fourteen chapters, the author writes Pi talking about his zoo and other aspects of zoology. After he is finished with that the focus shifts to religion. I think this was intentionally done to emphasize the chronological order that Pi became interested in such topics. The reason Pi later studies zoology is clear, but his reasoning for loving religions is more subtle. We know so far that Pi has a strong faith, but the only reason I can see for that is simply because he likes the culture and is proud of his faith. I am hoping that later on in the book we will get further insight as to what made him practice multiple religions at once.
Ive decided to use the Psychoanalytic lens for one flew over the cuckoos nest. I believe that this lens suits the book perfectly because all the characters have so much past experiences behind them that lead up to the point of them going to the psychiatric ward. Also most of the characters explain these past experiences and it really helps the reader to understand why the characters act the way that they do. Chief for example was ignored by white people his whole life and he has almost nothing to say about his mother only that she was part of the combine and chopped his father down. my reasoning behind why chief is quite is because his mother ignored him as a child and his father was the only person that he had experience with. Along with many characters with many different personalities and stories my lens will be the most intriguing at least in my mind to write about. I strongly believe that the psychoanalytic lens is the most broad and most intriguing lens, with you you can ponder about lives of characters and why they act the way that they do and there isnt necessarily a wrong answer.
In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there are many different ways to analyze the one I found myself using the most and the one I am planning to write my essay about is the Feminist theory. I am choosing this theory not because it is my favorite theory but because there is an overwhelming amount of examples in the interactions between Nurse Ratched and all of the patients where one can argue gender played a role. Nurse Ratched is feared by all of the men. many of these men are there because of different women in their past (most notable example being Billy Bibbit and his oppressive mother) and Nurse Ratched uses this for her benefit by doing things like saying she will tell Billy’s mom whenever he is doing something she does not approve of. Another example I will use in my essay is the relationship between Dale Harding and his wife. There is no doubt that Mr. Harding is gay and did not want people knowing, so to hide this he is married a very attractive women who he has a bad relationship with because she sometimes uses his homosexuality against him.
I am writing my essay about the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I will be analyzing this book through the feminist lens. I chose to use this lens because of the way Ken Kesey portrays the men and women in this book. It starts right off the bat with describing Nurse Ratched as not being capable of taking care of the men and treating them terribly. Kesey is trying to show that when a woman holds the power that she is immoral and controlling. If a man were to hold the same position as her, he would be looked up to and viewed as a strong individual. Although they did not talk much about her, Kesey portrayed Billy’s mother as having power. He tried to convey to the readers that Billy got his stutter from his mom being overprotective. Another woman to mention is Vera Harding. I know there are many ways to analyze this book through the feminist lens, but I need to figure out how I am going to put it all on paper. I plan on starting my essay this weekend, and I hope that once I get it started it will flow nicely for me.
6 McGee I am using a Feminist Lens to criticize One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I chose this lens because I believe there is lots of material from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that I can extract meaning from. I find it using the Feminist lens much easier than the other lens because it is much easier to pick out and see. An example from the book is when McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched and tries choking her he rips open her shirt, this makes her seem weaker because it reveals her breast showing her feminine sign. Also when she returns after the attack her new outfit doesn’t conceal her breast as much as the last one, this shows again her femininity and symbolizes her loss of control because she no longer has power over the ward. Another pro-man point his when McMurphy gets Chief Bromden talking McMurphy starts telling Bromden that he can get Bromden to grow and become stronger. Then later when Bromden show sexual desire McMurphy says that he has already grow, this is because he shows his manhood which in McMurphy's eyes is power. McMurphy's constantly makes comments that suggest man's power over women and so I believe writing an essay examining One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest from a feminist view will be very achievable.
I have chosen the feminist lens for my essay over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because I discovered that it was omnipresent throughout the novel, and it also relates exceptionally well in America today. For example, a day after Trump was inaugurated, a women’s march was held in multiple places all over the country. Women were standing up for their rights and that they may be protected, especially with a seemingly anti-feminist president in office. Kesey inserted anti-feminism countless times throughout his story, depicting women as unworthy, heartless, and arrogant. In the book, Nurse Ratched is seen as powerful and therefore evil, and also masculinizes her. The men qualities that she is given tell the reader that men should always be at the head of any successful organization; patriarchy is the only way to go. She also "castrated" the men that she was in charge of, because that is the only way she can possibly hold power. Kesey makes it appear that women should be submissive to all men in their lives, regardless of relation. Although I have yet to start my essay, I am confident that I will be successful due to the numerous quotes and examples that I have extracted from the pages.
3 Schroder For the literary lens essay, I am choosing to use the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I choose this lens because there were many situations in the book that were obvious to portraying harsh views against women. In some instances, Ken Kesey portrayed the women as brainwashing, evil, and corrupt human beings. Mrs. Ratched, the head nurse of the mental institution, shows these characteristics by trying to make the men conform to all of her rules. She makes the men believe that they are not cut out to be involved in the the society of the world; the men are humiliated. The power held by Mrs. Ratched is overbearing and her status is extremely arrogant and cruel. Kesey is trying to show that when a woman is held responsible for power, she uses it in a way that will destroy the lives of citizens, thus women should not hold any sort of power in society. Any man in society that could hold this type of power would be considered strong, tough, and successful during this time period. As I continue to write my essay, I keep coming up with ideas upon ideas. There is a lot of information and ideas that can be explained through this lens.
In my literary lens essay, I have chosen to use the mythical/archetypal lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I did not have any idea what this lens was about until I did some research, and I am glad I did; the result was not as expected. I chose this lens because it appears less of my classmates are discussing through this lens and the lens itself seems thoroughly interesting to relate archetypal characters, images, and situations. Through the archetypal lens, it is important to note general themes and characters that that recur from past literature works. It is interesting to notice the relations between characters in Ken Kesey’s work and other figures of literature, and how much they compare the roles they pertain to. I have indeed created a document to describe and list my opinions based on the Archetypal lens, yet have not produced the amount of work I should have at this point in time. I’d think I would get past procrastination, yet it often surfaces. My essay will contain more description of my thoughts and beliefs of the Archetypal lens.
To begin, I am using the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose the feminist lens because feminism is very applicable in our society today. In addition, the conflict between men and women is a major theme throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Many different examples of feminism can be found throughout the novel, so the feminist lens can be applied appropriately in the analysis of the novel. I believe Ken Kesey intended to portray a distinct struggle between men and women, a social issue that existed when he wrote the novel and that still exists today. An overpowering matriarchy exists in the novel, and the male characters launch a struggle for patriarchy. Women stripping the masculinity from men is a prevalent theme in the novel, and a battle ensues as the men work to regain that masculinity. Thus, I will be using the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Currently, my essay is going well. I have an ample number of examples from the novel to utilize in my analysis. I believe my analysis is in-depth and considers many of the symbols of the novel. I still have some research to do, and I have yet to work some of my sources into my essay. Overall, the essay is going well, though.
6 Sorenson In order to write my literary lens essay, I am going to apply the Freudian/psychoanalytic lens to Lord of the Flies. I chose this lens because the Freudian/psychoanalytic lens because the lens uses a lot of psychology to analyze literature. I really enjoyed studying psychology, and have therefore retained many of the ideas and theories taught in the course. I can then apply what I have learned to what I am reading in a comprehensive manner. I understand the Freudian/psychoanalytic lens, so I can then understand what I am reading on another level. I also was able to pick out several Freudian aspects from the Lord of the Flies, so I believe I will be able to compose a thorough, well written bit of work. Writing the essay itself is no easy task. I feel as if my writing skills are a little rusty since Comp ended and Lit started. Finding the motivation to sit down and really write the essay is the hardest part so far. I am sure the approaching deadline will motivate me to produce an A worthy piece of writing.
7 Symington In my lens essay, I am planning on writing about Lord of the Flies and how it relates to the Marxist lens. Personally, I find this lens one of the easier to identify variations of in certain pieces of literature. For example, when we were watching The Lion King in class, the majority of the stuff I wrote down was relating about class systems and how each species of animal either won or lost its own genetic and environmental lottery. As of right now, I am currently still in the process of brainstorming different topics to cover in my essay for Lord of the Flies and how it relates back to the Marxist lens. For example, in my essay, I plan to write about how, as a natural leader, Ralph is the better leader compared to that of Piggy considering the fact that Ralph won the genetic lottery where he is good looking with “fair hair” and a natural born leader. In addition to that, I hope to make a few more points about how there seems to be a hierarchy system that the boys have fallen into. Overall, the biggest part that I am worried about for this particular essay is finding enough content to talk about to meet the required page number.
I have just read the requirements for the literary lens essay, and I have not decided what I will be writing about just yet. There are a few lenses that catch my eye, but I really want to read through them well and then pick the book that I think I can apply the lens best to. As of right now, I am planning on doing analyzing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest through the Freudian or Psychoanalytic and Feminist literary lenses. I have done much work on Sigmund Freud already in two of the psychology classes that I have taken and I think that I will be able to write best from this perspective as of now. If I read through the lenses and find that I think one would work better, I could choose that one instead or incorporate it into my writing as well, because I think it is difficult to pick just one lens for these types of books because there are many way to look at the same thing, why would you limit yourself to just one when there is so much of a book to write about.
I have decided to write about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest through a religious/spiritual lens. This decision came about after wanting to do the feminist lens, but so many others had already chosen to do so. Therefore, I chose to dig a little deeper into the religious symbols that are shown in the characters throughout this novel. From start to finish this book is jam-packed with biblical references, characters who act similar to those in the Bible, and patients who are practically crucified daily in order to be maintained on the ward. Writing my essay through this lens will be a good challenge that will make me dig even deeper into things I had already started to look at for our forums. Although I have not physically started typing my essay on my computer, I have had thoughts passing through my mind throughout reading this novel on how I want my essay to be written. I want it to have points that have already been made, but also to go even further in depth with the symbolism and references to the Bible. I want to bring out points that no one has yet pondered and make my readers learn, but also think more in depth about what they just read. I am sure this essay will not be anything easy, but like always a good challenge to prepare for college and beyond.
The lens I plan to use really possess no definition. I am going to attack the analysis of cuckoo’s nest through a set of beliefs that I personally have come to accept. So, to be concise for the sake of maintaining sanity, the lens I plan to use essentially consists of an atheistic predisposition with a hinting tinge of insatiable anger. Plus, this lens typically leads me to disagreement with most things. Yeah, this lens isn’t standard or mundane or typical for that matter. My apologies. If it doesn’t work out, clearly my inability to conform isn’t at all beneficial. I plan to analyze certain aspects of the book based on lens within myself. I will make very apparent what exactly it is i’m seeing, and how i'm seeing it so as to not confuse or take away from what it is i'm trying to say. So, in spirit of literature created for the sake of analysis in high school english classes, I end by saying that my lens in themselves will contain ambiguity. If anything, it’ll give you something to make an example out of what not to do.
1 Jeanson I did not have any knowledge of this assignment until about a day ago. Thus far I have no idea what lens I would like to analyze through. The Mythological/Archetypal and Psychological lens look like an interesting option as well as a feminine lens. It would also be quite possible for me to create a wonderfully made essay with the help of Ellis by the third of March, but I still would have the nine pages to type up as well as the multiple sources to find. I have no clue how this thing will turn out or if I will finish it in time. Writing is not my thing. I was really hoping all we had to do in this class was read the author's’ creations and then discuss our discoveries. Obviously, I was wrong in my assumptions and now have the knowledge that we must write even more than just this one paper. Hopefully I am able to write an essay that has at least the value of a B-, anything higher and I might keel over and die from the amount of optimism that would take. Wish me luck.
3 Scholten For the literary lens essay, I have decided to do the religious/ spiritual lens for the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I have decided to use this lens because it is easy for me to pick out religious references in Kesey's book and I feel it will be interesting to find religious symbolism in books. Digging deeper into books has always been a challenge for me so using this lens will help me improve at this skill. I have not yet started writing the essay but I have done plenty of research and have taking notes on religious references and symbolism in Kesey’s book. Some examples that I have found so far are McMurphy being compared to Christ, the electroshock table being shaped like a crucifix, and also Nurse Ratched being compared to the devil. These ideas are going to be the foundation of my essay and I will build on these ideas. Also, my forum group has given me ideas about many religious references in this book so I will definitely use the ideas of my peers to help compose my essay. Using all the ideas I have gathered, I will be starting my essay this weekend and I hope I get a good start on it.
3 Casey Between my partner, Sonjah, and I making the decision of using the feministic literary lens in our essay was all too easy, I’m glad that there was no debate necessary in this decision because it makes our working together even easier than it already is. We chose this lens because there are endless opportunities to write through that lens with the novels that we have been assigned this far in the semester, in addition we have a first person view from this lens. Although we have not gotten a very good start on our essay we have a lot of ideas to consider on the topic and plan to meet and discuss our options for this paper and get a good start on it. We were considering looking at Lord of the Flies but are still figuring out what our best option would be. I am confident in my and Sonjah’s abilities to create something that is entirely brilliant and spectacular and in our coordination as a team. I look forward to writing this essay as a team and revealing new theories about what we have already read.
Using literary lenses is an interesting task, it allows for a broader perspective on books. It makes you enjoy the book even more because you can understand the book on a deeper level. I haven’t really looked up any other lenses, I have stuck to the three psychoanalytic, marxist and feminist. The psychoanalytic and marxist are the two lenses that I gravitate towards more. Those two intrigue me more the feminist lens but it can still be useful. Also, I thought learning these lenses with the lion king was a great introduction to the lenses. The books themselves are probably harder to analyze compared to lion king because the lion king had the visual aspect whereas the books you have to interpret the meaning of it through words only. The books also require more focus to understand them more thoroughly so I would say that it is harder than analyzing a movie (especially an animated one). All in all, it is going well and if it wasn't a school assignment and had an essay due I would probably like reading books with these lenses in mind.
The lens that I decided to use in my literary lens essay is the lens of feminism. I decided to use this as my lens because I feel I will be able to use this lens well in my essay. I believe that feminism is a big thing to look at in this day and age. Which makes it an important lens to use. When you read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest you do not hear much about the women in the book, sure there is Nurse Ratched but not many other women. When they describe Nurse Ratched, she is describe with very female aspects but it is also said that she tries to hide her womanly side. In my opinion I believe that this is Ken Kesey’s way of hiding her feminism and keeping parts of her secret. I also chose to use feminism as my lens because of how Kesey depicts all the women in the story no matter who they are, their background, or anything else that may contribute to who they are. By reading this book it is very obvious that Kesey had an issue with women while he was writing the book. If I recall correctly there was no positive comments about any woman in the book. For all of the ways that women are portrayed I believe that it will be fairly easy to analyze the book with a feminist lens.
1 Talcott I have not yet begun my essay, but my plan as of now is to write a Freudian/Psychoanalytic analysis of Lord of the Flies. Lord of the Flies is the book that I have most enjoyed so far this year. I also think that I will be able to garner a lot of information through the Freudian/Psychoanalytic lense. The essence of this whole book is the subconscious of these "innocent" British boys. Each of these boys has a different subconscious. Different boys represent different parts of Freud’s theory. Ralph most closely represents the ego. Roger most closely represents the id. Piggy most closely represents the super ego. The British Naval officer also represents the superego. He does not believe it when he finds the boys in chaos. He has lived in society so long his super ego has clouded his ego and id, so he cannot believe what happened. I also am going to psychoanalyze other characters such as Jack. His savage nature is very intriguing and should give me some good content for my essay. I hope to begin my essay this weekend.
For my literary lens essay, I chose to use the Marxist lens. I am quite politically savvy and historically informed, so noticing subtle nuances that relate to the economics or politics of a nation is enjoyable to me. In addition, my political stance (Libertarian) makes me particularly critical of State Apparatuses. Libertarianism is founded upon the ideals of liberty, that an individual has the power to steer their life rather than Repressive State Apparatuses (police, government, etc.) and Ideological State Apparatuses (family, school, religion) of classical society. Seeing how authors are influenced by their viewpoint of State Apparatuses, whether directly mentioned or not, allows me to expand my worldview of sociology in humans. My religious views, which are very similar to Pi Patel’s, also allow me to interpret allusions effectively. Allusions produce powerful imagery to readers that must first be recognized before they can be interpreted; realizing why an author chose a specific story allows you to make other connections between two pieces of media that may not be understood by uninformed readers. To quote Mr. House in reference to Breaking the Press, “It started off with religious themes then *Bam* hits you over the head with the cross.” Despite these strong ideas, my essay is still in the background as I am assaulted by scholarship essays and other homework. This weekend will likely be the turning point where I begin seriously composing my essay.
3 Hoffman I currently have not started my essay, though I’ve pondered my ideas. I will be using the Freudian Lens, as it is one with which I have examined with in most stories subconsciously. I will soon learn of other lenses, as I wish to never stop analyzing stores. I understood Lord of the Flies more than One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, however, I wish to challenge myself and do the essay over my lesser-known option. I have though about narcissistic bliss, and how almost no characters consistently try to achieve it, except for McMurphy and those who follow him. McMurphy is constantly in pursuit of achieving narcissistic bliss, constantly trying to stop those who would make him by any means uncomfortable or displeased. Nurse Ratched is almost constantly in narcissistic bliss, though McMurphy brings her out of it. The two are like fire and ice, like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Neither of which can live with each other without clashing. McMurphy is the reason anyone in the asylum tries to become a person, not a cog. He invites Chief Bromden on a fishing trip, and while doing so, talks about girls around him, triggering his libido. This is to, again, bring him to narcissistic bliss, or more specifically, give him a taste of what it’s like to have fun instead of being a link in a ball and chain. As well as tell him there’s fun instead of being a part of a chain, he also inadvertently tells Bromden that he is indeed part of a chain, essentially making him a weak link and allow him to break out. Anyone who is associated with McMurphy will quickly discover this. When all of the asylum attendees are gathered in the office nearing the end of the book, McMurphy treats them all to a medicine containing what I believe was alcohol, reminding people there are things in the world that make them feel better than they feel today.
Cole and I have sought to apply a psychoanalytic approach to our said essay, on Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Our decision was conclusively decided based solely on mutual interest in the book, and shared passion for the study of psychology and the workings of the individual mind. So far the assignment is lacking in its conception, but upon beginning, I can assure you it will be… probably a little far-fetched, as is to be appreciated when trying to understand the workings of one’s mind. We’re specifically going to look at what motivated Kesey as a writer, what influenced his style and perceptions while he wrote, and how the characters are driven within the pages of this fictional work. Why characters like McMurphy grew up with a will-of-iron, take-no-nonsense sort of bravado, while characters like Harding are more feminine/intellectual; or even our mountainous Chief Bromden, who represses his own power in order to hide from an organization he fears is indomitable, and how he comes to realize, that like everything in reality, it has flaws, and ultimately: an end.
3 Headrick I am thinking about doing my essay in the feminist theory. Or would it be anti-feminist because Ken Kesey is anti-feminist? I am not really in the essay mood this semester so this essay will probably be really hard to write. I do like the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest but I do not like essays so I am conflicted. I have written my intro to my essay so far, I opened up posing the question if Ken Kesey is apart of the He-Man Women Haters Club, making an allusion to the Little Rascals. Hopefully people have watched the movie and get the allusion. I found it hilarious and hopefully others will too. That is where I stopped in my essay. Hopefully a muse will find me and I go crazy on my essay and crank out 200 pages in an hour. Thought- Maybe we can move the essay due date back a couple weeks… Probs not but it is wishful to think about. I will not be written about Lord of the Flies because I do not have the book or remember major feminist theories in it.
I am planning on using the Marxist literary lens for my essay. I chose this lens because it is the most straightforward for me to use. I have a fairly extensive geopolitical and historical background of knowledge that enables me to relate more events to what is going on during the time of the story and during the time of writing. I believe that the environment is that one lives in is truly what shapes people and can explain many of their actions. One of the first things I do when reading a book is always identifying where and about what year the story is taking place as well as what year the author is writing the novel to help me picture the environments. I will be using this lens to write about capitalism’s vices and failures evident in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Chief Bromden was a veteran of World War 2 which puts him in a very different mindset from myself and it is important to gather these details to gain an overall better understanding of characters. Bluntly put, I have not gone past a rudimentary outline for my paper. I have multiple points that I have already determined valuable, but have yet to have the time or determination to begin the writing.
3 Holter For my essay, I choose to do the feminist lens for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” After finishing the book, it was easy to choose the feminist lens. While reading this book, it is pretty obvious that Kesey believes women are less than men. This lens will be easy to write about because throughout the book there are many different variations of feminism examples. It is interesting to me that all the patients in the book are men, and the only women in the book are depicted for sexual pleasures. I haven’t started to write my essay because I have simply forgotten about it, but I think this particular lens will be easy to write about. In my essay I will talk about the types of female characters in the book, how then men behave towards women, what the expectations of the women are, how the women treat the men, and finally how the author sees and portrays women. It is bluntly obvious the Ken Kesey believes men can not be themselves or act like “men” when women are in charge.
Ellis 1 Though my literary lens essay has not been started yet. I have picked out the literary lens of archetypal, mythological, and psychological. With this lens I am going analyze Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Major symbols that I will be able to analyze easily would be how McMurphy is the hero of the story and how Miss Ratched is the villain of this story. Miss Ratched could be labeled as a wise woman sage of this story because of how she wants society to be run. Miss Ratched is not given a true motivation of why she is evil, only that she is the evil that seeks to destroy the hero, McMurphy. Chief Bromden could be applied as the loner or outcast of the story because of the belief that he is deaf and mute and is always ignored. Chief Bromden is the underdog type of loner, which means he looks weak at the beginning but emerges victorious at the end of the story. I plan to accomplish this essay with Jeanson. I believe her and I will find interesting mythological symbols and literary archetypes while applying this lens.
7 Mork I have not yet started my literary lens essay, but I am planning to get a good start tomorrow and have the majority if not the whole thing done this weekend. I am planning to write on the religious/spiritual theory for the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I am writing about this theory because I think it is very cool that authors can incorporate religious/spiritual connections in their books. There was also a great amount of biblical references in the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Some of the references are more hidden than others and I think that it is a great award to find the references that are not as clearly stated as others. I plan to first gather all the notes and references that I have made in this book and then I plan to research more so that I can get a deeper understanding. I think that it will be very cool to obtain a deeper understanding of one of the theories, and I hope that it helps me more easily notice deeper meanings that can be found in other books that I read in the future.
I am writing the literary lens essay with Kristie Bogensberger. We chose to do the lens on the side of feminism because being two females, it is easy to write about feminism and relate more closely to the viewpoints. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a very simple book to analyze from a feminist point of view due to the lack of respect given to women in the book. Ken Kesey made it extremely apparent that he was against the feminism movement. Kristie and I plan on explaining in great detail the different roles the women have in the book and what Kesey thought about the women. It is slightly challenging in the simple fact that we have to come up with nine pages. If the assignment was six or even seven pages with a partner, it would definitely be much easier, but that is not really what this class is about and we are expanding our brains to the best of our ability. Having a partner has made it more simple because two minds are greater than one. We hope to work more of the essay and work in a more timely fashion!
At first, I picked the Marxist Lens as my topic to write about but I eventually changed to the Feminist Lens. I chose the Marxist Lens at first because it seemed like I’d have an abundance of things to talk about in my essay but when trying to start my essay I found that it was hard for me to come up with anything. I reviewed the other lenses and the feminist lens spoke out to me. I figured I could do One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because it’s filled with anti-woman excerpts. The patients see woman in a negative light as they all personally have had bad experiences with women. Women are seen as castrators, always emasculating the men.I found it refreshing that Kesey gave the role of authority to women because typically men are usually the one’s with all the power. In Cuckoo’s Nest, the roles are reversed and became a very interesting read. This essay will be very to write. I have not started my essay and I will begin to write it this weekend. I hope to finish the majority of it this weekend so I won’t have to stress about it throughout the week.
While I was reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest it was clear that a common theme that was emphasized throughout the book was the idea that women make men weak. Every aspect of their daily lives is dictated by one nurse Ratched who is even alluded to being a ball cutter as she strips theses men of their sexuality and makes them weak. Besides her, nearly all the patients we see in the hospital have some kind of negative women presence in their life outside of the hospital walls. Billy and Bromden both have issues with their mothers, Billy's babies him while Bromden's ridiculed him and his father. McMurphy and Harding both have issues when it comes to love, Harding's wife is not a very positive influence or even person in his life and McMurphy's first love changed him so long ago. This is why I choose to use the feminist lens to better analyze and extrapolate meaning from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as clearly, Ken Kesey felt that it was an import theme to push. So far I haven't had much trouble working with this lens and I look forward to continuing to expand upon it.
6 Barton My essay is going pretty great right now; I’ve got my name along with the the rest of the heading, and that sums it up. Fortunately, my weekend is looking to be rather uneventful, so I’ll have plenty of time to work on my essay (hopefully I have the integrity to work on it and not fall into the abyss of Netflix and How I Met Your Mother). I plan to write using the religious/spiritual theory on the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I’m using this literary lens because I feel that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is chalk full of religious symbolism, especially christianity, which out of all religions, I am most familiar with. There are multiple references to the Bible, and while some are easily pointed out, there are also other references that take a little more digging. I hope to use the knowledge that I have gained through reading and discussing with peers, along with my notes, to write a well stocked essay as to how religion and spirituality play a role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
6 Etrheim I have not yet started my literary lens essay, but I have decided I am going to use the Freudian Literary Theory or psychoanalytic approach to analyze The One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. As of now I have a few main ideas I might bring up in my essay dealing with relationships between some people. First off I want to analyze the relationship between Harding and his wife. Harding would sometimes come off as “limp-wristed” and I want to know if that came about because of his wife. I also want to analyze the relationship between Billy Bibbit and his mother. Bibbit always made it sound like he was a lot younger than he actually was. I believe he did that because his mother made him feel like he was a little kid, who was not able to care for himself or others. She also made him have little confidence in himself. Those are only a couple of ideas I have so far, but once I start writing my essay I will be able to expand on everything.
6 Eigenberg The lens I will use when composing my Literary Lens Essay will be the Mythological/Archetypal Lens. Mythology has always intrigued me since I heard my first story of Hercules. I looked up to men of extreme strength and honor. Hercules fulfilled that role for my childhood. Also, the other various gods of mythology (Zeus, Neptune, Apollo, Atlas) aided in my fantasy worlds as an adolescent. Larger than life characters will always fascinate mortal beings, because their is no feasible way to be as strong/big as Atlas. Impossible. That being said, it is easy to pick out and analyze these characters in stories. For example, McMurphy and Nurse Ratched fulfill these roles even if they aren’t physically built. Their aura of strength and wisdom exude a superhuman feel that the readers are perplexed by. The essay itself will be started tonight. I have no other excuse than sheer laziness as a reason of procrastinating this essay. My best effort and knowledge will be injected into this essay without a doubt. After all, my mind works its best under pressure situations as I have learned from sports; football to be exact.
Blue 7 I believe I will write with a marxist lens. Although I have not started yet so this could very well change. I will most certainly be writing on Ken Kesey’s Cuckoo’s Nest which has many different hierarchical aspects I could analyze. From Nurse Ratched ruling the ward, to her servants being the black boys, as well the peasants being the patient's who are subject to the Nurse’s rath, there are many different ways I could describe the novel through the Marxist lens. I also see the feminine lens very clear in this book. It is quite obvious Kesey depicts the Nurse as a woman who tries to suppress male attitudes and tendencies. However, I am not normally a feminist critic so this might make the task of digging deep into the literature more difficult. Right now I have not devoted much time to developing many ideas for my writing. I am not concerned however because I found the book very interesting and believe ideas will flow easily. Usually for me writing is hardest to start, but after that everything else seems to fall in line.
While I have not yet begun writing on my essay as of now, I have decided that I would either like to use the Mythological/Archetypal or Religious/Spiritual lenses to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Both theories could be seen strongly within the book itself as many characters, events, and themes within the novel contain characteristics commonly examined while using these lenses. My greatest challenge right now is making up my mind as to which lens I want to examine the novel using and spend my time becoming an expert at. Once I am decided however, I hope the rest should flow smoothly. Much of the trouble that I tend to come across when writing essays is trying to tie everything together in a fluid yet balanced way that makes the writing not seem like fragments of a related topic, but instead, one larger more connected essay. Sometimes I find myself focusing on too small of details or things with little to no meaning in relation to the story while completely ignoring the bigger picture. I wish to avoid this while writing this essay, and hopefully, with any luck, I will be able to make up my mind soon so I can begin.
3 Clemenson I intend to write my literary lens essay by using the religious lens over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Personally, I enjoyed reading Lord of the Flies more so than Cuckoo’s Nest; however, I anticipate I will have the best luck writing my essay over Cuckoo’s Nest due to the fact that the parallels between Jesus and Randle McMurphy are endless. While I have yet to start writing my essay as I have been busy reading the books and doing other school work, I have found several religious connections that I will be writing about. Some ideas I have already found include: the fishing trip took 12 patients and Jesus had 12 followers; William Bibbit having ties to Judas; McMurphy “healing” the chief’s deafness and muteness; and many more. I intend to begin my essay on Friday and use the weekend to write the majority, if not all, of my essay. While this essay will not be the easiest essay I have written, between the information I have found and the help of my classmates I think it will provide a fun challenge to dig into.
1 Singh I chose to use the freudian lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I found this to be the most interesting lens to analyze this book. My father is a psychiatrists so a psychological analysis of the book seems like the right lens to look deeper. I thought this book provided a lot of plot sequences and characters that upon further analysis are much deeper than they appear. Each character has interesting story that requires a look past the surface. Chief Bromden is a prime example of a character who is much more complex than what he seems. His schizophrenia provides an interesting point of view and one that begs to be explored deeper. There are many more characters and symbols to be analyzed. My research has lead me to many interesting conclusions about the novel. So far I have a outline of what I would like to discuss and now the next step is translate it into an essay. I think that coming up with five pages will be a challenge but I think I will enjoy analyzing this book.
6 Waltner For my literary lens essay, I have decided to use the Freudian lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Throughout the book I find it interesting to psychoanalyze each character. Using this lens I will be able to talk about the id-ego-superego. Mcmurphy being the id, Chief Bromden the ego, and Nurse Ratched the superego. Also within the book Chief Bromden had many dreams that meant much more than they were showing. I will be able to analyze these dreams throughout my essay. I am currently unsure where the oedipus complex shows up in this book, but after some research I will figure it out. I feel this essay will be difficult at times, especially to get to five pages. However, hopefully after researching and getting a better start I feel better about the essay and my choice of lens. In the end I believe there are many opportunities to psychoanalyze the characters and to talk about their relationships with each other. Kesey has presented me with endless opportunities to apply the Freudian lens and extract a deeper meaning than what’s on the surface.
6 Berg I must be honest, though I have not given this essay much thought yet, I believe I will be using the Mythological/Archetypal Lens while analyzing Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I have had an interest in mythology since I was a child reading popular tales, specifically Greek/Roman mythology. I accredit my father, who has a deeper interest in mythology than myself, with sparking my fascination in this particular subject. There are many symbols and themes throughout mythology which are easily and constantly applied to today’s literature. For example, legendary and inspiring characters are found in today’s literature, such as Randall P. McMurphy and Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, often based off of the larger than life mythology characters (such as Hercules, Zeus, Poseidon, and other gods/goddess). Though this lens really intrigues me, it is still possible that I work with a different lens, perhaps the Freudian Lens or Religious/Spiritual Lens, while analyzing our literature, as those lenses seem interesting as well. I will be starting this essay as soon as I can, as I continue to ponder the lens I wish to use while analyzing either One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Lord of the Flies.
6 Benitez I have decided to use the Freudian psychoanalytical lens to analyze Lord of the Flies. I chose this because I feel as though it is the best and most supported lens for this book. I also chose Lord of the Flies because I personally liked it more than One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I think that it will be easier as well which is to my liking. Lord of the Flies is all about psychoanalysis bettering it for this project. Some of the different types include the analysis of our animal instincts vs. what we are taught to be by society; The conscious vs. the subconscious; the id vs. the superego. These will all be used to help me complete the essay. As for progress on the essay I have made the document and put the information in the top right, so I am most likely a little farther than some students. I am content with how far I have gotten but it wouldn’t help to be farther. I plan to start on it this weekend as even though I procrastinate, it is a habit I am trying to break.
6 Tingle I have not started my essay at the moment. But, when I do (which will hopefully be soon), I plan to use the Marxist lens while analyzing the Lord of the Flies. Although the book was a challenging read for me in the beginning, the book has grown on me tremendously. As we read and discussed the book in class, I enjoyed analyzing the development of the plot with the characters, along with the gripping climax, falling action, and the somewhat irritating, unsatisfying cliffhanger ending. The Marxist theory deals with superstructure in a variety of subjects, like social structure and in the Lord of the Flies, this structure is very much apparent among the boys. It starts with Ralph as the main leader with the conch. Piggy is like his sidekick, even though he is bullied for his feminine qualities. Then there is Jack, a stubborn boy who continues to challenge Ralph’s power and ends up creating a “tribe” of his own. The Marxist Lens also includes ideology, which can be broken down into a “system of grading”. This ties in very well with the book, as the boys are stranded on an island, and they must learn how to fit into their own created society and produce food and shelter in order to survive.
In our essay, Ian and I are using the psychoanalytic lens to deeper analyze the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. We chose this lens because we feel that it is only right to use the psychoanalytic lens on a novel about psychopaths. The two of us also thought that it was interesting to try and decipher which parts of the novel are Chief Bromden’s schizophrenic hallucinations and which are Kesey’s own mind-altering drug-induced mind images. We agree on the quality of this novel, and though the assignment is not very progressed yet, we look forward to diving into the psycho world that is Cuckoo’s Nest. Aware that there are plenty of allusions, events, and symbolism intentionally placed throughout the novel, our goal is to find said placements, analyze them, and produce an inferred reasoning behind them, all while decoding the intentions and thoughts behind said allusion, event, or symbol. I feel that this essay will be a tough one, but once the ball gets rolling, I am sure that Ian and I will enjoy analyzing this incredible novel much deeper in attempt to fully understand Kesey’s genius mind.
For my literary lens essay, I will not limit myself by using only one lens, but use multiple lenses to critically review One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It would be too difficult not to talk about the best (and worst) aspects of these specific lenses: Feminist, Religious, Psychoanalytic/Freudian, and possibly Marxist. Feminist criticism based on the matriarchy made present in the hospital by nurse Ratched could reveal some sexist aspects of our society and the novel or possibly how society should change based on the novel. For example: maybe matriarchies are more effective or efficient than patriarchies or perhaps they are flawed and should be avoided, or the most likely suggestion: they are both terrible. Religious symbolism is almost omnipresent the whole novel through, and evaluating this aspect will greatly enhance McMurphy as a character as he moves from a selfish gambler to a more christlike hero figure. Psychoananlytic/Freudian analysis of chief Bromden, the patients, McMurphy, and Ratched will be as pecular as interesting given the mental state of many of the characters seems to be compromised in some way, or so a sadistic Ratched would have the patients believe, which in all reality likely makes her the only one deserving of the title “disturbed.” A marxist lens doesn’t interest me as much as the others, but it would be amusing to see if the Combine has any ties to capitalism or communism and the what it has to say about the greater social scheme, much of which we learn from the chief.
The lens that I am choosing to write my essay with is the freudian and psychoanalytic lens. It will also be over One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. I am choosing it because of the many interesting hallucinations throughout the book. In addition to the hallucinations Bromden also has many dreams. Much of the analysis will be of how Bromden tries to convince himself of what he is seeing. The multiple disorders of the ward will also provide ample opportunities for more psychoanalysis. I had no real reason to choose this lens other than it seemed to fit well with this story. I do not have much of the essay done so far but I do not think it will be too hard to stretch it into 5 pages though.
For my essay, I have decided to use the feminist literary lens to further analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because of the way the author, Kesey, portrays the men and the women. In the book, women are depicted as taking power away from the men and are seen as castrators. Most of the women in the book are seen as negative figures. Kesey portrays Miss Ratched as an evil and powerful woman. Kesey is an anti-feminist, so he does not think that women should have the same rights as men. When Kesey wrote this book, women were fighting for their rights. I believe that writing this book was his way of showing how he felt about the society at that time and the social issues that were being argued. In the book, most of the characters are men, and the few women in the book are seen as evil and overpowering. I have not yet started my essay, but have many ideas in mind on how I am going to organize it. I do not think that I will struggle with length because as a woman myself I can easily understand the feminist lens.
In my essay, I’m writing mostly over One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest using the Marxist lens. I find that it is the easiest for me to understand, especially with the structure of the society in the book. The whole idea of society being the Combine and the ward being a part of the factory with everyone inside it being a machine in need of repair sets up perfectly for the social ideas of the Marxist lens. Right now, I have that the ward staff and especially Nurse Ratched are representative of the upper class structure in communism and Marxist theory. To compare directly to the Soviet Union, I would say that Ratched is Stalin, able to decide the fate of the people under her and choose whether they live or die--using the disturbed ward or the ability to release people, respectively. Before McMurphy shows up, rebellions are never incited and even if they were, they are put down before anyone has the chance to react. The issue I’m having with right at the moment is the discernment between the Chronics and the Acutes. I haven’t quite decided what they represent as far as a social class. I know that they are both representing the lower class, but I can’t decide how the lower class should be divided exactly. Other than that, the ideas are flowing and I’m enjoying the writing.
I am going to use the Marxist lens for the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I am going to analyze it by showing a hierarchy in the ward. Nurse Ratched represents highest royalty, the kings or queens (more so queen as she is a female). I am going to have all the nurses and black boys under Nurse Ratched as knights. They carry out Nurse Ratched’s orders and must follow her plan, just as a knight must carry out any plan a king or queen makes. The patients at the ward are going to be the peasants, as they are looked at as the lowest class. My idea to separate the Acutes from the Chronics is the same way peasants were divided in Medieval Times. Some peasants got to live in the castle because they behaved and could work their way up royalty. Some had to live outside the castle, exposed and having their life disregarded. This is a separation of the lower class, just as their is a separation between Chronics and Acutes. And then lastly, I will portray McMurphy as the rebellion that happens, as these things have happened to royal hierarchies (see French Revolution). And I have an idea for using his death to be like other famous rebels who have died, such as Martin Luther King Jr., but I am not sure how I want to carry that out quite yet. Although this appears to be a juxtaposition essay, I think that is the best way to show it through the Marxist lens. This comparison will clearly demonstrate the differences in social class in the book. I will just be using a royal hierarchy to use as an example to show this.
3 Roegiers For my literary lenses essay I am going to use the Marxist lens on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I believe the Marxist lens was the most prominent and most evident lens all throughout the book. Ken Kesey clearly wrote this book with the intent of depicting a hierarchy in the ward. Nurse Ratched is at the top of the hierarchy; she is in control of just about everything that happens on the ward and she uses her powers in subtle, but very controlling ways. She even has the young black boys as her personal servants/slaves. (I may attempt to compare her directly to Hitler.) Therefore, with the nurse being in control, the patients are like the general public who are blindly obeying the authority. Also, within the group of patients, there is a sort of separate hierarchy; the Acutes and the Chronics/Vegetables. McMurphy is sort of a hybrid that doesn't quite fit into the hierarchy. I think I will compare him to somebody who sees past the system, and doesn't believe that the people should blindly obey their master. He provides a sense of rebellion within the ward, that plans to overthrow the corrupt leadership. I haven't gotten very far in my essay, but I think that I will have plenty to write about this lens.
1 Mikkelsen I have decided to write my essay over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest using the marxist lens. In any novel you read you will be able to see the different social classes and where one character stands in society against versus another character. Sadly, where one stands in life often determines how far they can go in life, what kind of job they will obtain, what kind of person they will marry, etc. When we think about the marxist lens we might often think of money or one’s socioeconomic background. But marxism can be used for physical looks, money, class, and so much more. I think One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is perfect for this essay, because although society has progressed a lot, some people will assume that people with mental issues of any kind automatically are at the bottom of the “totem poll” of society. I am going to focus on each character individually, but I am going to place a strong emphasis on Harding because he is an extremely intelligent guy who received a college education but he voluntarily admitted himself and now is seen as “crazy” or not fully a functioning human. In society, everyone usually has a place and when this novel took place, the patients in the ward would have been seen as rejects in society. In the ward, Nurse Ratched would be seen as the dictator, the nurses and black boys would be seen as the middle or working class, and the patients are the low of low of society. A mental institution is meant to prepare the patients for society and whatever the outside world entails. I am going to discuss how Ratched does the exact opposite and is making it even harder for the patients to go out in society and how it is likely they will stay on the same spot on the “totem poll.” I am going to discuss how this is turned upside down when McMurphy goes against this set system of hierarchy and how he tries to change how society views them and goes against the ways that have been set by Ratched for years. I think the overall theme I want to implement into my essay and explain throughout is that the patients are truly the oppressed part of society and McMurphy is the first patient who is going to try to change that.
Dear Mr. C, The literary lense essay, at first, seemed an unbearable task that I fully did not look forward to composing. After spending two novels worth of reading and forums I still had only a slight grasp on the 3 types of lenses discussed in class; the Feminist, Marxist and Freudian theories (or so I thought :D). Formulating the first essay option proved a difficult task. I had wanted to use The Lord of the Flies because I enjoyed the story so much but it was the first novel of the semester; I quickly realised I would have to re-read the novel or heavily rely on another’s thoughts to write the essay. Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, after the epiphany, became my next patient for dissection. Originally, the Marxist theory seemed to be a semi-fun and thought provoking choice because of the blatant depictions of Nurse Ratched as a tyrannical leader of the ward. As I began looking through the list of, at least one, required scholarly articles, the Feminist theory really stuck. To believe Feminism in its fullness--to my understanding at least--is to condemn men for their inherent rule over woman and completely reject the presence of man. The only purpose for the patriarchy is to reproduce. That idea (though I still may be wrong in that thought) made me angry and anger is a strong feeling that leads to good thoughts. My essay has gone through several revisions and has finally decided to be a Feminist viewing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Unfortunately oblivious, Zachary Smit P.S. I’ll most certainly have the next blog task in on time. Sorry :’{
I have written my essay so far using the religious lens. I picked this one because there is so much to do with religion in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest that it would have been very hard to do one that did not have to deal with the religious lens. Also, I come from a religious background and I find that I know the most about this lens than I do about any of the other options that were presented to me. My essay is going alright so far, though I only have an outline to begin my essay instead of actual sentences and paragraphs at this point. I am excited to see how this essay will turn out in the end. I do, however, have a really good idea of how this essay will turn out to be through the duration of my essay writing. Upon reading the novel, I found much symbolism and analogies to religion, mainly Christianity above all others, and as Kesey did this, I am now able to begin writing a fantastic essay to reflect upon the knowledge that I have gained whilst reading this novel. However, y'all'd've known this if you had read the book with my religious lens on like I have done.
For the literary lens essay, I, along with Kelsey Baldridge, are using the feminist lens. We chose this lens due to the fact that we are both females and find it easy to spot all the feminist viewpoints within the book. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has women depicted as powerful and threatening figures who emasculate and tear down the men. It is quite noticeable that Ken Kesey was not a fan of feminism. So far, Kelsey and I are breaking down the female characters within the book and explaining their roles. The only challenge we are really facing currently is trying to reach nine pages within the time period we have but I believe as we keep writing and understanding this lens more and more, we can accomplish nine pages with no problem. Making the decision to have a partner to help write this essay was a good choice I feel because whenever I do not have any ideas on what to write or I lose motivation to write, she is there to throw out more ideas and pick up the slack.
I am using a psychoanalytic literary lens on my essay, and I am analyzing Lord of the Flies instead of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I am choosing the Golding novel because the character distinctions are more clear to me; I feel that Kesey’s characters have roles and motivations that are intentionally more open to subjective interpretation, while Golding designed his characters specifically to support his message. I realize there is still a degree of subjectivity and fluidity to Golding’s characters, but I found it easier to find subject material for my essay from that novel. My biggest problem as I write is organization. I am not quite sure whether to discuss each character separately and completely in individual paragraphs or to use on paragraph to cover one aspect of psychoanalysis for all relevant characters. For now, I am organizing my thoughts and hoping that an obvious pattern will emerge with which to format my essay. On the plus side, Golding provides ample instances of obvious psychoanalytic themes (e.g. Jack as id, Piggy as superego, and Ralph as ego) and even more examples of subliminal messages in his imagery (like how the description of the first pig hunt seems to describe a rape).
I am using a feminist lens in my essay, because i feel it is the most versatile lens. There are many aspects of feminism that you can choose to examine, such as gender roles, opportunities, sexism, inherent heteronormativity, and more. Being able to analyze so many things in one essay gives me an option to either expand or condense as much as i want, because i can choose which aspects of feminism i choose to use. For my essay I am analyzing gender roles and heteronormativity. I am talking about the use of toxic masculinity in all the characters and the lack of female characters in the novel, aside from the sow. I am contrasting jack and ralph as foils, where ralph is a properly balanced character and jack is a toxically masculine character. I am also talking about Jack's’ use of sodomy as a last ditch attempt at complete masculine control, as well as inherent heteronormativity that establishes sex as a form of control over another human. This essay is interesting to write but i’m not sure i could write a lot of essays using this lens.
For the literary lens essay, I have chosen to analyze "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" using the feminist theorist lens. I chose this lens because personally, I am a feminist. I recognize that women are treated unfairly in society, and were treated even worse back in the day, and when this book was written. Ken Kesey lived during a time when women were treated very unfairly. He died in 2011, so when he was a teenager was when the transition was just beginning for women to gain more power in the world. It got better and better over time, but the mind of men still thought of women as objects who were incapable of things men were. Men were still taught that women were less than them. Ken grew up in a time of confusion about women gaining power. In the book, there is a ridiculous amount of sexism, and I often found myself angry about what was said or events that happened. I haven't started yet, but I think I will be able to do a great job on this essay and offer much insight on the feminist lens.
98 comments:
For the Literary Lens Essay, I am using the deconstruction lens on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and I am quite honestly regretting it. I thought that it would be more interesting for me to use a lens that is not quite as common as the feminist lens or the Freudian lens, but I now know why no one uses this lens; this lens is too challenging to understand. I have borrowed three separate texts from English teachers and I have six tabs on deconstruction, Derrida, and differance open in my browser 24/7 and I had to take a conglomeration of all of them to partially understand it. It is very frustrating because the lens takes apart a word’s definition so how can you define the lens itself? I am a page into my essay and I am not going to stop using deconstruction lens because I have put in too much effort to understand it to quit. I have a Google document that has four pages of notes on deconstruction, and about one-fourth of it is me complaining about this lens. I feel like this is something that I will use and appreciate more with time, but right now it just ticks me off. This is probably a great learning experience for me, even though I say that as satirically as possible. Another thing about this lens is that I want to imbed humor into the paper but deconstruction is sucking the life out of me. I just wanted to challenge myself, but I had no clue what I was getting myself into. Alas, I am too stubborn to quit now. To get out my feelings on deconstruction through this blog task rant has been very therapeutic for me though and a form of procrastination so I do not have to continue writing it. Hopefully, my paper will get easier to write as time goes on.
1 Kueter M
I am using the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because this book conveys a deep meaning that only one with the feminist lens could only see. Women are shown as incapable of caring and only wanting to humiliate the men they are in charge of, whether it be a patient, spouse, or son. Ken Kesey wants to make women look like they are arrogant, disrespectful, and out for the humiliation of all the males. According to many of Kesey’s depictions throughout the plot, it is a woman’s duty, has been and always will be, to submit to men’s authority. Thus, when anyone sees a woman with power, she is considered evil. Kesey is trying to imply that all human problems come from emasculating female authority. A major example of this degrading feminist viewpoint would be Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched is viewed as a ball-cutter and an overbearing woman because she holds a position of authority. If men were to hold the exact same position as her and treat the patients the exact same way, they would be viewed as strong and powerful leaders and be commended for their actions, maybe even receive an award. However, when women do this, they are viewed as too controlling and wanting too much power. I think my essay is going very well and I never run out of things to say because this book has such a deep meaning behind it.
1 Kueter A
I chose the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because during the time in which this book was written, women were struggling to make a living and this book turned the status quo on its head and challenged conformity. However, at the same time this book is extremely sexist and portrayed women as evil and corrupt when holding positions of power. An example of this would be Vera Harding. Vera Harding does not occupy her certain gender based social role when she carries her purse like a book and is taller than Harding. Vera Harding is not the perfect example of a wife and thus is hated by Harding and everyone else in the ward. This portrayal of Vera Harding and other women in the book may have even reverted women back a couple steps because the fear of women being in power is ignited again thanks to Ken Kesey. Kesey’s depictions are sexist and he searches for ways to weaken the feminist movement and destroy all the advancements women have achieved during the past years because Kesey feared women and the power they might obtain in the world. I believe that my essay is going very well because I feel very passionate about my topic which makes it easier to write.
Galbavy 1
For the literary lens essay I chose to write on the religious symbolism in One Flew Over The Cukoo’s Nest. I found this the most easiest for myself to pick apart the book and really understand the topic I am writing about. I have successfully already found many sources to help me find out more than I already knew about so that I could input that information into my own essay. Right now I am trying to figure out how to spread and put enough information into each topic to fill five pages without rambling on about random things and I need to know how to flow better without just listing a bunch of different scenarios where religious imagery is present. I feel like I am doing good picking appropriate scenarios for the essay though because with enough research back into the book and looking at other sources to explain the importance of each. I am primarily focusing on McMurphy in my essay because I see him as the main character for religious symbolism the Ken Kessey is using. Overall I feel like I will do well on this essay.
6 Clark
For the literary lens essay, I am choosing to use the Feminist Lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I chose this lens because it was easiest for me to pick out because there were so many versions of it and times it appeared throughout the book we read. The author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest has tried to make men appear as larger than women in some ways. In this book, they are made to be submissive to men and are basically will respond to whatever they have told. While the women who were in charge during this book, they are also shown as evil, crazy, and demanding in their roles of the book. An example of this would be Nurse Ratched simply because she is always displayed as a "bad" person and only wants the power and not to truly help the patients in some aspects. I believe that this is not too hard for me to write because I understand the feminist lens well and I can put myself in the shoes of the women themselves. It makes it easier to write about a topic that you have a great understanding in.
6 Bachman
I have started writing my essay using a marxist lens. I started with the marxist lens because both Lord of the Flies, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, both books deal with different social classes or use the characters as symbols for them. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the men in the institutional ward represent the oppressed class, and the nurses and staff represent the dominating class of people. The political tendencies of the book have the nurses ruling over the patients like a dictatorship. Having the ward ran like this gives the most power to the elite class of people in the hospital. In Lord of the Flies, the author shows the power struggle of representative government systems. Jack represents communism and a totalitarian leadership, while Ralph portrays a democracy. Between both characters through the book, readers can see the power struggle between the two. The younger kids in the book can also represent the oppressed class, they go to whatever side benefits them the most, but they do not get a vote when following Jacks rules. So far, using the marxist lens has not been to challenging because I feel I have a good understanding of it.
7 Jensen
I have not started to write my essay, but I will be using the Feminist lens for the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I'm choosing this lens because throughout the whole novel this is the lens I looked through the most. I also feel that this lens would be the easiest for me to understand. You can tell throughout the whole book that Kesey struggles with women. I even learned that he was not on the best terms with his own mother. He tries to belittle women such as, billy bibbits mother, Nurse Ratched, Chiefs mother, the skanks, and even Harding's wife. They are shown as being nothing but sex slaves, and the men struggle to take them seriously. For example Bromdens mother is depicted as the reason why the whole tribe fell. She basically made her own husband not even a man, as Chief describes it. Even the whole point of the book was Nurse Ratched taking all their masculinity. When she doesn't come across as being feminine almost at all. Gender is a huge issue in this book and it intrigues me. So far I have not written my essay, but I'm very confident on this lens for this book.
7 Hanson
The lens I plan on using to write my essay is the psychoanalytic lens, for the book, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The reason why I plan on using the psychoanalytic lens is due to a lot of the dream sequences that Chief Bromden has throughout the book. Also, Chief Bromden daydreams a lot throughout the book and I plan to use these daydreams as well in my essay. I feel these dream sequences that Bromden has all throughout the book will be quite easy to analyze, due to the nature of the dreams and how he himself tries to explain what he thinks they may mean. I feel this way due to a dream sequence can be interpreted in many different ways, each analysis will most likely be different due to different perspectives of people. So far I have not started composing my essay, but I plan on starting within the week. Another reason why I chose to use the psychoanalytic lens is dreams kind of fascinate me. I find it interesting how different students interpret Bromden's dreams and like to hear how they came up with their analysis.
7 Van Kalsbeek
For the lens essay I have chosen to analyze it through the Feminist lens in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The reason I chose to write through this lens is that throughout the novel we see how Ken Kesey depicts women as castrators. That the only way women can be in control of things is if they belittle men and take their masculinity away from them until they are ghosts of their former self. All the women in the novel (besides the disturbed ward nurse) were shown to belive that they had too much power over men and Kesey does not believe this should happen. Also when I write the essay I will go into depth on how Kesey only shows women in a negative and sexual manner. I believe that this essay will go well because in the book there are numerous quotes and examples to help back up my views. Such as just since the Big Nurse who happens to be female is in control that this is wrong in the world because women should just be submissive and listen to what their husbands, fathers, or boyfriends say instead of being allowed to be in control of situations.
6 Presler
For the literary lens essay, and I am planning on writing about the religious/spiritual theory for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I decided to write about this theory because I think many parts of this novel relate to religion and I think I will enjoy writing about the relations of the book and the religious references. Although I have yet to start putting sentences and paragraphs together into an essay, I already have many points made that I will be able to include that I took notes on for the previous forums. Also, we did talk about some of the Christianity allusions made by Ken Kesey in this novel during our group discussions that I think will help tremendously while composing the essay. Having ideas from my peers will help me enhance my writing and allow me to open up thinking about ideas that I had never thought about before. While preparing for the forums, I read through sites such as Cliffs Notes and Sparknotes to make sure I had the general understanding of the text correct in case I missed any blatant points from the novel, and I think now I will be able to focus on analyzing specific points from the book that correlate with the religious theory.
6 Thompson
I have decided to write about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and to use the Freudian lens. I have decided to use the Freudian lens in my essay because it was the one that was the easiest for me to understand and pick out. I could pick out a few examples with the other lenses but not enough to write five pages worth. With the Freudian lens I decided to split my paper into three different sections describing the Freudian lens with the psyche, which is the superego, ego, and id, then explaining how the patient’s sex drive influence decisions, and then how some of the patients repress themselves because they feel like they won’t be accepted by society. Right now, my essay is progressing pretty decent. I have two pages done and plenty more to talk about. What I currently have is that Nurse Ratched is the superego of the psyche because she is the one in charge and runs the ward. Ratched wants everything to be perfect, “morally right”, ethical and does not take any rebellion that gets in her way which is exactly what the superego wants. McMurphy is the id of the psyche because he goes on his gut feeling and doesn’t think about the consequences. McMurphy is the prime example of the id. Then the ego of psyche in Cuckoo’s Nest is the one that I am struggling to find. I don’t think there is one in the story because there is not a sane person in the ward not even the workers that is why the ego, which is the balance of id and superego, isn’t there. That is all I have so far but have plenty to still talk about for the remaining three pages.
1 Koehn
For the lens essay I have decided that I am going to analyze “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” with the Feminist lens. The reason I am choosing to write with the feminist lens is because throughout this novel we see that Ken Kesey in a way is Antifeminist. Through the feminist lens we can conclude that the Ken Kesey doesn't believe women should be able to have the same power as men do. Nurse Ratched for example is seen as a very powerful women and Ken Kesey portrays her negatively throughout the novel. While as the prostitutes are seen in a more positive light because they are carefree and are submissive to the men's wishes. From the way Nurse Ratched dresses we can also conclude that she also thinks that if the patients were to see her in a feminine manner than she wouldn't have as much power, therefore she dresses accordingly to try and cover her feminine qualities. I believe that this essay will be challenging to write because the feminist lens can sometimes become confusing. However, I am hopeful that that I will be able to complete the five pages due to the numerous examples in the book that can be examined through the feminist lens.
6 Zajicek
I chose to write my essay through the feminist lens over the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The reason I chose this lens is because there are clear examples throughout the entire book where Ken Kesey will depict the femininity of women and demasculinize men. Although this is a common lens for most I find it easy for me to dive into and really look deep into what has been provided for us. With a slow start to my essay I have found it difficult to extend my thoughts past a simple statement. Despite the setbacks researching on what others think about the book has been rather helpful and impactful to my essay as it yet again gives me another point of view of looking at things. By going through my own notes I have found criteria that fits right into the feminist lens in nearly every part. For example, it is very clear that between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched there is an undeniable tension. This tension is built up and tested throughout the whole book until the very end when McMurphy flips. McMurphy is sick of all the drama Nurse Ratched has created so he rips the Nurse’s shirt exposing her breasts. By exposing the Nurse’s breast this demasculinized her as she was one that everyone saw as masculine and in power.
6 Beckman
I will be doing the Freudian Literary Theory for my essay because it is the easiest for me to decipher. I have not started it yet, however, I have come up with some main topic points that I will be following. First off, I want to explore the relationships that these men from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest have with others. For example, Billy Bibbit has this insane relationship with his mother in which he does not think that he can get close to any other woman besides her, for fear that his mother will hate him. I also plan on going into the relationship that the Big Nurse has with each individual man because she is a sort of mentor figure (specifically her relationship with Billy, McMurphy and Chief Bromden). I will also be talking about how McMurphy does not feel at ease until he ends up messing things up for some reason and how he always has to feel like he is in control of the situation at hand. One of the biggest things that was capitalized on in the book was the fact that the men were lustful all the time.
3house
I haven't picked a lens yet and I probably won't pick a lens until the weekend but I will more than likely write upon "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" because that book is bonkers and full of bamboozlement's and it speaks to me. I always write my best after some procrastination. Everyone will being doing the same types of lenses and that bores me. I don't like conforming to the masses, even something as simple as an essay; but alas, my grade depends on it, so I will, probably. Isn't it sad that the weight of a grade outweighs the individuality of a student? But my answer might be within the Reader-Response literary lens. It is what the reader takes out of the work and how they perceive. I could write about anything and everything. How do I connect this book to my life and experiences? How does this book connect to other books I've read, to history, to mythology, to religion. This lens is a culmination(idk if this is the right word) of all the other lenses but it's based on what you think not what someone else has already stated and you will just restate. SOURCES. but I need sources. How can I have sources if it's supposed to be a reader-response lens, not a reader-google-response lens. Alas, my troubles are laid out and I will probably pick a lens that i can just google and find 5 different sources that says the same thing in a slightly different wording to preserve my grade because isn't that what high school is all about? A's and test and test and A's.
1 Konz
I chose to write my essay using the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I was trying to decide between this lens and a religious lens but I chose the feminist lens because there is a lot of observations to be made about the gender roles in this book. The Nurse and the wives of the men create many issues for the residents of the ward. Even though I think there are also a lot of religious comments, they are more direct statements from the characters instead of implied. I wanted to choose a feminist lens that would demand analysis and further understanding of the book not only to further my learning but also to provide additional information that will help me reach the 5 page minimum instead of searching for direct quotes from characters about religion. As of right now, my essay is not exactly effortless. There is a lot of information that I need to find and my current problem is organizing my thoughts to create a solid essay that doesn’t jump around between different topics. Organization is important when writing essays like this so that the reader is not confused and to create one cohesive paper to display the knowledge gained from reading the book.
1 Forster
In my literary lens essay, I have chosen to analyze ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ through the feminist lens. Ken Kesey’s characterization of Nurse Ratched grabbed my attention right away, and kept me interested for the entire novel. He develops the psychiatric ward as a dysfunctional matriarchy, opposing society in the 1950s. Women are in control, but only because they emasculate men. Nurse Ratched is portrayed in a negative light throughout the novel. Whenever something unfavorable happens, she is blamed. In my essay, I would also like to address the sexism in this novel. ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ was written during the 1960s, the same time period that the ‘Second Wave of Feminism’ began. I see this book as a sort of rebuttal to the legitimacy of concerns of gender inequality. Kesey only portrays women in a positive light if they are submissive, like the prostitutes. But when they are brave enough to have an opinion of their own, for example Nurse Ratched, they are a ‘castrating bitch’. While I think it is important to analyze both sides of this argument, it is obvious to me which possesses more validity. In my essay, I will elaborate on my opinion.
Wrightsman 1
For my essay I will be composing, I will be using the feminist lens over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The way Kesey has talked about women and men in the book made it easy for me to choose this lens. He has shown the ways that men and women are categorized upon other people. Kesey shows us in the book that women are objects of the masculine population when he describes nurse Ratched and Harding’s wife. Another example of this is with the women that Mcmurphy claims to be with. Mcmurphy is trying throughout the entire novel to make nurse Ratched become his submissive and listen to his commands but never fully achieves this. Going along with that, nurse Ratched does not allow any of the men to control her no matter how hard they try. This shows how the power of women will rise and they will become more important. In my opinion, I feel that the way people (men) described and treated women in this time era was with no respect or with any say. In the 1950’s and on women have become more and more noticed and allowed to have a say in society.
1 Quanbeck
Adam and I are writing about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest using the feminist lens. Some of the ideas we have are as follows: All of the “insane” characters are men. Women represent order. Nurse Ratched clearly dominates the men and wants as much control as possible--she controls nearly every aspect of life in the ward. The men are so brainwashed by her that they are there by their own will. McMurphy brings disorder to the ward and disrupts Ratched’s perfect order. The other nurses are all women as well and contribute to the everyday functions. The black boys are the other peace keeping force however their methods are… less desirable. The women are the ones who come visit patients in the ward because they have that freedom.
I think the reason, Nurse Ratched would argue, the men are in the ward is that they lack a proper superego influence. That’s where Nurse Ratched comes in--women represent the superego. The men have their own id, which is suppressed by Ratched, and there ego, again dominated by Nurse Ratched.
We haven’t really started our essay yet, but we have talked about it.
1 Klamm
I am using the archetypal/mythological lens. I am using this because it will be fun to relate the characters in one flew over the cuckoo's nest to the archetypal characters. These characters include the hero, scapegoat, loner or outcast and the villain. I feel as though I can relate these to people in the book and expand on the topics enough to make a complete essay. I can also use archetypal images like colors to expand on topics like Bromden seeing green sludge. I can also talk about the quest that Bromden goes on throughout the story to eventually establish his own identity. I feel as though it may be harder to relate universal myths to one flew over the cuckoo’s nest because i do not think there are distinct myths to relate it to. I have had a hard time starting this essay because I do not know how I want to start it and how I want to go about talking about the specific people related to this lens. I feel as though I will go paragraph by paragraph on the different characters and images and talk in depth about them in each paragraph.
6Long
For this essay, I am writing about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, through the Feminist Lens. You can see that throughout this story, the woman are seen as super powerful who emasculate and belittle the men. Women take control over the patients, and it becomes a women dominated society in the hospital. In their therapy sessions, she manipulates the men to spill all their secrets in an effort to keep the ward under her control. These women, led by Nurse Ratched, are negatively portrayed as overpowering and threatening. This is also shown in the characters of McMurphy's past lover, Harding’s wife, and Billy Bibbit’s mother. Chief Bromden’s mom also fills this role, as she undermines his father and powers over him by acting in non-traditional ways. Through these relationships, you can see the sexism that is present in the book. Ken Kesey uses this novel to show the negative characteristics of females and the more positive characteristics of the male characters. Nurse Ratched also expresses her femininity through what clothing she wears. At the end of the story, when McMurphy exposes her, he shows how she is actually female which takes away power from the Nurse.
1 Harvison
For the Literary Lens essay I am choosing to write about the different mental disabilities of the ward. This theme will fill a psychoanalytic approach, as I will hopefully distinguish what each patient goes through, how it affects their actions, and compare each patient. I plan on also analyzing how Kesey compared each patient to a “normal person” or even questioning if anyone is “normal”. Without doing much research so far, I can tell Kesey is very strange and believes no one is quite the same. He defines normal as an obedience to society by being able to go to work, have a family, and provide for yourself. However, I believe many normal people may not have all three of those and they do not belong in a mental institution. I plan to point out these expectations of society and question their truth to how someone needs to act normal. Really is there any definition of a mental disorder? They come in many different forms and degrees and really depend on how a person can handle everyday challenges. I think it will be really interesting to explain Nurse Ratchet-- especially since she was a nurse in World War II and probably has a type of PTSD or needing to have control after having a lack of in the war.
1Top
Writing through a lens rather than my own opinion, I have found to be quite difficult. I chose to begin writing my essay about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest through a feminist lens. I started with an outline and began to think about the few women that had played a role in the novel. Ken Kesey has shown throughout the novel that he views women as power hungry and demeaning control freaks. This is not a challenging concept to accept; he is a sexist. Trying to take authority and control, McMurphy does his best to be above Nurse Ratched without being questioned. Although when talking about the Big Nurse, there are derogatory words and feelings toward her when she tries to dictate the men; again, another example of feminism. The prostitutes, Sandy and Candy, who enter the plot are disrespected and taken advantage of. From the beginning we learn they are prostitutes, and later find that they bring the men alcohol which they also mix with medications. The women have a negative influence on the men, and everyone knows it. Feminism is omnipresent and completely obvious in _One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest_.
Reindl 1
For my literary lens essay, I am working with Spencer B. and we are going to use the Freudian lens to analyse One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. We are writing using the Freudian lens because there is a lot to be done with dream analysis of Chief’s dreams, as well as the prevalent sexual themes that appear starting in the third part. I would say that the essay is going well and we are making good progress, but we have barely started researching for the paper. I feel that we will be able to complete the essay with enough information because the Freudian lens is a common one, but the nine pages with a partner may make it a little difficult with the time we have left. It has also been difficult to understand a big deal of the essay as are class has not technically been introduced to it. Overall, it should be an interesting essay to work on, but troubles may arise because of limited time with only having a week and a half left to complete it as well as other activities and reading another book at the same time.
1 Sherron
I chose to use the archetypal and mythological lenses in my essay because I like the idea of understanding why certain characters act the way they do and what recurring images or ideas could possibly mean. While I am not always right, I think speculating gets you a lot further than just simply accepting it. I haven’t exactly started it yet but I have started writing ideas and assigning archetypes. I think it’s easy to come up with common archetypes like the hero, villain, and loner, but assigning them can be somewhat harder. The major characters like McMurphy, Bromden, and the Nurse are easy to assign, but I think that the minor characters (who still play a very impactful role in the story) tend to be more difficult. Another part to the archetypal lens is that there is more to it than just the characters; you can look at symbolism, color analysis, and omnipresent themes. Another aspect I want to incorporate into my essay are the various quests the characters can go in. With the traditional archetypal theme, the hero (McMurphy) goes on a quest, but I think it would be interesting to also look at the quest that Bromden goes on as the loner’s fight to become vital.
1 Vielmette
In my essay I am choosing to do the archetypal lens and maybe some of the Freudian lens to add a little more explanation to the book as sometimes one lens isn't enough. However, I may or may not add the Freudian because it will honestly come down to whether I need more to write about or not. I like the archetypal lens I feel also has a lot to it as there is a mountain of symbolism in the book that I can write about and hopefully I won't have to move onto the Freudian as. Regardless of how little I have wrote on the essay (which is 0) I still have a fairly good idea on what to write but it's just starting it at the moment that is troubling me. Also I haven't even started research at the moment so that is another thing that I have to worry about. Once I start the essay I could finish it in less than a week for sure as I remember a lot of the book and it's just putting my ideas into words on paper.
1 Campbell
For my essay, I will primarily be using a psychological and psychoanalytical approach. I will be discussing the topic of awareness. Mainly, I will be focusing on our awareness as everyday people when we fall into a rut and the awareness of people that have a mental illness. I will be talking about how we fall into a routine that we do every single day and how we need to acknowledge that we are in a rut and that we should change that. As for people with a mental illness, I will be talking about how a person that has schizophrenia doesn’t understand that they have multiple personalities and discussing how that if they were aware of these other personalities it may be easier for them to deal with their mental illness and make progress while in therapy or other forms of help. When reading ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ the different mental illnesses that were discussed kept me very interested. While reading the book, I would find myself potentially being able to figure out what mental illness a person suffered from. Therefore, that is why I want to focus on that aspect for my essay, because I want to do more research and become even more knowledgeable about mental illnesses.
3 Wheeler
For the essay, we (Kaitlyn Huska and I) are using the psychoanalytic lens. We chose this because we have both taken or are taking psychology courses, and it was something we had prior knowledge and resources for. We are focusing primarily on Freud’s theory of psychosexual development and the personality structure, Erik Erikson’s theory of personality structure, and Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. I have a lot of worksheets, diagrams, and my textbook from my college course I took over the summer, so we have a lot of information available. We are applying the theories to Lord of the Flies and its main characters.
The essay is going very well so far. We have completed almost all of the actual composition, and have only transitions, citations, and the intro/conclusion paragraphs left to complete. I am very happy with how well the essay is going, and I think Kaitlyn and I have made a great team for this assignment. We managed to power through most of the writing over the last couple weekends and it has turned out quite well. I thoroughly enjoy using a psychoanalytic lens to examine LoTF because it allows me to use what I know to discover new things that I didn’t know.
3Else
Quanbeck and I will be writing our essay together to conjoin our thoughts and write 9 pages. While the task seems dauntless, we will work extremely hard throughout this week to make the essay the best we possibly can. We have decided that we will be writing about One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, and we will be using the feminism literary lens. I feel like there is a lot to write about for One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest using the feminist lens. Quanbeck and I are hoping to talk about the matriarchy of Nurse Ratched and her dominance over the men that are at the mental institution. We also are hoping to discuss how there are no women present in the asylum (even though they would have been separated from the men) to drive home that men need women in their lives in order for them to stay someone sane. I am really looking forward to diving into the novel a bit more to research the feminist lens. I think that this will challenge me as a student, but it will be a very rewarding experience and help expand my knowledge of this novel.
Hauge 3
I am using the marxist lens with a reversed power ladder in order to write my Literary Lens Essay. Out of all of the other lens I feel that I can write at least five pages with this lens. The others not so much. I am scared that I won’t be able write the daunting five pages because I did not care for the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. To me it was very slow and boring. I also had a hard time pulling out meaning and symbols from the book. I did pick a few important symbols from the book but again I am scared that I will get nowhere near five pages. I have yet to start this grueling essay but I feel once start I feel that I will either struggle immensely or power through it and make it through. Hopefully it is the latter. If I even tried to write with partner nothing would get done and it would go all down because nine pages on a single topic that I’m already struggling with is pure utter death.
3 Brandsrud
I, along with my partner Reindl, am using the Psychoanalytic/Freudian lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Together with Reindl, he and I are choosing this lens conjunctively because we found that much of what occurs in this novel can be analyzed in this way. WIth all of the patients having various thoughts, actions, and reasons for being in the hospital, one can find various aspects to analyze. We also feel as though with this lens Reindl and I feel as though we can really dig into this novel. Finally this is the lens that I feel most comfortable about and is the lens that I used whilst reading the novel for class. Currently, Reindl and I are summing up our ideas on a separate research page, here we are collecting ideas as well as facts and resources that will be helpful in the future phase of actually composing the essay. However, we are just about finished up with the brainstorming process and we will soon ready ourselves to begin typing up the final product. I found researching for this prompt to be rather difficult, but thanks to Reindl’s help, I am understanding more fully as to what is expected of us, and what things we need to research to help our writing.
3 Roby
I am using the Archetypal/Mythological lens to analyze The One That Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I have chosen this lens because I feel that I am better at analyzing characters as the hero and the villain. Reading deeper into the meaning of the text or looking for symbols is not my strong suit and I thought that it would be best to stick with what I am good at. In The One That Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy is the hero and Miss Ratched is the villain. McMurphy came into the ward trying to change the routine. Miss Ratched gradually broke him down, letting him have small victories along the way, to his eventual death. I feel though that McMurphy did do his job as a hero though, as he did open the eyes of the other patients on the ward and showed them that they do not have to bow down to Nurse Ratched. While on the ward, McMurphy made the patients feel like they are worth something, not just crazy people living in a hospital and his impact lasted on the patients.
7 Johnke
I have decided that I am going to compose my essay based on the feminist lens. I will be analyzing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest due to the near reversal of the lens it presents and the unique qualities the book henceforth gives. During the time that Kesey wrote this book, women were quite significantly suppressed still and were most definitely not equal. Women were not supposed to work as head doctors--even though Nurse Ratched is more qualified than Doctor Spivey. Construction work was left up to men and a great variety of other jobs, women were not “qualified” for. The irony of this mentality is that though there are physical differences between men and women, mentally both are mostly equivalent. I decided on this topic because I find it fascinating how much we have progressed in around 75 years. Also, the fact that people thought that women were less superior and had these notions about inequality surprises me. Honestly, I have yet to write a word for my essay--procrastination at its finest. I plan on starting my essay on Friday and once I get started the essays never seem to take too long.
7 Myers
For my essay I am using the feminist lens to write about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because I thought most of the symbolism throughout the book had to do with feminism. I believe that the main reason that Ken Kesey wrote this book was to scare people away from the feminist movement that took place in the 1960’s. During this time, women were fighting for equality on a political and personal level. Kesey was clearly against this movement. This is clear in the book because of the main female characters he introduces. He showed the readers what will happen if women were in control/power with characters like Nurse Ratched, Vera Harding, and Billy’s mother. Kesey also showed the reader how he believe women should be: easy and dumb. He did this with the two prostitute characters. I am struggling with what topics to use in my essay because I feel that there are many ways to analyze this book with the feminist lens. Other than that, I feel that my essay will be successful because I feel passionate about this topic.
7 Knutson
In my essay I chose to use the feminist lens in criticism of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I think throughout the novel this is a prominent problem. The females are represented as castrators or pleasure givers. This is not a fair representation of women at all. Throughout the novel women are downplayed and made out to be the bad guy. Nurse Ratched carries out all of the lobotomy procedures on the men. She is also the person on the ward that everyone hates. She is in control which shows a gender role switch but throughout the novel she struggles to keep this control position when it is challenged by McMurphy. Towards the end of the story the patients have control and Nurse Ratched is no longer in charge. Another instance is when Harding is talking to his wife, they present her as a slut and a bad wife. They hint that she sleeps around with several other men apart from her husband. This gives the women a bad image. Another female presented in the novel is Candy who seduces Billy Bibbit, contributing to my point about women are for pleasure. Women are portrayed as people who take away men’s masculinity. This is represented in procedures such as the lobotomy. Also when Rawler cuts off his own testicles, Chief says, “all the guy had to do was wait.” This implies that the ward would have eventually castrated him. In my opinion a better approach to the novel as a whole would have been to include both male and female patients. In addition the nurses would represent both genders. The black boys that assist the nurse shouldn’t all be men and all be black have different genders and races. This is why I believe that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest favors the men.
3Bowman
I have decided to use the spiritual/religious lens when writing my essay pertaining to the novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because of the immense religious symbolism, allusions, and slams found throughout the novel that are quite intriguing, and in some cases, hilariously obvious. I think this lens will provide me with an abundant quantity of material to write about and elaborate upon. Furthermore, I chose this lens because I believe it can also be taken personally and be elaborated upon with our own personal interpretations and experiences aside from those others have already established. So far, my essay is not going to bad. I have created a respectable introduction and have ideas for the contents of my body paragraphs. As of now, the greatest challenge that awaits me is actually sitting down and taking the time to establish my thoughts into the format of an essay. However, I have a strong feeling that when I do sit down to write this essay, the thoughts should (hopefully) flow well and culminate into a fascinating and intriguing essay for others to read if they so choose to.
6 Riley
I am using the feminist lens on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I am using this lens because to me it is the easiest to pick out, and I understand how to use it. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest I can pick out so many feminist lens throughout the story. Women are shown as crazy, evil, and they seem to be the bad people throughout the whole book. The only way it shows that women can be in control is if they take away a man's masculinity and to me that is not right at all. Ken Kesey is very anti feminist, he doesn’t think women should be able to have the same power as men do, which again is wrong. Nurse Ratched is very powerful, but yet Kesey shows her as such a negative character throughout the novel. I have not started my essay yet, but I plan on starting it this weekend. I know I will get to five pages because this lens interests me and I saw many examples of it throughout the novel. This lens also frustrates me how they portray women so I know I can go on about the topic for a while.
6 Corcoran
In the essay I am writing for Lord of the Flies I am utilizing the Freudian lens to inhibit a deeper look unto the specimen of the novel. Lord of the Flies has provided our culture a deep look at what truly lies within humans. The entire novel works allegorically and is composed with a keen brilliance only achievable from the likes of Golding, meticulously examining human nature and bringing some extremely weighty themes into play. Truthfully it feels as though I am cheating using this lens and applying it to this novel since the entire thing is basically one giant metaphor. If one were so inclined to look just a bit further into the thick brush that is the boy's current state, and how their minds maneuver along the journey with superego, ego, and id in mind. It is astounding the amount of pages one could churn out in direct correlation to the innate evil of men and the behavior of the boys all in correspondence to the Freudian lens. I am truly excited to see how it will look when all's said and done, for I found Lord of the Flies to be one of, if not the best novels I have read certainly in school, but even my entire life.
3 Moelter
By using the Freudian/ Psychoanalytic lens to analyze the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I am using the lens that most suits how I analyze novels. This lens works great for this novel as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has various examples for analyzation. Having many patients and nursing staff members, there are many minds that do not have the same way of thinking. Having all different ways of thinking allows for multiple personalities to analyze and many different actions that come with their personalities to analyze also. Thus far I have completed an introductory paragraph and some basic background ideas for future paragraphs. I feel that this lens has lead me to view the characters on a deeper psychological level than any other lens would allow me. I have been brainstorming with other people using the same lens as me as I have a difficulty starting essays. After writing the introductory paragraph, I should be able to continue writing the following paragraphs with ease is my goal for this upcoming weekend. I am looking forward to writing this essay with the knowledge and literary theories I have learned.
7 Huska
We (Charlie Wheeler and I) are using the freudian literary lens in our essay. We decided to write about lord of the flies and we thought that this specific lens would give us the most to write about as most of the book is about hidden and unconscious meanings. Both of us have previously taken a psychology class so our background in this subject helped us greatly as well. Our method in the paper was to take a paragraph to explain the methods we used to analyze and then we took paragraphs to go more indepth. Focusing in on each character and their unconscious gave us a lot of momentum to write and put everything we learned on the page. We divided and conquered the essay while also making sure to put our thoughts into what the other was writing. We have the required nine pages right now and all we have left is the citations, introduction, transitions, title, and the conclusion. I admit I was a bit worried that we would not be able to get the full nine pages but once we got going we could not seem to stop.
7 Grode
In my literary lens essay, I will be using the Freudian or psychoanalytic lens to analyze the book Lord of the Flies. I will be using this lens because I have always looked further into symbols and how everything is the way it is, instead of just what is tangible. I believe there is always a deeper meaning to things than just brushing the surface. There is a reason people act the way they do. It will be easier for me to write on the id, ego, and superego of each character than it would be for me to write with any other lens. I will also write on the various symbols throughout the novel, such as the fire, the conch, and deeper symbols, such as the shift from civilization to complete brute savagery. I chose Lord of the Flies instead of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because I feel as though I know the book Lord of the Flies better and it will be easier for me to write on. I plan on starting my essay within the next couple days.
7 Olthoff
While reading Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I found myself most predominately noticing details from a feminist viewpoint. For this reason, I decided that it would be best to write my literary lens essay discussing where this is seen in the novel. Obviously, women are over sexualized and seen as castrators in the book. There is even an event in the book where a man cut off his own testicles to put an end to his life. This is blatant on Kesey’s part, as there are many other ways that are less painful and still get the job done. It should also be noted that there are few if any positive woman figures in the book. Kesey’s novel includes two prostitutes and a controlling nurse as the main women. The nurse often tries to take the men’s masculinity away. She hardly misses an opportunity to call them out on their inadequacies. She also takes away their cigarettes and doesn’t allow them to watch the baseball game. These are fundamental things that men did in this time period, and she keeps them from participating.
7 Poole
My favorite literary lens to use is psychoanalytic. I use Freudian theory when reading because it makes the most sense to me. I notice Pi Patel’s love for animals and disdain for people. When he is talking about animals in a zoo in chapter four, Pi convinces the reader that a zoo is much better for animals than the wild, but later on in chapter eight he says the only reason zoos are not always safe for animals is because of people, mostly visitors (even though visitors are exactly what keep a zoo open--It’s a catch 22). During most of the first fourteen chapters, the author writes Pi talking about his zoo and other aspects of zoology. After he is finished with that the focus shifts to religion. I think this was intentionally done to emphasize the chronological order that Pi became interested in such topics. The reason Pi later studies zoology is clear, but his reasoning for loving religions is more subtle. We know so far that Pi has a strong faith, but the only reason I can see for that is simply because he likes the culture and is proud of his faith. I am hoping that later on in the book we will get further insight as to what made him practice multiple religions at once.
7 Christie
Ive decided to use the Psychoanalytic lens for one flew over the cuckoos nest. I believe that this lens suits the book perfectly because all the characters have so much past experiences behind them that lead up to the point of them going to the psychiatric ward. Also most of the characters explain these past experiences and it really helps the reader to understand why the characters act the way that they do. Chief for example was ignored by white people his whole life and he has almost nothing to say about his mother only that she was part of the combine and chopped his father down. my reasoning behind why chief is quite is because his mother ignored him as a child and his father was the only person that he had experience with. Along with many characters with many different personalities and stories my lens will be the most intriguing at least in my mind to write about. I strongly believe that the psychoanalytic lens is the most broad and most intriguing lens, with you you can ponder about lives of characters and why they act the way that they do and there isnt necessarily a wrong answer.
7 Livingston
In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there are many different ways to analyze the one I found myself using the most and the one I am planning to write my essay about is the Feminist theory. I am choosing this theory not because it is my favorite theory but because there is an overwhelming amount of examples in the interactions between Nurse Ratched and all of the patients where one can argue gender played a role. Nurse Ratched is feared by all of the men. many of these men are there because of different women in their past (most notable example being Billy Bibbit and his oppressive mother) and Nurse Ratched uses this for her benefit by doing things like saying she will tell Billy’s mom whenever he is doing something she does not approve of. Another example I will use in my essay is the relationship between Dale Harding and his wife. There is no doubt that Mr. Harding is gay and did not want people knowing, so to hide this he is married a very attractive women who he has a bad relationship with because she sometimes uses his homosexuality against him.
1 Sjogren
I am writing my essay about the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I will be analyzing this book through the feminist lens. I chose to use this lens because of the way Ken Kesey portrays the men and women in this book. It starts right off the bat with describing Nurse Ratched as not being capable of taking care of the men and treating them terribly. Kesey is trying to show that when a woman holds the power that she is immoral and controlling. If a man were to hold the same position as her, he would be looked up to and viewed as a strong individual. Although they did not talk much about her, Kesey portrayed Billy’s mother as having power. He tried to convey to the readers that Billy got his stutter from his mom being overprotective. Another woman to mention is Vera Harding. I know there are many ways to analyze this book through the feminist lens, but I need to figure out how I am going to put it all on paper. I plan on starting my essay this weekend, and I hope that once I get it started it will flow nicely for me.
6 McGee
I am using a Feminist Lens to criticize One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I chose this lens because I believe there is lots of material from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that I can extract meaning from. I find it using the Feminist lens much easier than the other lens because it is much easier to pick out and see. An example from the book is when McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched and tries choking her he rips open her shirt, this makes her seem weaker because it reveals her breast showing her feminine sign. Also when she returns after the attack her new outfit doesn’t conceal her breast as much as the last one, this shows again her femininity and symbolizes her loss of control because she no longer has power over the ward. Another pro-man point his when McMurphy gets Chief Bromden talking McMurphy starts telling Bromden that he can get Bromden to grow and become stronger. Then later when Bromden show sexual desire McMurphy says that he has already grow, this is because he shows his manhood which in McMurphy's eyes is power. McMurphy's constantly makes comments that suggest man's power over women and so I believe writing an essay examining One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest from a feminist view will be very achievable.
6 Reinschmidt
I have chosen the feminist lens for my essay over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because I discovered that it was omnipresent throughout the novel, and it also relates exceptionally well in America today. For example, a day after Trump was inaugurated, a women’s march was held in multiple places all over the country. Women were standing up for their rights and that they may be protected, especially with a seemingly anti-feminist president in office. Kesey inserted anti-feminism countless times throughout his story, depicting women as unworthy, heartless, and arrogant. In the book, Nurse Ratched is seen as powerful and therefore evil, and also masculinizes her. The men qualities that she is given tell the reader that men should always be at the head of any successful organization; patriarchy is the only way to go. She also "castrated" the men that she was in charge of, because that is the only way she can possibly hold power. Kesey makes it appear that women should be submissive to all men in their lives, regardless of relation. Although I have yet to start my essay, I am confident that I will be successful due to the numerous quotes and examples that I have extracted from the pages.
3 Schroder
For the literary lens essay, I am choosing to use the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I choose this lens because there were many situations in the book that were obvious to portraying harsh views against women. In some instances, Ken Kesey portrayed the women as brainwashing, evil, and corrupt human beings. Mrs. Ratched, the head nurse of the mental institution, shows these characteristics by trying to make the men conform to all of her rules. She makes the men believe that they are not cut out to be involved in the the society of the world; the men are humiliated. The power held by Mrs. Ratched is overbearing and her status is extremely arrogant and cruel. Kesey is trying to show that when a woman is held responsible for power, she uses it in a way that will destroy the lives of citizens, thus women should not hold any sort of power in society. Any man in society that could hold this type of power would be considered strong, tough, and successful during this time period. As I continue to write my essay, I keep coming up with ideas upon ideas. There is a lot of information and ideas that can be explained through this lens.
6 Meyer
In my literary lens essay, I have chosen to use the mythical/archetypal lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I did not have any idea what this lens was about until I did some research, and I am glad I did; the result was not as expected. I chose this lens because it appears less of my classmates are discussing through this lens and the lens itself seems thoroughly interesting to relate archetypal characters, images, and situations. Through the archetypal lens, it is important to note general themes and characters that that recur from past literature works. It is interesting to notice the relations between characters in Ken Kesey’s work and other figures of literature, and how much they compare the roles they pertain to. I have indeed created a document to describe and list my opinions based on the Archetypal lens, yet have not produced the amount of work I should have at this point in time. I’d think I would get past procrastination, yet it often surfaces. My essay will contain more description of my thoughts and beliefs of the Archetypal lens.
7 Runia
To begin, I am using the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose the feminist lens because feminism is very applicable in our society today. In addition, the conflict between men and women is a major theme throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Many different examples of feminism can be found throughout the novel, so the feminist lens can be applied appropriately in the analysis of the novel. I believe Ken Kesey intended to portray a distinct struggle between men and women, a social issue that existed when he wrote the novel and that still exists today. An overpowering matriarchy exists in the novel, and the male characters launch a struggle for patriarchy. Women stripping the masculinity from men is a prevalent theme in the novel, and a battle ensues as the men work to regain that masculinity. Thus, I will be using the feminist lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Currently, my essay is going well. I have an ample number of examples from the novel to utilize in my analysis. I believe my analysis is in-depth and considers many of the symbols of the novel. I still have some research to do, and I have yet to work some of my sources into my essay. Overall, the essay is going well, though.
6 Sorenson
In order to write my literary lens essay, I am going to apply the Freudian/psychoanalytic lens to Lord of the Flies. I chose this lens because the Freudian/psychoanalytic lens because the lens uses a lot of psychology to analyze literature. I really enjoyed studying psychology, and have therefore retained many of the ideas and theories taught in the course. I can then apply what I have learned to what I am reading in a comprehensive manner. I understand the Freudian/psychoanalytic lens, so I can then understand what I am reading on another level. I also was able to pick out several Freudian aspects from the Lord of the Flies, so I believe I will be able to compose a thorough, well written bit of work. Writing the essay itself is no easy task. I feel as if my writing skills are a little rusty since Comp ended and Lit started. Finding the motivation to sit down and really write the essay is the hardest part so far. I am sure the approaching deadline will motivate me to produce an A worthy piece of writing.
7 Symington
In my lens essay, I am planning on writing about Lord of the Flies and how it relates to the Marxist lens. Personally, I find this lens one of the easier to identify variations of in certain pieces of literature. For example, when we were watching The Lion King in class, the majority of the stuff I wrote down was relating about class systems and how each species of animal either won or lost its own genetic and environmental lottery. As of right now, I am currently still in the process of brainstorming different topics to cover in my essay for Lord of the Flies and how it relates back to the Marxist lens. For example, in my essay, I plan to write about how, as a natural leader, Ralph is the better leader compared to that of Piggy considering the fact that Ralph won the genetic lottery where he is good looking with “fair hair” and a natural born leader. In addition to that, I hope to make a few more points about how there seems to be a hierarchy system that the boys have fallen into. Overall, the biggest part that I am worried about for this particular essay is finding enough content to talk about to meet the required page number.
Haase 7
I have just read the requirements for the literary lens essay, and I have not decided what I will be writing about just yet. There are a few lenses that catch my eye, but I really want to read through them well and then pick the book that I think I can apply the lens best to. As of right now, I am planning on doing analyzing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest through the Freudian or Psychoanalytic and Feminist literary lenses. I have done much work on Sigmund Freud already in two of the psychology classes that I have taken and I think that I will be able to write best from this perspective as of now. If I read through the lenses and find that I think one would work better, I could choose that one instead or incorporate it into my writing as well, because I think it is difficult to pick just one lens for these types of books because there are many way to look at the same thing, why would you limit yourself to just one when there is so much of a book to write about.
7 Woodward
I have decided to write about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest through a religious/spiritual lens. This decision came about after wanting to do the feminist lens, but so many others had already chosen to do so. Therefore, I chose to dig a little deeper into the religious symbols that are shown in the characters throughout this novel. From start to finish this book is jam-packed with biblical references, characters who act similar to those in the Bible, and patients who are practically crucified daily in order to be maintained on the ward. Writing my essay through this lens will be a good challenge that will make me dig even deeper into things I had already started to look at for our forums. Although I have not physically started typing my essay on my computer, I have had thoughts passing through my mind throughout reading this novel on how I want my essay to be written. I want it to have points that have already been made, but also to go even further in depth with the symbolism and references to the Bible. I want to bring out points that no one has yet pondered and make my readers learn, but also think more in depth about what they just read. I am sure this essay will not be anything easy, but like always a good challenge to prepare for college and beyond.
Willard 6
The lens I plan to use really possess no definition. I am going to attack the analysis of cuckoo’s nest through a set of beliefs that I personally have come to accept. So, to be concise for the sake of maintaining sanity, the lens I plan to use essentially consists of an atheistic predisposition with a hinting tinge of insatiable anger. Plus, this lens typically leads me to disagreement with most things. Yeah, this lens isn’t standard or mundane or typical for that matter. My apologies. If it doesn’t work out, clearly my inability to conform isn’t at all beneficial. I plan to analyze certain aspects of the book based on lens within myself. I will make very apparent what exactly it is i’m seeing, and how i'm seeing it so as to not confuse or take away from what it is i'm trying to say. So, in spirit of literature created for the sake of analysis in high school english classes, I end by saying that my lens in themselves will contain ambiguity. If anything, it’ll give you something to make an example out of what not to do.
1 Jeanson
I did not have any knowledge of this assignment until about a day ago. Thus far I have no idea what lens I would like to analyze through. The Mythological/Archetypal and Psychological lens look like an interesting option as well as a feminine lens. It would also be quite possible for me to create a wonderfully made essay with the help of Ellis by the third of March, but I still would have the nine pages to type up as well as the multiple sources to find. I have no clue how this thing will turn out or if I will finish it in time. Writing is not my thing. I was really hoping all we had to do in this class was read the author's’ creations and then discuss our discoveries. Obviously, I was wrong in my assumptions and now have the knowledge that we must write even more than just this one paper. Hopefully I am able to write an essay that has at least the value of a B-, anything higher and I might keel over and die from the amount of optimism that would take. Wish me luck.
3 Scholten
For the literary lens essay, I have decided to do the religious/ spiritual lens for the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I have decided to use this lens because it is easy for me to pick out religious references in Kesey's book and I feel it will be interesting to find religious symbolism in books. Digging deeper into books has always been a challenge for me so using this lens will help me improve at this skill. I have not yet started writing the essay but I have done plenty of research and have taking notes on religious references and symbolism in Kesey’s book. Some examples that I have found so far are McMurphy being compared to Christ, the electroshock table being shaped like a crucifix, and also Nurse Ratched being compared to the devil. These ideas are going to be the foundation of my essay and I will build on these ideas. Also, my forum group has given me ideas about many religious references in this book so I will definitely use the ideas of my peers to help compose my essay. Using all the ideas I have gathered, I will be starting my essay this weekend and I hope I get a good start on it.
3 Casey
Between my partner, Sonjah, and I making the decision of using the feministic literary lens in our essay was all too easy, I’m glad that there was no debate necessary in this decision because it makes our working together even easier than it already is. We chose this lens because there are endless opportunities to write through that lens with the novels that we have been assigned this far in the semester, in addition we have a first person view from this lens. Although we have not gotten a very good start on our essay we have a lot of ideas to consider on the topic and plan to meet and discuss our options for this paper and get a good start on it. We were considering looking at Lord of the Flies but are still figuring out what our best option would be. I am confident in my and Sonjah’s abilities to create something that is entirely brilliant and spectacular and in our coordination as a team. I look forward to writing this essay as a team and revealing new theories about what we have already read.
1 Reese
Using literary lenses is an interesting task, it allows for a broader perspective on books. It makes you enjoy the book even more because you can understand the book on a deeper level. I haven’t really looked up any other lenses, I have stuck to the three psychoanalytic, marxist and feminist. The psychoanalytic and marxist are the two lenses that I gravitate towards more. Those two intrigue me more the feminist lens but it can still be useful. Also, I thought learning these lenses with the lion king was a great introduction to the lenses. The books themselves are probably harder to analyze compared to lion king because the lion king had the visual aspect whereas the books you have to interpret the meaning of it through words only. The books also require more focus to understand them more thoroughly so I would say that it is harder than analyzing a movie (especially an animated one). All in all, it is going well and if it wasn't a school assignment and had an essay due I would probably like reading books with these lenses in mind.
1 Beck
The lens that I decided to use in my literary lens essay is the lens of feminism. I decided to use this as my lens because I feel I will be able to use this lens well in my essay. I believe that feminism is a big thing to look at in this day and age. Which makes it an important lens to use. When you read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest you do not hear much about the women in the book, sure there is Nurse Ratched but not many other women. When they describe Nurse Ratched, she is describe with very female aspects but it is also said that she tries to hide her womanly side. In my opinion I believe that this is Ken Kesey’s way of hiding her feminism and keeping parts of her secret. I also chose to use feminism as my lens because of how Kesey depicts all the women in the story no matter who they are, their background, or anything else that may contribute to who they are. By reading this book it is very obvious that Kesey had an issue with women while he was writing the book. If I recall correctly there was no positive comments about any woman in the book. For all of the ways that women are portrayed I believe that it will be fairly easy to analyze the book with a feminist lens.
1 Talcott
I have not yet begun my essay, but my plan as of now is to write a Freudian/Psychoanalytic analysis of Lord of the Flies. Lord of the Flies is the book that I have most enjoyed so far this year. I also think that I will be able to garner a lot of information through the Freudian/Psychoanalytic lense. The essence of this whole book is the subconscious of these "innocent" British boys. Each of these boys has a different subconscious. Different boys represent different parts of Freud’s theory. Ralph most closely represents the ego. Roger most closely represents the id. Piggy most closely represents the super ego. The British Naval officer also represents the superego. He does not believe it when he finds the boys in chaos. He has lived in society so long his super ego has clouded his ego and id, so he cannot believe what happened. I also am going to psychoanalyze other characters such as Jack. His savage nature is very intriguing and should give me some good content for my essay. I hope to begin my essay this weekend.
Powell 1
For my literary lens essay, I chose to use the Marxist lens. I am quite politically savvy and historically informed, so noticing subtle nuances that relate to the economics or politics of a nation is enjoyable to me. In addition, my political stance (Libertarian) makes me particularly critical of State Apparatuses. Libertarianism is founded upon the ideals of liberty, that an individual has the power to steer their life rather than Repressive State Apparatuses (police, government, etc.) and Ideological State Apparatuses (family, school, religion) of classical society. Seeing how authors are influenced by their viewpoint of State Apparatuses, whether directly mentioned or not, allows me to expand my worldview of sociology in humans. My religious views, which are very similar to Pi Patel’s, also allow me to interpret allusions effectively. Allusions produce powerful imagery to readers that must first be recognized before they can be interpreted; realizing why an author chose a specific story allows you to make other connections between two pieces of media that may not be understood by uninformed readers. To quote Mr. House in reference to Breaking the Press, “It started off with religious themes then *Bam* hits you over the head with the cross.” Despite these strong ideas, my essay is still in the background as I am assaulted by scholarship essays and other homework. This weekend will likely be the turning point where I begin seriously composing my essay.
3 Hoffman
I currently have not started my essay, though I’ve pondered my ideas. I will be using the Freudian Lens, as it is one with which I have examined with in most stories subconsciously. I will soon learn of other lenses, as I wish to never stop analyzing stores. I understood Lord of the Flies more than One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, however, I wish to challenge myself and do the essay over my lesser-known option. I have though about narcissistic bliss, and how almost no characters consistently try to achieve it, except for McMurphy and those who follow him. McMurphy is constantly in pursuit of achieving narcissistic bliss, constantly trying to stop those who would make him by any means uncomfortable or displeased. Nurse Ratched is almost constantly in narcissistic bliss, though McMurphy brings her out of it. The two are like fire and ice, like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Neither of which can live with each other without clashing. McMurphy is the reason anyone in the asylum tries to become a person, not a cog. He invites Chief Bromden on a fishing trip, and while doing so, talks about girls around him, triggering his libido. This is to, again, bring him to narcissistic bliss, or more specifically, give him a taste of what it’s like to have fun instead of being a link in a ball and chain. As well as tell him there’s fun instead of being a part of a chain, he also inadvertently tells Bromden that he is indeed part of a chain, essentially making him a weak link and allow him to break out. Anyone who is associated with McMurphy will quickly discover this. When all of the asylum attendees are gathered in the office nearing the end of the book, McMurphy treats them all to a medicine containing what I believe was alcohol, reminding people there are things in the world that make them feel better than they feel today.
7 Broekemeier
Cole and I have sought to apply a psychoanalytic approach to our said essay, on Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Our decision was conclusively decided based solely on mutual interest in the book, and shared passion for the study of psychology and the workings of the individual mind. So far the assignment is lacking in its conception, but upon beginning, I can assure you it will be… probably a little far-fetched, as is to be appreciated when trying to understand the workings of one’s mind. We’re specifically going to look at what motivated Kesey as a writer, what influenced his style and perceptions while he wrote, and how the characters are driven within the pages of this fictional work. Why characters like McMurphy grew up with a will-of-iron, take-no-nonsense sort of bravado, while characters like Harding are more feminine/intellectual; or even our mountainous Chief Bromden, who represses his own power in order to hide from an organization he fears is indomitable, and how he comes to realize, that like everything in reality, it has flaws, and ultimately: an end.
3 Headrick
I am thinking about doing my essay in the feminist theory. Or would it be anti-feminist because Ken Kesey is anti-feminist? I am not really in the essay mood this semester so this essay will probably be really hard to write. I do like the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest but I do not like essays so I am conflicted. I have written my intro to my essay so far, I opened up posing the question if Ken Kesey is apart of the He-Man Women Haters Club, making an allusion to the Little Rascals. Hopefully people have watched the movie and get the allusion. I found it hilarious and hopefully others will too. That is where I stopped in my essay. Hopefully a muse will find me and I go crazy on my essay and crank out 200 pages in an hour. Thought- Maybe we can move the essay due date back a couple weeks… Probs not but it is wishful to think about. I will not be written about Lord of the Flies because I do not have the book or remember major feminist theories in it.
7 Loosbrock
I am planning on using the Marxist literary lens for my essay. I chose this lens because it is the most straightforward for me to use. I have a fairly extensive geopolitical and historical background of knowledge that enables me to relate more events to what is going on during the time of the story and during the time of writing. I believe that the environment is that one lives in is truly what shapes people and can explain many of their actions. One of the first things I do when reading a book is always identifying where and about what year the story is taking place as well as what year the author is writing the novel to help me picture the environments. I will be using this lens to write about capitalism’s vices and failures evident in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Chief Bromden was a veteran of World War 2 which puts him in a very different mindset from myself and it is important to gather these details to gain an overall better understanding of characters. Bluntly put, I have not gone past a rudimentary outline for my paper. I have multiple points that I have already determined valuable, but have yet to have the time or determination to begin the writing.
3 Holter
For my essay, I choose to do the feminist lens for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” After finishing the book, it was easy to choose the feminist lens. While reading this book, it is pretty obvious that Kesey believes women are less than men. This lens will be easy to write about because throughout the book there are many different variations of feminism examples. It is interesting to me that all the patients in the book are men, and the only women in the book are depicted for sexual pleasures. I haven’t started to write my essay because I have simply forgotten about it, but I think this particular lens will be easy to write about. In my essay I will talk about the types of female characters in the book, how then men behave towards women, what the expectations of the women are, how the women treat the men, and finally how the author sees and portrays women. It is bluntly obvious the Ken Kesey believes men can not be themselves or act like “men” when women are in charge.
Ellis 1
Though my literary lens essay has not been started yet. I have picked out the literary lens of archetypal, mythological, and psychological. With this lens I am going analyze Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Major symbols that I will be able to analyze easily would be how McMurphy is the hero of the story and how Miss Ratched is the villain of this story. Miss Ratched could be labeled as a wise woman sage of this story because of how she wants society to be run. Miss Ratched is not given a true motivation of why she is evil, only that she is the evil that seeks to destroy the hero, McMurphy. Chief Bromden could be applied as the loner or outcast of the story because of the belief that he is deaf and mute and is always ignored. Chief Bromden is the underdog type of loner, which means he looks weak at the beginning but emerges victorious at the end of the story. I plan to accomplish this essay with Jeanson. I believe her and I will find interesting mythological symbols and literary archetypes while applying this lens.
7 Mork
I have not yet started my literary lens essay, but I am planning to get a good start tomorrow and have the majority if not the whole thing done this weekend. I am planning to write on the religious/spiritual theory for the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I am writing about this theory because I think it is very cool that authors can incorporate religious/spiritual connections in their books. There was also a great amount of biblical references in the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Some of the references are more hidden than others and I think that it is a great award to find the references that are not as clearly stated as others. I plan to first gather all the notes and references that I have made in this book and then I plan to research more so that I can get a deeper understanding. I think that it will be very cool to obtain a deeper understanding of one of the theories, and I hope that it helps me more easily notice deeper meanings that can be found in other books that I read in the future.
6 Baldridge
I am writing the literary lens essay with Kristie Bogensberger. We chose to do the lens on the side of feminism because being two females, it is easy to write about feminism and relate more closely to the viewpoints. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a very simple book to analyze from a feminist point of view due to the lack of respect given to women in the book. Ken Kesey made it extremely apparent that he was against the feminism movement. Kristie and I plan on explaining in great detail the different roles the women have in the book and what Kesey thought about the women. It is slightly challenging in the simple fact that we have to come up with nine pages. If the assignment was six or even seven pages with a partner, it would definitely be much easier, but that is not really what this class is about and we are expanding our brains to the best of our ability. Having a partner has made it more simple because two minds are greater than one. We hope to work more of the essay and work in a more timely fashion!
6 Mendoza
At first, I picked the Marxist Lens as my topic to write about but I eventually changed to the Feminist Lens. I chose the Marxist Lens at first because it seemed like I’d have an abundance of things to talk about in my essay but when trying to start my essay I found that it was hard for me to come up with anything. I reviewed the other lenses and the feminist lens spoke out to me. I figured I could do One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest because it’s filled with anti-woman excerpts. The patients see woman in a negative light as they all personally have had bad experiences with women. Women are seen as castrators, always emasculating the men.I found it refreshing that Kesey gave the role of authority to women because typically men are usually the one’s with all the power. In Cuckoo’s Nest, the roles are reversed and became a very interesting read. This essay will be very to write. I have not started my essay and I will begin to write it this weekend. I hope to finish the majority of it this weekend so I won’t have to stress about it throughout the week.
Braley 6
While I was reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest it was clear that a common theme that was emphasized throughout the book was the idea that women make men weak. Every aspect of their daily lives is dictated by one nurse Ratched who is even alluded to being a ball cutter as she strips theses men of their sexuality and makes them weak. Besides her, nearly all the patients we see in the hospital have some kind of negative women presence in their life outside of the hospital walls. Billy and Bromden both have issues with their mothers, Billy's babies him while Bromden's ridiculed him and his father. McMurphy and Harding both have issues when it comes to love, Harding's wife is not a very positive influence or even person in his life and McMurphy's first love changed him so long ago. This is why I choose to use the feminist lens to better analyze and extrapolate meaning from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as clearly, Ken Kesey felt that it was an import theme to push. So far I haven't had much trouble working with this lens and I look forward to continuing to expand upon it.
6 Barton
My essay is going pretty great right now; I’ve got my name along with the the rest of the heading, and that sums it up. Fortunately, my weekend is looking to be rather uneventful, so I’ll have plenty of time to work on my essay (hopefully I have the integrity to work on it and not fall into the abyss of Netflix and How I Met Your Mother). I plan to write using the religious/spiritual theory on the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I’m using this literary lens because I feel that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is chalk full of religious symbolism, especially christianity, which out of all religions, I am most familiar with. There are multiple references to the Bible, and while some are easily pointed out, there are also other references that take a little more digging. I hope to use the knowledge that I have gained through reading and discussing with peers, along with my notes, to write a well stocked essay as to how religion and spirituality play a role in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
6 Etrheim
I have not yet started my literary lens essay, but I have decided I am going to use the Freudian Literary Theory or psychoanalytic approach to analyze The One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. As of now I have a few main ideas I might bring up in my essay dealing with relationships between some people. First off I want to analyze the relationship between Harding and his wife. Harding would sometimes come off as “limp-wristed” and I want to know if that came about because of his wife. I also want to analyze the relationship between Billy Bibbit and his mother. Bibbit always made it sound like he was a lot younger than he actually was. I believe he did that because his mother made him feel like he was a little kid, who was not able to care for himself or others. She also made him have little confidence in himself. Those are only a couple of ideas I have so far, but once I start writing my essay I will be able to expand on everything.
6 Eigenberg
The lens I will use when composing my Literary Lens Essay will be the Mythological/Archetypal Lens. Mythology has always intrigued me since I heard my first story of Hercules. I looked up to men of extreme strength and honor. Hercules fulfilled that role for my childhood. Also, the other various gods of mythology (Zeus, Neptune, Apollo, Atlas) aided in my fantasy worlds as an adolescent. Larger than life characters will always fascinate mortal beings, because their is no feasible way to be as strong/big as Atlas. Impossible. That being said, it is easy to pick out and analyze these characters in stories. For example, McMurphy and Nurse Ratched fulfill these roles even if they aren’t physically built. Their aura of strength and wisdom exude a superhuman feel that the readers are perplexed by. The essay itself will be started tonight. I have no other excuse than sheer laziness as a reason of procrastinating this essay. My best effort and knowledge will be injected into this essay without a doubt. After all, my mind works its best under pressure situations as I have learned from sports; football to be exact.
Blue 7
I believe I will write with a marxist lens. Although I have not started yet so this could very well change. I will most certainly be writing on Ken Kesey’s Cuckoo’s Nest which has many different hierarchical aspects I could analyze. From Nurse Ratched ruling the ward, to her servants being the black boys, as well the peasants being the patient's who are subject to the Nurse’s rath, there are many different ways I could describe the novel through the Marxist lens. I also see the feminine lens very clear in this book. It is quite obvious Kesey depicts the Nurse as a woman who tries to suppress male attitudes and tendencies. However, I am not normally a feminist critic so this might make the task of digging deep into the literature more difficult. Right now I have not devoted much time to developing many ideas for my writing. I am not concerned however because I found the book very interesting and believe ideas will flow easily. Usually for me writing is hardest to start, but after that everything else seems to fall in line.
3 Kluin
While I have not yet begun writing on my essay as of now, I have decided that I would either like to use the Mythological/Archetypal or Religious/Spiritual lenses to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Both theories could be seen strongly within the book itself as many characters, events, and themes within the novel contain characteristics commonly examined while using these lenses. My greatest challenge right now is making up my mind as to which lens I want to examine the novel using and spend my time becoming an expert at. Once I am decided however, I hope the rest should flow smoothly. Much of the trouble that I tend to come across when writing essays is trying to tie everything together in a fluid yet balanced way that makes the writing not seem like fragments of a related topic, but instead, one larger more connected essay. Sometimes I find myself focusing on too small of details or things with little to no meaning in relation to the story while completely ignoring the bigger picture. I wish to avoid this while writing this essay, and hopefully, with any luck, I will be able to make up my mind soon so I can begin.
3 Clemenson
I intend to write my literary lens essay by using the religious lens over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Personally, I enjoyed reading Lord of the Flies more so than Cuckoo’s Nest; however, I anticipate I will have the best luck writing my essay over Cuckoo’s Nest due to the fact that the parallels between Jesus and Randle McMurphy are endless. While I have yet to start writing my essay as I have been busy reading the books and doing other school work, I have found several religious connections that I will be writing about. Some ideas I have already found include: the fishing trip took 12 patients and Jesus had 12 followers; William Bibbit having ties to Judas; McMurphy “healing” the chief’s deafness and muteness; and many more. I intend to begin my essay on Friday and use the weekend to write the majority, if not all, of my essay. While this essay will not be the easiest essay I have written, between the information I have found and the help of my classmates I think it will provide a fun challenge to dig into.
1 Singh
I chose to use the freudian lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I found this to be the most interesting lens to analyze this book. My father is a psychiatrists so a psychological analysis of the book seems like the right lens to look deeper. I thought this book provided a lot of plot sequences and characters that upon further analysis are much deeper than they appear. Each character has interesting story that requires a look past the surface. Chief Bromden is a prime example of a character who is much more complex than what he seems. His schizophrenia provides an interesting point of view and one that begs to be explored deeper. There are many more characters and symbols to be analyzed. My research has lead me to many interesting conclusions about the novel. So far I have a outline of what I would like to discuss and now the next step is translate it into an essay. I think that coming up with five pages will be a challenge but I think I will enjoy analyzing this book.
6 Waltner
For my literary lens essay, I have decided to use the Freudian lens to analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Throughout the book I find it interesting to psychoanalyze each character. Using this lens I will be able to talk about the id-ego-superego. Mcmurphy being the id, Chief Bromden the ego, and Nurse Ratched the superego. Also within the book Chief Bromden had many dreams that meant much more than they were showing. I will be able to analyze these dreams throughout my essay. I am currently unsure where the oedipus complex shows up in this book, but after some research I will figure it out. I feel this essay will be difficult at times, especially to get to five pages. However, hopefully after researching and getting a better start I feel better about the essay and my choice of lens. In the end I believe there are many opportunities to psychoanalyze the characters and to talk about their relationships with each other. Kesey has presented me with endless opportunities to apply the Freudian lens and extract a deeper meaning than what’s on the surface.
6 Berg
I must be honest, though I have not given this essay much thought yet, I believe I will be using the Mythological/Archetypal Lens while analyzing Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I have had an interest in mythology since I was a child reading popular tales, specifically Greek/Roman mythology. I accredit my father, who has a deeper interest in mythology than myself, with sparking my fascination in this particular subject. There are many symbols and themes throughout mythology which are easily and constantly applied to today’s literature. For example, legendary and inspiring characters are found in today’s literature, such as Randall P. McMurphy and Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, often based off of the larger than life mythology characters (such as Hercules, Zeus, Poseidon, and other gods/goddess). Though this lens really intrigues me, it is still possible that I work with a different lens, perhaps the Freudian Lens or Religious/Spiritual Lens, while analyzing our literature, as those lenses seem interesting as well. I will be starting this essay as soon as I can, as I continue to ponder the lens I wish to use while analyzing either One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or Lord of the Flies.
6 Benitez
I have decided to use the Freudian psychoanalytical lens to analyze Lord of the Flies. I chose this because I feel as though it is the best and most supported lens for this book. I also chose Lord of the Flies because I personally liked it more than One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I think that it will be easier as well which is to my liking. Lord of the Flies is all about psychoanalysis bettering it for this project. Some of the different types include the analysis of our animal instincts vs. what we are taught to be by society; The conscious vs. the subconscious; the id vs. the superego. These will all be used to help me complete the essay. As for progress on the essay I have made the document and put the information in the top right, so I am most likely a little farther than some students. I am content with how far I have gotten but it wouldn’t help to be farther. I plan to start on it this weekend as even though I procrastinate, it is a habit I am trying to break.
6 Tingle
I have not started my essay at the moment. But, when I do (which will hopefully be soon), I plan to use the Marxist lens while analyzing the Lord of the Flies. Although the book was a challenging read for me in the beginning, the book has grown on me tremendously. As we read and discussed the book in class, I enjoyed analyzing the development of the plot with the characters, along with the gripping climax, falling action, and the somewhat irritating, unsatisfying cliffhanger ending. The Marxist theory deals with superstructure in a variety of subjects, like social structure and in the Lord of the Flies, this structure is very much apparent among the boys. It starts with Ralph as the main leader with the conch. Piggy is like his sidekick, even though he is bullied for his feminine qualities. Then there is Jack, a stubborn boy who continues to challenge Ralph’s power and ends up creating a “tribe” of his own. The Marxist Lens also includes ideology, which can be broken down into a “system of grading”. This ties in very well with the book, as the boys are stranded on an island, and they must learn how to fit into their own created society and produce food and shelter in order to survive.
Pd. 7 Woessner
In our essay, Ian and I are using the psychoanalytic lens to deeper analyze the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. We chose this lens because we feel that it is only right to use the psychoanalytic lens on a novel about psychopaths. The two of us also thought that it was interesting to try and decipher which parts of the novel are Chief Bromden’s schizophrenic hallucinations and which are Kesey’s own mind-altering drug-induced mind images. We agree on the quality of this novel, and though the assignment is not very progressed yet, we look forward to diving into the psycho world that is Cuckoo’s Nest. Aware that there are plenty of allusions, events, and symbolism intentionally placed throughout the novel, our goal is to find said placements, analyze them, and produce an inferred reasoning behind them, all while decoding the intentions and thoughts behind said allusion, event, or symbol. I feel that this essay will be a tough one, but once the ball gets rolling, I am sure that Ian and I will enjoy analyzing this incredible novel much deeper in attempt to fully understand Kesey’s genius mind.
3 DeCurtins
For my literary lens essay, I will not limit myself by using only one lens, but use multiple lenses to critically review One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. It would be too difficult not to talk about the best (and worst) aspects of these specific lenses: Feminist, Religious, Psychoanalytic/Freudian, and possibly Marxist. Feminist criticism based on the matriarchy made present in the hospital by nurse Ratched could reveal some sexist aspects of our society and the novel or possibly how society should change based on the novel. For example: maybe matriarchies are more effective or efficient than patriarchies or perhaps they are flawed and should be avoided, or the most likely suggestion: they are both terrible. Religious symbolism is almost omnipresent the whole novel through, and evaluating this aspect will greatly enhance McMurphy as a character as he moves from a selfish gambler to a more christlike hero figure. Psychoananlytic/Freudian analysis of chief Bromden, the patients, McMurphy, and Ratched will be as pecular as interesting given the mental state of many of the characters seems to be compromised in some way, or so a sadistic Ratched would have the patients believe, which in all reality likely makes her the only one deserving of the title “disturbed.” A marxist lens doesn’t interest me as much as the others, but it would be amusing to see if the Combine has any ties to capitalism or communism and the what it has to say about the greater social scheme, much of which we learn from the chief.
3 Munson
The lens that I am choosing to write my essay with is the freudian and psychoanalytic lens. It will also be over One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. I am choosing it because of the many interesting hallucinations throughout the book. In addition to the hallucinations Bromden also has many dreams. Much of the analysis will be of how Bromden tries to convince himself of what he is seeing. The multiple disorders of the ward will also provide ample opportunities for more psychoanalysis. I had no real reason to choose this lens other than it seemed to fit well with this story. I do not have much of the essay done so far but I do not think it will be too hard to stretch it into 5 pages though.
7 Dybdahl
For my essay, I have decided to use the feminist literary lens to further analyze One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I chose this lens because of the way the author, Kesey, portrays the men and the women. In the book, women are depicted as taking power away from the men and are seen as castrators. Most of the women in the book are seen as negative figures. Kesey portrays Miss Ratched as an evil and powerful woman. Kesey is an anti-feminist, so he does not think that women should have the same rights as men. When Kesey wrote this book, women were fighting for their rights. I believe that writing this book was his way of showing how he felt about the society at that time and the social issues that were being argued. In the book, most of the characters are men, and the few women in the book are seen as evil and overpowering. I have not yet started my essay, but have many ideas in mind on how I am going to organize it. I do not think that I will struggle with length because as a woman myself I can easily understand the feminist lens.
3 Scherb
In my essay, I’m writing mostly over One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest using the Marxist lens. I find that it is the easiest for me to understand, especially with the structure of the society in the book. The whole idea of society being the Combine and the ward being a part of the factory with everyone inside it being a machine in need of repair sets up perfectly for the social ideas of the Marxist lens. Right now, I have that the ward staff and especially Nurse Ratched are representative of the upper class structure in communism and Marxist theory. To compare directly to the Soviet Union, I would say that Ratched is Stalin, able to decide the fate of the people under her and choose whether they live or die--using the disturbed ward or the ability to release people, respectively. Before McMurphy shows up, rebellions are never incited and even if they were, they are put down before anyone has the chance to react. The issue I’m having with right at the moment is the discernment between the Chronics and the Acutes. I haven’t quite decided what they represent as far as a social class. I know that they are both representing the lower class, but I can’t decide how the lower class should be divided exactly. Other than that, the ideas are flowing and I’m enjoying the writing.
3 Wickersham
I am going to use the Marxist lens for the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I am going to analyze it by showing a hierarchy in the ward. Nurse Ratched represents highest royalty, the kings or queens (more so queen as she is a female). I am going to have all the nurses and black boys under Nurse Ratched as knights. They carry out Nurse Ratched’s orders and must follow her plan, just as a knight must carry out any plan a king or queen makes. The patients at the ward are going to be the peasants, as they are looked at as the lowest class. My idea to separate the Acutes from the Chronics is the same way peasants were divided in Medieval Times. Some peasants got to live in the castle because they behaved and could work their way up royalty. Some had to live outside the castle, exposed and having their life disregarded. This is a separation of the lower class, just as their is a separation between Chronics and Acutes. And then lastly, I will portray McMurphy as the rebellion that happens, as these things have happened to royal hierarchies (see French Revolution). And I have an idea for using his death to be like other famous rebels who have died, such as Martin Luther King Jr., but I am not sure how I want to carry that out quite yet.
Although this appears to be a juxtaposition essay, I think that is the best way to show it through the Marxist lens. This comparison will clearly demonstrate the differences in social class in the book. I will just be using a royal hierarchy to use as an example to show this.
3 Roegiers
For my literary lenses essay I am going to use the Marxist lens on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I believe the Marxist lens was the most prominent and most evident lens all throughout the book. Ken Kesey clearly wrote this book with the intent of depicting a hierarchy in the ward. Nurse Ratched is at the top of the hierarchy; she is in control of just about everything that happens on the ward and she uses her powers in subtle, but very controlling ways. She even has the young black boys as her personal servants/slaves. (I may attempt to compare her directly to Hitler.) Therefore, with the nurse being in control, the patients are like the general public who are blindly obeying the authority. Also, within the group of patients, there is a sort of separate hierarchy; the Acutes and the Chronics/Vegetables. McMurphy is sort of a hybrid that doesn't quite fit into the hierarchy. I think I will compare him to somebody who sees past the system, and doesn't believe that the people should blindly obey their master. He provides a sense of rebellion within the ward, that plans to overthrow the corrupt leadership. I haven't gotten very far in my essay, but I think that I will have plenty to write about this lens.
1 Mikkelsen
I have decided to write my essay over One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest using the marxist lens. In any novel you read you will be able to see the different social classes and where one character stands in society against versus another character. Sadly, where one stands in life often determines how far they can go in life, what kind of job they will obtain, what kind of person they will marry, etc. When we think about the marxist lens we might often think of money or one’s socioeconomic background. But marxism can be used for physical looks, money, class, and so much more. I think One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is perfect for this essay, because although society has progressed a lot, some people will assume that people with mental issues of any kind automatically are at the bottom of the “totem poll” of society. I am going to focus on each character individually, but I am going to place a strong emphasis on Harding because he is an extremely intelligent guy who received a college education but he voluntarily admitted himself and now is seen as “crazy” or not fully a functioning human. In society, everyone usually has a place and when this novel took place, the patients in the ward would have been seen as rejects in society. In the ward, Nurse Ratched would be seen as the dictator, the nurses and black boys would be seen as the middle or working class, and the patients are the low of low of society. A mental institution is meant to prepare the patients for society and whatever the outside world entails. I am going to discuss how Ratched does the exact opposite and is making it even harder for the patients to go out in society and how it is likely they will stay on the same spot on the “totem poll.” I am going to discuss how this is turned upside down when McMurphy goes against this set system of hierarchy and how he tries to change how society views them and goes against the ways that have been set by Ratched for years. I think the overall theme I want to implement into my essay and explain throughout is that the patients are truly the oppressed part of society and McMurphy is the first patient who is going to try to change that.
23 February 2017
6 Smit
Dear Mr. C,
The literary lense essay, at first, seemed an unbearable task that I fully did not look forward to composing. After spending two novels worth of reading and forums I still had only a slight grasp on the 3 types of lenses discussed in class; the Feminist, Marxist and Freudian theories (or so I thought :D). Formulating the first essay option proved a difficult task. I had wanted to use The Lord of the Flies because I enjoyed the story so much but it was the first novel of the semester; I quickly realised I would have to re-read the novel or heavily rely on another’s thoughts to write the essay. Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, after the epiphany, became my next patient for dissection. Originally, the Marxist theory seemed to be a semi-fun and thought provoking choice because of the blatant depictions of Nurse Ratched as a tyrannical leader of the ward. As I began looking through the list of, at least one, required scholarly articles, the Feminist theory really stuck. To believe Feminism in its fullness--to my understanding at least--is to condemn men for their inherent rule over woman and completely reject the presence of man. The only purpose for the patriarchy is to reproduce. That idea (though I still may be wrong in that thought) made me angry and anger is a strong feeling that leads to good thoughts. My essay has gone through several revisions and has finally decided to be a Feminist viewing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Unfortunately oblivious,
Zachary Smit
P.S. I’ll most certainly have the next blog task in on time. Sorry :’{
3 Coyle
I have written my essay so far using the religious lens. I picked this one because there is so much to do with religion in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest that it would have been very hard to do one that did not have to deal with the religious lens. Also, I come from a religious background and I find that I know the most about this lens than I do about any of the other options that were presented to me. My essay is going alright so far, though I only have an outline to begin my essay instead of actual sentences and paragraphs at this point. I am excited to see how this essay will turn out in the end. I do, however, have a really good idea of how this essay will turn out to be through the duration of my essay writing. Upon reading the novel, I found much symbolism and analogies to religion, mainly Christianity above all others, and as Kesey did this, I am now able to begin writing a fantastic essay to reflect upon the knowledge that I have gained whilst reading this novel. However, y'all'd've known this if you had read the book with my religious lens on like I have done.
6 Bogensberger
For the literary lens essay, I, along with Kelsey Baldridge, are using the feminist lens. We chose this lens due to the fact that we are both females and find it easy to spot all the feminist viewpoints within the book. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has women depicted as powerful and threatening figures who emasculate and tear down the men. It is quite noticeable that Ken Kesey was not a fan of feminism. So far, Kelsey and I are breaking down the female characters within the book and explaining their roles. The only challenge we are really facing currently is trying to reach nine pages within the time period we have but I believe as we keep writing and understanding this lens more and more, we can accomplish nine pages with no problem. Making the decision to have a partner to help write this essay was a good choice I feel because whenever I do not have any ideas on what to write or I lose motivation to write, she is there to throw out more ideas and pick up the slack.
1 Hoffmann
I am using a psychoanalytic literary lens on my essay, and I am analyzing Lord of the Flies instead of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I am choosing the Golding novel because the character distinctions are more clear to me; I feel that Kesey’s characters have roles and motivations that are intentionally more open to subjective interpretation, while Golding designed his characters specifically to support his message. I realize there is still a degree of subjectivity and fluidity to Golding’s characters, but I found it easier to find subject material for my essay from that novel. My biggest problem as I write is organization. I am not quite sure whether to discuss each character separately and completely in individual paragraphs or to use on paragraph to cover one aspect of psychoanalysis for all relevant characters. For now, I am organizing my thoughts and hoping that an obvious pattern will emerge with which to format my essay. On the plus side, Golding provides ample instances of obvious psychoanalytic themes (e.g. Jack as id, Piggy as superego, and Ralph as ego) and even more examples of subliminal messages in his imagery (like how the description of the first pig hunt seems to describe a rape).
3 Lindemann
I am using a feminist lens in my essay, because i feel it is the most versatile lens. There are many aspects of feminism that you can choose to examine, such as gender roles, opportunities, sexism, inherent heteronormativity, and more. Being able to analyze so many things in one essay gives me an option to either expand or condense as much as i want, because i can choose which aspects of feminism i choose to use. For my essay I am analyzing gender roles and heteronormativity. I am talking about the use of toxic masculinity in all the characters and the lack of female characters in the novel, aside from the sow. I am contrasting jack and ralph as foils, where ralph is a properly balanced character and jack is a toxically masculine character. I am also talking about Jack's’ use of sodomy as a last ditch attempt at complete masculine control, as well as inherent heteronormativity that establishes sex as a form of control over another human. This essay is interesting to write but i’m not sure i could write a lot of essays using this lens.
For the literary lens essay, I have chosen to analyze "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" using the feminist theorist lens. I chose this lens because personally, I am a feminist. I recognize that women are treated unfairly in society, and were treated even worse back in the day, and when this book was written. Ken Kesey lived during a time when women were treated very unfairly. He died in 2011, so when he was a teenager was when the transition was just beginning for women to gain more power in the world. It got better and better over time, but the mind of men still thought of women as objects who were incapable of things men were. Men were still taught that women were less than them. Ken grew up in a time of confusion about women gaining power. In the book, there is a ridiculous amount of sexism, and I often found myself angry about what was said or events that happened. I haven't started yet, but I think I will be able to do a great job on this essay and offer much insight on the feminist lens.
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