First Cuckoo's Nest Blog

Anti-Hero: I believe that McMurphy best fits the description of an anti-hero. Initially I thought that he could be a Hero but  finally decided that while I was drawn to his personality as if he were a hero, holistically, however, he best fits the anti-hero category. Starting out he is very genial and communicates well with the other patients on the floor. This can be seen in sections such as "Damn, what a sorry looking outfit. You boys don't look so crazy to me." and his incessant use of the word "buddy" when talking with the men. Even when he is talking less than positively about them there is still the sense that he cares about the other men, I suppose the genuine quality is created through "buddy" as a term of endearment. I am inclined to call him an anti-hero because of his behavior and set of morals that seems to have brought him to the hospital. The only reason he is in the hospital is because he was able to con his way out of not going to a work camp. Not exactly the picture of societal greatest, therefore, anti-hero.

Tragic-Hero: I'm not quite sure. There is not really one true, good, honest, Super Man-esque hero in the book, but there does seem to be a few characters who have Hero elements to their personality. One such individual is Chief. We like him He seems nice. And I feel that their is some level of sympathy that we as the audience feel towards him as we discover how tragic his life has been and his current afflictions. His honesty and yearning for justice make him a hero. This qualities are best exemplified through " I been silent so long now its gonna roar out of me like flood waters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It's still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it's the truth even if it didn't happen." I also pull my belief that Chief is a tragic hero from this quote as well. The last sentence is bitingly ironic as it contradicts everything Chief had just said and all of the importance he put in his words. His ideas of delusion plague him throughout the passage and loosening and tightening their grip as they pull at our heart strings. His inablilty to see reality and over come his illness makes him a tragic hero. 

Villain: The Big Nurse. She drugs people with medication that they don't want to take. She manipulates the patients and instigates feelings of inferiority. She picks her help based on the fact that they have just enough hate in them. The extent to which she will play the villainous role is still to be determined but I am certain that she is the villain.  

Final Gatsby Post

-Why does Fitzgerald refer back to the green light in the final page? What significance does the light hold?

Ø  The light is green to represent envy and most simply Gatsby's dream of having Daisy once more; a yearning which took over his being and dictated his every move. This venture was disastrous for everyone involved: Myrtle got ran over, Daisy ran over Myrtle, and Gatsby got shot in head. Obviously Fitz. is trying to tell us something about holding onto extravagant dreams far too long. Fitz. refers back to the light in the second to last paragraph to ensure that the audience does not lose sight of the story's theme that the past is the past and cannot be recreated no matter how desperately one wishes.

-How effective was Miss Baker as a character in general?

Ø  Miss Baker served as a counter example to Daisy, Gatsby, and Tom in that unlike the lot of them she is able to let go of the past, or at least the illusion of the past that everybody else seems so enamored with. Nick tells the audience this directly in one of the latter chapters but we also see this trait when she and Nick part ways. She does seem to be still love Nick but has chosen to move on, even telling him that she is engaged to a new man. Through this she serves her purpose and therefore is an effective character.

-What is Fitzgerald's purpose of putting Nick and Gatsby on West Egg and Tom and Daisy on East Egg?

Ø  It has been said that Nick and Gatsby represent different aspects of Fitz’s own personality. Nick the even headed, slow to action personality and Gatsby the celebrity consumed by the idea of wealth and riches personality. To illustrate this they are put on the same island. So to put them on the same island, right next to each other would have been fitting to convey how they represent different parts of the same person. They lived so close to each other and were described in such a manner that I began to see their properties and lives as being connected.

-How effectively does Fitzgerald use Gatsby to get across his ideas about dreams and living in them?

Ø  The grandness of Gatsby that all too quickly becomes the tragedy of Gatsby serves as a very effective method of expressing the dangers of always trying to recreate a glorified past. It is revealed that Gatsby’s life after the war was a plan to win back the heart of Daisy, a plan that went horridly awry. At first Gatsby seems like a very grand, mysterious creature who rivals God himself but as the novel progresses it becomes all too easy to see that truly he is a sorry individual trapped in an unattainable idea. This painting of him as a tragic figure makes him a very effective vehicle for Fitzgerald to drive his theme right into our heads.