Essay about Book Review of Ken Keseys One Flew Over the...

English Book Review 1 Title: One flew over the cuckoos nest Author: Ken Kesey Editor, nr. of pages, year published: Published by the Penguin Group, 310 pages, first published in 1962 Summary: The scene is laid in a mental hospital. The narrator is an old Indian, called Chief Bromden, he plays deaf and dumb and he doesnt really take part in the action. The story starts when Randle Patrick McMurphy is admitted to the hospital. McMurphy is no ordinary patient, hes actually a bit too sane to be in a mental hospital. But that doesnt matter to the staff and especially Nurse Ratched, who thinks everyone in the ward should bow to her command. McMurphy is a stubborn man and doesnt feel like doing everything the Big Nurse says.†¦show more content†¦His opinion wont go unheard. †¢nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Miss Ratched: Nurse Ratched, also called the Big Nurse, is a very dominant person. She is very bossy and if she doesnt have total control, she will act out very agressive. †¢nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Chief Bromden: The Chief is a tall Indian man.He plays dumb and deaf, but actually understands everything he wants to. He isolates himselve a lot, but McMurphy manages to get him back into our world. †¢nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The rest of the patients on the ward: The can mostly all be described as feeble minded. The cant stand up for themselves and try to avoid confrontations. Background to the story: The story was written in the beginning of the sixties, in the USA. It reflects the feeling of the youth at the time. They felt misunderstood by the adults and tried to change the system. The rebelled against authority of all forms. They wanted to think for themselves, instead of being directed towards the conformistic society. McMurphys battle stands as an example for the struggle against a dogmatic form of authority. Personal opinion: I liked the book for its cynical viewpoint on the mentally challenged. But I dont like the way it is narrated. It is very vague, offcourse it is told by a loon, but I would have liked it better if it were more clear. And I dont like McMurphy, as hes just too much an American stereotype... Why did you choose this book? Ive already read so many fragments,Show MoreRelatedOne Flew over the Cuckoos Nest: the Power of Laughter1592 Words   |  7 Pagesalso no longer capable of being in control of himself. This happens when a greater authority has the power to deny a person of their laughter; which, inevitably, denies him of his freedom. Ken Kesey conveys the idea that laughter and freedom go hand in hand throughout his novel One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest. Kesey portrays laughter as a parallel to freedom through various literary symbols and imagery in order to illustrate how the power of laughter can free a man who is under the control of anRead MoreEssay on One Flew Over the Crucifix1969 Words   |  8 PagesWhile working as a night attendant on the psychiatric ward of Menlo Park Veterans Hospital, Ken Kesey was stricken with an idea that would later turn into his first novel. That novel, entitled One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, went on to become his most famous work and a celebrated piece of modern American fiction (Lupack 566). One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest tells the story of a mental hospital which is running quite smoothly until a new patient enters the ward and sets chaos in motion. This newRead MoreMadness in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Hamlet Essay example2151 Words   |  9 PagesThe issue of madness has been touched by many writers. In this paper I will focus on two important writings which deal directly with the mental illnesses. The first one is One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey first published in 1962. The second is Hamlet written by Shakespeare approximately in 1602. Ken Kesey worked nights in a mental institution in California and his novel has a lot of truth in it. He faced patients insanity every day and was confident that it was natural responseRead More Allen Ginsbergs Poetry and Psychiatry Essay2833 Words   |  12 Pagesfantastic book flung out of the tenement window and the last telephone slammed at the wall in reply and the last furnished room emptied down to the last piece of mental furniture. (Ginsberg 53) Desperate to get his mothers violent behavior under control, Allen Ginsberg, along with his brother, Eugene, consented to allow a lobotomy to be performed on their mother (Asher). Allen Ginsberg chronicled the experience of watching his mothers continued mental decline in his poem, Kaddish: One hand stiff—heaviness

The Forbidden Game The Chase Chapter 1 Free Essays

string(26) " as it surged toward him\." It wasn’t so much the hunting. It was the killing. That was what brought Gordie Wilson out to the Santa Ana foothills on a sunny May morning like this. We will write a custom essay sample on The Forbidden Game: The Chase Chapter 1 or any similar topic only for you Order Now That was why he was cutting school even though he wasn’t sure he’d get away with forging his morals signature on another readmit. It wasn’t the wild-flower-splashed hills, the sky blue lupines, or the fragrant purple sage. It was the wet, plopping sound when lead met flesh. The kill. Gordie preferred big game, but rabbits were always available-if you knew how to dodge the rangers. He’d never been caught yet. He’d always liked killing. When he was seven, he’d gotten robins and starlings with his BB gun. When he was nine, it had been ground squirrels with a shotgun. Twelve, and his dad took him on a real hunting trip, going after white-tailed deer with an old .243 Winchester. That had been so special. But then, every kill was special. It was like his dad said: â€Å"Good hunts never end.† Every night in bed Gordie thought about the very best ones, remembering the stalking, the shooting, the electric moment of death. He even hunted in his dreams. For one instant, as he made his way along the dry creek bed, a memory flickered at him, like a little tongue of flame. A nightmare. Just once Gordie had dreamed that he was on the other side of the rifle sights, the one with dogs snapping behind him, the one being hunted. A chase that had only ended when he woke up dripping sweat. Stupid dream. He wasn’t a rabbit, he was a hunter. Top of the food chain. He’d gotten a moose last year. Big game like that was worth observing, studying, planning for. But not rabbits. Gordie just liked to come up here and kick them out of the bushes. This was a good place. A sage-covered slope rising toward a stand of oak and sycamore trees, with some good brush piles underneath for cover. Bound to be a bunny under one of those. Then he saw it. Right out in the open. Little desert cottontail sunning itself near a squat of grass. It was aware of him, but still. Frozen. Terrific, Gordie thought. He knew how to sneak up on a rabbit, get so close he could practically catch it with bare hands. The trick was to make the rabbit think you didn’t see it. If you only looked at it sideways, if you walked kind of zigzag while slowly getting closer and closer†¦ As long as its ears stayed down, instead of up and swiveling, you were safe. Gordie edged carefully around a lemonade berry bush, looking out of the corner of his eye. He was so close now that he could see the rabbit’s whiskers. Pure happiness filled him, warmth pooling in his stomach. It was going to hold still for him. God, this was the exciting part, the gooood part. Breath held, he raised the rifle, centered the crosshairs. Got ready to gently squeeze the trigger. There was an explosion of motion, a gray-brown blur and the flash of a white tail. It was getting away! Gordie’s rifle barked, but the slug struck the ground just behind the rabbit, kicking up dust. The rabbit bounded on, down into the dry creek bed, losing itself among the cattails. Damn! He wished he’d brought a dog. Like his dad’s beagle, Aggie. Dogs were crazy about the chase. Gordie loved to watch them do it, loved to draw it out, waiting for the dog to bring the rabbit around in a circle. It was a shame to end a good chase too soon. His dad sometimes let a rabbit go if it ran a good enough race, but that was crazy. What good was a hunt without the kill? There were times when Gordie†¦ wondered about himself. He sensed vaguely that his hunting was somehow different than his dad’s. He did things when he was alone that he never told anybody about. When he was five, he used to pour rubbing alcohol on earwigs. They’d writhed a long time before they died. Even now he would swerve to run over a possum or a cat in the road if he could. Killing felt so good. Any kind of killing. That was Gordie Wilson’s little secret. The bunny was gone. He’d spooked it. Or †¦ Maybe something else had. A strange feeling was growing in Gordie. It had developed so slowly he hadn’t even noticed when it started, and it was like nothing he’d ever felt before -at least awake. A †¦ rabbit-feeling. Like what a rabbit might feel when it freezes, crouched down, with the hunter’s eyes on it. Like what a squirrel might feel when it sees something big creeping slowly closer. A†¦ watched feeling. The skin on the back of his neck began to crawl. There were eyes watching him. He felt it with the part of his brain that hadn’t changed in a hundred million years. The reptile part. Gingerly, flesh still creeping, he turned. Directly behind him three old sycamores grew close enough together to cast a shade. But the darkness underneath was too dark to be just a shadow. It was more like a black vapor hanging there. Something was under those trees. Something else had been watching the rabbit. Now it was watching him. The black vapor seemed to stir. White teeth glinted out of the darkness, as bright as sunlight on water. Gordie’s eyes bulged in their sockets. What the-what was it? The vapor moved again and he saw. Only-it couldn’t be. It couldn’t be what he thought he saw, because it-just couldn’t be. Because there wasn’t anything like that in the world, so it just couldn’tIt was beyond anything he’d ever imagined. When it moved, it moved fast. Gordie got off one shot as it surged toward him. You read "The Forbidden Game: The Chase Chapter 1" in category "Essay examples" Then he turned and ran. He went the way the rabbit had, slipping and slithering down the slope, tearing his jeans and his hands on prickly pear cactus. The thing he’d seen was right behind him. He could hear it breathing. His foot caught on a stone, and he fell heavily, arms flailing. He rolled over and saw it in the full sunlight. His mouth sagged open. He tried to scoot away on his backside, but sheer terror paralyzed his muscles. Deliberately it closed in. A loose, blubbery wail came from Gordie’s lips. His last wild thought was Not me-not me-I’m not a rabbit-not meeeeee – His heart stopped before it even got its teeth in him. Jenny was brushing her hair, really brushing it, feeling it crackle and lift by itself to meet the plastic bristles in the static electricity of this golden May afternoon. She gazed absently at her own reflection, seeing a girl with forest green eyes, dark as pine needles, and eyebrows that were straight, like two decisive brush strokes. The hair that lifted to meet the brush was the color of honey in sunlight. â€Å"They didn’t do it.† Jenny stopped abruptly. A girl was reflected behind her in the mirror. The girl had dark hair and dark eyes reddened with crying. She looked poised for flight out of the bathroom. â€Å"I’m sorry?† â€Å"I said, they didn’t do it. Slug and P.C. They didn’t kill your friend Summer.† Oh. Jenny found herself gripping the brush hard, unable to even turn her head. She could only look at the girl’s eyes reflected in the mirror, but she understood now. â€Å"I never said they did,† she said softly and carefully. â€Å"I just told the police that they were around that night. And that they stole something from my living room. A paper house. A game.† â€Å"I hate you.† Shocked, Jenny turned. â€Å"You and your preppy friends-you did it. You killed her yourselves. And someday everybody will know and you’ll pay and you’ll be sorry.† The girl was twisting a Kleenex between slim olive-tan fingers, tearing it into little bits. Her long hair was absolutely straight except for the slight undersweep of the ends, and her dark eyes were pensive. She didn’t belong at Vista Grande High; Jenny had never seen her before. Jenny put the brush down and went to her, facing her directly. The girl looked taken aback. â€Å"Why were you crying?† Jenny said gently. â€Å"Why should you care? You’re a soshe. You wear your fancy clothes to school and hang out with your rich friends-â€Å" â€Å"Who’s rich? What have my clothes got to do with it?† Jenny could feel her eyebrows come together. She looked pointedly at the girl’s fashionably tattered designer jeans. The girl spoke sullenly. â€Å"You’re a soshe†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Jenny grabbed her. â€Å"I am not a soshe,† she said fiercely. â€Å"I am a human being. So are you. So what is your problem?† The girl wouldn’t say anything. She twisted under Jenny’s hands, and Jenny felt the small bones in her shoulders. Finally, almost spitting it in Jenny’s face, she said, â€Å"P.C. was my friend. He never did anything to that girl. You and your friends did something, something so bad that you had to hide her body and tell those lies. But you just wait. I can prove P.C. didn’t hurt her. I can prove it.† Despite the warm day, hairs rose on Jenny’s arms. Her little fingers tingled. â€Å"What do you mean?† Something in her face must have scared the girl. â€Å"Never mind.† â€Å"No, you tell me. How could you prove it? Did you-â€Å" â€Å"Let go of me!† I’m being rough, Jenny realized. I’m never rough. But she couldn’t seem to stop. Chills were sweeping over her, and she wanted to shake the information out of the girl. â€Å"Did you see him or something?† she demanded. â€Å"Did he come home the next morning alone? Did you see what he did with the paper hou-â€Å" Pain exploded against her shinbone. The girl had kicked her. Jenny lost her grip, and the girl wrenched away, running to the bathroom door. â€Å"Wait! You don’t understand-â€Å" The girl jerked the door open and darted out. Jenny hopped after her, but by the time she looked up and down the second-story walkway, the girl was gone. There were only a few bits of twisted Kleenex on the concrete floor. Jenny hobbled over to the nearest locker bay and looked into it. Nothing but students and lockers. Then she limped back and looked over the railing of the open walkway to the main courtyard. Nothing but students with lunches. Young. The girl had been young, probably a ninth grader. Maybe she’d come from Magnolia Junior High. It was within walking distance. Whoever she was, Jenny had to find her. Whoever she was, she’d seen something. She might know†¦ I left my purse in the bathroom, Jenny realized. She retrieved it and slowly walked back out. The pay phone beside the bathroom was ringing. Jenny glanced around-two teachers were locking up a classroom, students were streaming down the stairs on each end of the building. Nobody seemed to be waiting for a call, nobody even seemed to notice the ringing. Jenny lifted the receiver. â€Å"Hello,† she said, feeling foolish. She heard an electronic hiss, white noise. Then there was a click, and in the static she seemed to hear a low whispering in a male voice. It was distorted, drawn out, and there was something weird about the way the syllables were stressed. It sounded like one word whispered over and over. A as in amble. Then a dragging, hissing sigh: ish. A†¦ ish†¦ Gibberish. â€Å"Hello?† Shhshhshhshhshhshhshh. Click. In the background she heard something that might have been speech, a sharp, staccato burst. Again, the rhythm was weird. It sounded like some very foreign language. Bad connection, Jenny thought. She hung up. Her little fingers were tingling again. But she didn’t have time to think about it now. That girl had to be found. I’d better get the others, Jenny thought. How to cite The Forbidden Game: The Chase Chapter 1, Essay examples

Al Qaeda Training Manual free essay sample

A purported training manual for the Al Qaeda group was found by Manchester police in 2001 and released by the American Department of Justice around the same time. Translated from the Arabic, it outlines ways that members of the global jihad should act in the long-term goal of creating an all-Muslim ruled state. There are anecdotes about manners of behavior, lines from the Quran, and detailed lists of activities members should partake in to plan for â€Å"operations† against the non-Muslim community and leadership.This manual, if accepted as true Al Qaeda doctrine, has several implications for the counterterrorism community that all show the difficulty of an organized method for finding potential terror cells. The most important of these is the near-impossibility of detecting terrorists versus non-terrorists. The main reason for this is that in the manual potential terrorists are instructed as much as possible to blend into their environment. There is a variety of ways in which this can be done, including becoming clean-shaven in passport photos to deter any suspicions of strict Islam adherence (p. We will write a custom essay sample on Al Qaeda Training Manual or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 24,) the ability to speak the foreign country language well (p. 18), and â€Å"the ability to conceal oneself† (p. 21-22) to match the country in which the nascent terrorist resides. This forces counterterrorism officials to be almost paranoid in their detection of terrorists.This manual is aimed at a Muslim audience, but there is no way to discern Muslims from non-Muslims on the street, particularly if the Muslims are taking extra steps to appear secular. While it is true that this manual is written in Arabic and therefore singles out Arabs for purported questioning, this is not a precise screening method. Second, this document not only results in a weak method of spotting terrorists from a racial standpoint, but results in complications for financial transaction monitoring, as well. The manual dictates that users diversify all funds (p. 24) and not tell other â€Å"Organization† members about the location of these funds. This makes it difficult to trace terrorist monetary transactions. It also allows for safety of allocated funds if one member of the cell is caught and questioned as to the whereabouts of the remaining money of the entire organization.Finally, the document lists emotional or mental criteria such as intelligence, patience, and caution that make it nearly impossible to externally monitor suspects.These aspects make it extremely difficult to identify possible terrorists. However, the manual does provide some guidance in formulating hypothetical counterterrorism operations benchmarks. The first step would be to target any physical characteristics that are measured in the document. These include â€Å"free of illness,† (p. 18) and strict adherents of Islam which means that, theoretically, young men arriving from the Middle East should be targeted the most (Islam places an emphasis on men accomplishing tasks.) They may look freshly shaved or still have thick beards.For a more solid analysis, legal passport activity should be monitored. The training guide mentions that each member should change their name on their passport and not include any family members, as well as change his picture to include a version of the member as unshaved. They should also be in possession of multiple passports (p. 24). Details such as passport forgeries make terrorists easier to track, especially as they cross international borders.Finally, checks should be performed on frequent apartment renters or those who choose to rent but don’t have permanent citizenship in the country. The manual outlines specific procedures for apartment renting, indicating that members should rent in newer areas to avoid suspicion and hang signs, such as towels or pillows, so other members of the cell can join. The counterterrorism officials should be in cooperation with local officials to report suspicious activity in residential markets.In short, based on the Al Qaeda training manual, counterterrorism will not be easy in the years to come because of the specific ways of blending in that the manual suggests. However, with careful vigilance, the process of finding terrorists can be refined to be successful. Works Cited (2004). Al Qaeda Training Manual. Retrieved December 9, 2007, from Department of Justice.HR Training Class