Mackenzie American Lit. Honors Essay (Great American Novel)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken KeseyIn One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey tells us the story through the eyes of an Indian named Bromden in a mental institution in the 1960s, where democracy is preached to the patients, yet authority always seems to overrule it. Day after day, the patients are expected to ask “How high?” when instructed to jump. No one really questions the power of the head nurse, Ms. Ratched, that is until Randal Patrick McMurphy enters the picture.

McMurphy, the redheaded rebel, is not fooled by Ms. Ratched’s authoritative ways and begins to defy her power by bringing gambling, alcohol, and women into the ward. He questioned orders and refused to believe that he was insane. What McMurphy truly realized was that power could be abused if there are no checks and balances, so he was checking the system. Whenever Ms. Ratched feared she was loosing control, she would take it back in a forceful way.

An example of such a manner would be the end of the book, where McMurphy threw a party after hours and one patient, named Billy Bibbit, seemed to outgrow his mental state and have fun. When Ms. Ratched found them in the morning, she threw him right back into his unfit state of mind by threatening to tell his mother of what he has done. Billy would not stand for it, and became so distressed that he committed suicide. McMurphy was so upset that he attempted to choke Ms. Ratched, causing her to use her ultimate power: he was forced to have a lobotomy. Bromden realizes that the winds of change had blown, and things with McMurphy would never be

the same again, ultimately causing him to take McMurphy’s life for McMurphy’s own sake and run away from the ward.

Kesey raises some controversial questions with this book. Was is worth it for Ms. Ratched to regain power by causing the death of a patient who had seemed to overcome his illness? McMurphy was sure to have seen right through what she was doing. He was so fed up with Ms. Ratched’s rigid hold on power that it caused him to snap, which leads to another question that Kesey causes us to ponder about: was Randal Patrick McMurphy in fact crazy? Or was he merely doing justice for Billy and the ward? Some people may even question Bromden’s reasoning for killing McMurphy; the situation was very much like the Terry Schibo controversy. Granted it was taking a life, but those people would never be the same again. So who was just?

In the time period the book was written, the mental institutions in America were performing procedures on patients without their consent, such as Electro Shock Therapy and lobotomy. This was viewed as a violation of human rights, considering some patients were not even mentally fit enough to sign a form. These procedures continued to be used until the government stepped in, and of course today things are much different. Kesey showed how powerful these institutions were, and how not even a single strong-willed soul could make a dent in that world.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was an amazing story because it caused me to stop and think about the metaphors the author was using and how life was like in those times.

AndreaGrade 7 Social Studies Muhammad

Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. He started trading with his uncle at age 12. He was an orphan. He married Knadijah at age 25.

Muhammad started preaching around 613 C.E. He taught people that they must workshop only one god. He improved the status of women. He also preached that the rich should share their wealth. The Makkans rejected his teachings and called him a liar. The weak followers were torchered. Then the Makkans started a boycott to make the followers give up Islam. The followers suffered starvation. Qur’ans tell that Muhammad took a winged horse to Jerusalem and prayed with other prophets and met God.

When Abu Talib died Muhammad lost his protecter. He moved to the Yathrib to bring peach between feuding tribes. In exchange he got protection. The Yathrib was renamed Madinah. In 624 C.E. the Muslims and Makkans fought. Later the Makkans held siege on Madinah but failed. In 628 C.E. they agreed to take a pilgrimage to their city. In 630 C.E. they broke their promise and marched to Makkan. Makkan surrendered without a battle. The war ended in 632. Most of central and southern Arabia was under Muslem control when Muhammad died. They chose Abu Bakr as a new leader. He used military campaigns to reunite the community if they tried to break apart. He began carrying Islam teaching farther. Umar set up gov’t and tax systems. Uthman helped united Muslems. Ali Ibn Abi Tablib drew communities into a civil war.

The Sunnis followed Muhammad and they belived in acceptance. The Shi’as followed Muawiyah and they believed only people directly related to Muhammad through his son-in-law Ali should be caliph.

Black Death (grade 7) The black death killed up to 40 million people. In a short amount of time. Keep reading if your intrested! I will include detail & important facts, dates and all you need to know about the black death. The disease came from Caffa in 1347. It came from a merchant ship, the people on the merchant ship had gotten it while they were sailing. The three things you need to get this disease are bacteria, rats and fleas. When the people on the merchant ship docked, most of them had already died. And so it spread, to Europe. The symptoms of this disease were horrid. Buboes, fever, pus, rotting flesh smelly blood. It was aful. For the people that didn’t have it, their thoughts weren’t much different. They were worried they were going to get it. Therefor some ran away to Italy. But when they got there ¾ of Italy had the disease as well! People would pray for forgivness from god, because they thought this was their punishment. churches turned people away when they came for help, again they thought it was god’s punishment. There were people called the flagellants that would go around hiting themselves till they bleed, they thought god would forgive them. Today if somebody ever got it, we would luckily have the medicines and antibiotics to treat it with streptomycin. If somebody got this disease nowadays all rats and fleas in the area would be exterminated. The living conditions in 1347 made it even more likely that people would catch the disease. It was a warm moist area. IT wasn’t at all sanitary. The houses were built badly, so the rats could get in easily.

Back then there wasn’t much people could do to treat it. I think this was a fun intresting thing to learn about. Some of the symptoms were a bit gross, but still intresting to learn about. It made me a bit worried that something like this would happen today. But I know we have the antibiotics to treat it. I learned a lot about the black death, and im glad I got the chance to.