Heart of Darkness Blog Post 2

Two Novels, with apparently not much alike can have very similar aspects and at the same time have opposing meanings. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, are prove of this phenomena. They share a same view on a key issue, and yet have completely opposite meanings for a symbol.

One same object can have extremely different meanings depending on the perspective from where it is observed. Symbols, like other literary devices, too have that same property of ambiguity that any object has when seen under a different shade of light. Two novels share a same symbol: The Fog, yet this object-symbol in this situation-is very different under the particular light of each novel. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, and Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, share a common element in the fog. However, it is very different the interpretation and meaning that it has in the two novel. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the fog, is a symbol of oppression, control and slavery-over the patients of the ward. In a practically polar matter, Heart Of Darkness the fog represents some sort of protection to the natives, who suffer the oppression of the colonizers, by obscuring the view of their aggressors. Not only by blocking the view of the oppressors is the fog present, it is also an extension of darkness and uncertainty; the main difference is that in Heart of Darkness fog is against the oppressors and an ally to the weak.

            Both Novels also plot a dilemma towards a situation were evil and wrongdoing is justified and accepted by society. In Heart Of Darkness the colonization of the Congo is justified by a common doctrine-or belief- around the European nations: The uncivilized inhabitants of certain continents need to be colonized, for their sake, and pushed-even against their will- to the modern world. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the ward justifies their actions with a simple premise: Certain people aren’t fit to be in the world and thus must be isolated until they are fit for society.

            Chief Bromden-One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest-is a victim of the fog, a device created by The Combine-to isolate him from the world and keep his mind in shackles. The Combine-for those who haven’t read the book-represents societies’ oppressing institution that work to control everything and everyone around them, the lashers of the world. In Ken Kesey’s novel, the ward is the combine who uses the fog to manipulate the patients and repress their mind. The Chief, who is submerged in the fog, is finally freed by McMurphy and recovers his freedom of spirit and mind. Cruising the Congo River, Marlow is faced with a somber silence. The air is dense as the sun fades and the temperature decreases, the midst turns into a thick fog. The view of the boat riders is obscured, and their journey is slowed down. In the midst of their confusion, the pilgrims suffer an attack in hands of the opportune natives. In this case the fog serves the natives who take advantage of this distraction to launch their attack on the colonists. The natives-to draw a parallel-represent the oppressed group of people, the colonists represent the oppressive combine. Thinking that the fog is part of nature it is very reasonable for the fog to be helping the natives, as if nature were doing all it could to fight the inhumane acts of men.

            The two authors-Kesey and Conrad- criticize The Combine of their own novel. Of course each Combine represents a different time period and mean of oppression. Kesey shows a more modern problem-on a smaller scale and considered mundane in some cases-while Conrad’s issue is more global and repelled by current standards. Kesey criticizes the justification of the methods used to control patients. He deems the procedures-shock treatment, lobotomy- inhumane and finds no justification in them. The Combine would say it is necessary for the patients to endure the cutting off of their brains, in order to be able to live in society. The vindication of imperialism maintains that there are “savages” who need to be colonized and that the Europeans are their saviors, they need to live like Europe and the USA, because that is what is best for them. It is the “white man’s” duty to drag them-using force if necessary-into the light that is civilization. Conrad criticizes the hypocrisy of this thought and insists that this idea is merely a cover for the real intentions of the Combine: To drain the colonies and profit from them. This embarks slave labor, raw materials, the spread of European culture and Christianity, basically a place to enforce the will of the colonizers. While millions of people suffered daily of disease and starvation and abuse, the European nations justified this with a doctrine that is ironic to its core: “We have to make them change their ways to ours, even if we have to do it by force, it is our duty to save these people” The end justified the means.

            It is interesting to see how both novels share one same object as a symbol (the fog) and give it to very different interpretations around one same subject. The fog is on a different side of the same fight in each novel. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the fog sides with the oppressor, in Heart Of Darkness it sides with the oppressed victims. As the fog drifts to either side of the spectrum, the conflict remains the same and the authors’ views side with the oppressed, despising the hypocritical Combines who feebly attempt to justify their inhumane acts.

Heart Of Darkness Part 1 Blog

It is easier to follow orders and to go with the flow, than to stand up for what is right and be rejected for it. When the British Empire reached it’s peek in the modern era and colonialism was extremely common among European nations, there was a believe that the “uncivilized” people, of nations outside Europe and USA, needed to be colonized in order for them to progress. Of course the colonizing nations would benefit from this “help” they were providing. In spite of this being the popular believe in England, there were-as in all oppressive regimes-certain people that did not share the view of the Empire. In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, Marlow is one of those people. How he reacts to his environment and his time period shows us his confusion towards the issue, and towards himself.

Marlow rejects the idea of colonization, he in fact mentions he “can´t bear a lie” ironically he is participating actively in a great lie of human history: The affirmation that some people are superior to others and therefore have the moral obligation to colonize them-this of course is just a justification for all the exploitation of raw materials and people. He also sees the horrors of colonization and describes the black workers as “nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom”. He is clearly loathes the idea of colonization and human exploitation but he is still there working for who he thinks are the villains. One could argue that Marlow is not against the atrocities being committed in the Congo per se, instead he thinks that it is no use for the Europeans to be there and that the job they are carrying out in the jungle is ineffective. He doesn’t react in any abrupt manner to the violence and the misery being perpetrated there.

This confusion towards the image in front of him, reveals a lot about him, how his confusion is not only external but also internal. This book presents a dichotomy of good and evil. The dichotomy might be clear now but the line that separated good and evil wasn’t always so clear. At a time when there was a moral duty to colonize-according to the beliefs of the powerful countries-Marlow finds himself in the middle of his own personal dichotomy. According to the rulers of said countries, colonizing is not only right but a moral duty of the white man. Marlow-being a member of the British Empire, a seaman who travels the world-is drifting between his moral code of what is right and the doctrine of his nation and his culture. We see him drift in and out of both sides of the spectrum but he always tends to lean more with his ethics. Although sometimes for reasons that aren’t apparent, he despises colonization but yet doesn’t act on his hate towards oppression. Perhaps further on the book he will do something that confirms his feelings and makes them more than a mere reflection of what he sees.

Irony Post

 

Irony is a very common element to draw focus to a specific idea or point in an entertaining way. The song “Great Nations of Europe” by Randy Newman is a great example of irony. During the entire song irony is used to criticize the colonizing nations of Europe during the XV and XVI centuries mostly.

The tone of the song is very ironic compared with the lyrics. The song is-given that the author is the creator of the Toy Story soundtrack-extremely cheerful and cozy. The lyrics however, refer to a massacres, and betrayal and slavery. When the song mentions that “the great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way” in reference to the massacre of some Indians-in the hands of Spaniard conquistador Balboa- who were allegedly gay. This irony is clear because there is nothing holy in killing someone due to their religious or sexual orientation. The fact that they “had them torn apart by dogs on religious grounds” is even more ironic; they are killing someone and justifying it with religion, which is obviously absurd. The chorus of the song is full of irony, it says “hide your wives and daughter; hide the groceries too. The Great Nations of Europe coming’ through.” There is nothing great about a nation that rapes women and steals food. Great has a connotation of good doing. The author is being sarcastic because he knows that the nations were thought of as great in their time but they were really tyrants.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Blog Response 3

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Throughout a novel, as events unravel characters are subject to change. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest this is particularly true and visible in almost every-if not all- characters. The power struggle and the chaos that McMurphy creates drive all the patients in the ward to change and become more powerful and strong, the staff of the ward also falls victim to this wave of change. The nurses and orderlies start to loose power and become impotent when it comes to controlling the patients. Most of the changes are explicit and visible, often narrated, however there is one character whose transformation is clear but is not explicit: Chief Bromden. Being the narrator makes him somewhat impartial to his own situation, without fully realizing it he changes throughout the novel to the point where he becomes a strong man who is no longer under the whips and chains of The Combine.

            When the novel starts-with Chief Bromden speaking- he is a very obscure man, who has been pretending to be deaf and dumb for over 10 years. He is actually very smart and insightful but the way he has been controlled-through drugs and mental abuse- has made him retreat back into the deepest corners of his mind. This is shown when he says: “It wasn’t me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all ”. The oppression and negligence of the hospital made him that way. His situation is so critical that he hallucinates that a fog surrounds him and clouds his vision of reality, machines spy him and try to control his every move. He feels that he has lost his human essence and his individuality; the control that the so-called Combine exerts over him has dehumanized him to the point of insanity. Being a victim of the combine during his entire life-the government taking his father’s tribe off their lands, having to fight the war which is known to be among the most excruciatingly painful experiences a human has to live, being interned in an oppressive mental hospital which drove him to insanity with their dehumanizing, mind numbing methods- caused him to be completely dead of spirit and mind. Bromden is so weak that even though he is huge he says to McMurphy that he “used to be big, but not no more”. After years of shady memories and days were the clocks didn’t advance at all-or made a whole turn in would seemed like a second- Chief Bromden’s mind is set free.

            With McMurphy’s arrival comes the whole plot of the novel. He starts to defy authority and set the patients free. Bromden is no exception to this wave of lucidness-in mental patients- that McMurphy causes. The Chief starts to slowly escape the fog and set his mind free, he describes the moment when “the fog was finally swept” from him as “breaking the surface after being under water a hundred years”. Simultaneously he starts to act with his mind free and without the fog’s intervention. He raises his hand in the vote for the baseball game. He starts talking for the first time in years, he decides to go to the fishing trip, he fights the black boys along McMurphy, he gets drunk. Finally he decides to euthanize McMurphy and pick up the panel and throw it to the window to escape. The best example of the Chief Bromden’s change in the novel is his physical perception of himself, “he used to be big but not anymore”, later in the novel he mentions how his “foot was bigger than I’d ever seen it”. He doesn’t actually grow physically but his mind perceives it so. The real change is in his spirit and his mind, where he becomes a giant.

            McMurphy drags Chief Bromden out of the fog, he liberates his mind and humanizes him. After years of routine and control, of monotonous and abusive treatments designed to cripple the mind and the spirit of a man, McMurphy creates a revolution of change-redundant as that may be- that spreads like the wake of a boat in calm waters through the patients. Bromden is perhaps the one that changes the most with this revolution. He goes from one end of the spectrum to the complete other side. First he is a man who has pretended to be deaf and dumb for ten years, unnoticed, taken for granted, a chronic. In only a matter of months he has recovered all his consciousness, his confidence and even his size. His mind which was lost in haze of drugs and shock treatments is suddenly set free and empowered, to the point that-in his own mind-he becomes big and strong once again, so brave that he manages to escape and kill-out of pity and respect-the man who set him free.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Blog response 2

Often in literature symbols or objects are thoroughly described using imagery. The author appeals to the five senses of the reader to evoke a very vivid image in the object being described. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey describes machines through imagery to show the control that the ward has over the patients how they dehumanize them. The machines are a clear symbol of that dehumanization that the inmates suffer, and how their individuality and freewill is constantly removed through medicine and mental control.

            On page 141 The Chief describes a moment when he wakes up at night: “… I woke up, my eyes were all crusted over and the dorm was full of smoke, wires in the walls loaded to the limit, twisting and sparking death and hate in the air-all to much for me to take so I’d ram my head under the pillow and try to get back to sleep. Every time I peeked back out there would be the smell of burning hair and a sound like side meat on a hot griddle”. This quote is loaded with imagery, appealing to sound, to smell, to sight, to taste and touch, all describing the machinery on the wall. The author also personifies the machines giving them power to make actions and movements. “Twisting and sparking death and hate” the machines scare Chief Bromden and impose that veil of hate and control over the inmates. It is implied that this visions of machines are caused by a error in the dose of medicine given, this shows how the people who run the ward are trying to control the patients planting fear and paranoia in their minds, crippling their ability to think clearly. Machines are basically the opposite of a human, or the inverse. They can perform many functions that humans can-often quicker and with better results-but they are repetitive and dependent. The Big Nurse is trying to create machines out of the patients, making them dependent on her and her authority, submerging them in a numbing routine of helplessness and abuse.

            The imagery in the description of the machines depicts a hostile environment. Burning hair, hate, sparkles, smoke, twists, death, meat on a griddle. When one reads this description-at least I-imagines a factory, a dark factory where there is no sanitation or rights for the workers. Something closely related to a still mill. Everything is burning and the machines are constantly processing the molten metal to create no metal-possibly for war or destruction-and with each step, the free hot liquid that is the molten metal is slowly caged in by the machines to become this lifeless artifact to serve a larger machine. This picture came to mind as I read that passage in the book. Possibly Chief Bromden is scared that the machines will dehumanize him to the point that he-and any other patients-become lifeless shapes.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Blog 1

There is a certain appeal to the fog. A mystical quality to it, that wakes up the curiosity inside us. However, the fog has also a negative connotation, mystery, death, uncertainty. In the novel-One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest- the “fog” is a very present and controversial symbol. What is the “fog’s” meaning in the novel? What is its’ role? The fog is a symbol of the control society places on certain people-liberators, leaders, or other rebellious characters like McMurphy- to prevent them from dragging others out of the fog. The others are in the "fog" because they are scared of reality and use it to hide from the world's cruelty. Ultimately the "fog" is made to dehumanize its inhabitants and turn them into wires and cables and screws of the machine-metaphorically speaking- that is society.

We first here about the “fog” when Chief Bromden is dragged to be shaved by the orderlies, apparently being shaved is something he dreads, due to the mistreatment of the orderlies. In the mist of his panic and rage he sees the “fog”-a hallucination- the room and he passes out for the rest of the shave. Essentially fog is an obstructer of our sight, a veil to cover what is behind it. It symbolizes the control that the hospital-or society- has over its’ inhabitants. How they try to block the visions of the patients and extract from reality. A reality that is frightening and dangerous. So frightening that possibly the patients search for the “fog” and feel safe inside it, because freedom implies risk taking and facing consequences, thus they can find in the “fog” an escape from reality.Later we see how McMurphy is "dragging them (the patients) out of the fog"and how in freedom the patients gain control of their situation even if for a short moment. They defy Miss Ratched and McMurphy manages to vanish the "fog", the effort however goes in vain when the Big Nurse overpowers the patients. The imposer of the “fog” is Miss Ratched, who has neglected her patients’ freedom and reduced their lives to monotonous cycles of mental slavery. McMurphy is there, in the hospital, to free the patients of the “fog”, that is so dense that it has become necessary for the men in the ward, who have lost their individuality and their essence. Becoming mechanical machines- redundant as that may sound- that only function under the whip of the nurse. Who treats them as cogs in the big machinery that is the Combine, removing in them any sense of individuality.

There are several questions this novel tries to present through the symbol of the “fog”: Are people constantly trying to escape reality, finding comfort in negligence? Is the fog self-imposed or is it created by people who want complete control? Is it better to be in the fog, feeling safe, or to be free of mind? These are questions to think about throughout life. But to answer the first question: What is the fog? The fog symbolizes two main things, first an escape from the world’s tearing reality and the prison our mind lives in to avoid facing the abyss. Second the uncertainty and confusion that certain agents apply to remain to acquire control. Fog is a essentially a gas that blocks our vision and distorts reality, either because we ourselves don't want to see the reality or because other people want to hide the world outside the fog, we are trapped in it and often need characters like McMurphy to free us from it.