The Insanity of Holiday Shopping

Today I went decided to go Christmas shopping.  At first I felt excited to go pick out new items for myself and friends but by the end of the day I felt drained and annoyed.  I realized the insanity of all the madness surrounding holiday shopping through this experience.  Starting off in the parking lot, I fought people off for parking spaces. Everyone cuts one another off and races to find the open spot.  Then once I enter the mall I join the herd of people wandering aimlessly around.  I step into line and meander over to a promising looking store.  I find it torn apart from shoppers before me with clothes strewn about.  Current shoppers franticly push piles from side to side trying to locate the best the best item before someone else does.  Of course the first store I go into I cannot find anything so I continue onto the next store.  Eventually I find something I like and to proceed to the line for the register, extending almost out the doorway.  I stand there patiently waiting my turn.  I look around and observe the many different shoppers in the store: mothers and daughters arguing, numerous fathers and brothers waiting impatiently in chairs nearby and tons of children crying, exhausted from walking around.  I stand there quietly waiting my turn, looking forward to leaving the store.  As I near the front of the line the cash register abruptly stops working so I am forced into another line, taking more time.  My sister standing beside me starts singing along to the upbeat Christmas music playing from the stores speakers.  I did not notice the music before, partially from the loud madness surrounding me and partially just tuning it out.  The day continued on like this with varying differences based on the store: Bath and Body Works also included an overpowering aroma which almost knocks me out, Delia’s was holding a massive sale so packs of teen girls openly fought for items, Sephora had girls walking around with faces half done badly with mix match make-up.  At the end of the day I slowly make my way to the parking lot relieved to breathe in fresh air.  I wander around for a few more minutes, trying to remember where I parked, and then gladly head home.  It made me realize the madness behind this whole ordeal and the irony in the insanity which takes place for a happy celebration.  In many ways it made me think of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.  How Bromden would look down upon the Combine’s praise of such a strange custom.  How everyone becomes accustomed to certain habits and do not think much of it.  Or how humans can focus just on themselves and disregard the others around them.  In many ways holiday shopping can seem very insane.    

And They Lived Happily Ever After…

With just thirty-five pages left in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest I am anxious to see what happens.  This has been my favorite novel in AP English so far.  I enjoyed reading it and hold high expectations for the ending.  Throughout our group discussions it plainly became evident how everyone desires McMurphy, Bromden and the patients to overcome the nursing staff and defeat Nurse Ratchet.  However, as Ms. Serensky asked our class multiple times, “what exactly do you want to happen?”  Personally, I just want the patients to win. In order for this to happen they need to take down the staff.   I realize it would be unrealistic for them to literally get rid of the staff and live with complete anarchy.  But if the staff stays there the patients clearly did not win.  The ending of this novel needs to keep a balance between the two which keeps it both realistic and optimistic.  So I will answer Ms. Serensky’s question and give a short synopsis of exactly what I would like to happen.  Ideally, I hope for an intervention to take place.  I want the patients to ban together with their new found strength gained through McMurphy’s teaching and devise a plan to get outside help.  I want an outsider, not a part of the Combine, to recognize the abuse taking place inside the ward and make others take notice.  This group of concerned outsiders must highlight the injustices taking place and take over. All the staff must be fired, except for the doctor, and replaced with new, caring workers who treat the patients compassionately.  I want McMurphy to go back into the outside world, because I really do not see anything wrong with him, and for the other patients to actually work at getting better in order to leave one day. This may seem a bit idealistic and a lot to happen within a mere thirty-five pages, but I hope for an ending along these lines.  I realize that Kesey and my viewpoints may differ a bit and I am guessing it may turn out differently then I wish.  I will go now to finish my reading, hopefully to a happy ending.     

Insanity Everywhere

I recently found myself concerned with the repeating theme of comparing One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest to student’s daily life.  When groups would discuss blog topics and ideas at commons students would say how they choose to relate the book to something that happened in their life. I found myself becoming defensive at this thought.  In no way would my life ever relate to a hospital for the insane.  I did not like thinking that I could share characteristics with those labeled “insane” or “crazy.”  However, the more I read student’s blogs and heard of small anecdotes which parallel the themes in the novel, I came to accept the fact that many instances do seem a bit insane in my daily life.  I realized that any activity looked at critically can seem odd.  I thought of how Nurse Ratched continuously watches the patients out of her window, taking notes, listening to their conversations and judging them.  She looks for small ticks of theirs or a simple phrase which displays their madness.  I realized that if someone watched me and took notes on my habits I probably would seem somewhat insane too.  Everyone possesses strange behaviors and routines that seem normal to them which others would not understand.  For instance, at times I can act a bit obsessive.  I will lock my car three or four times and then still think I left it unlocked.  Other times I can act extremely forgetful and will lose my phone for hours.  I think nothing of this, however, if someone observed me critically and tried to analyze what these actions mean they could spin it to seem strange.  I can visualize our class tearing me apart saying that I act paranoid towards the outside world through my repetition of locking my car and cutting myself off from communication.  Note, that this is not the case at all.  It just makes me wonder if the nursing staff blows the patients acts out of proportion or if everyone is a bit more insane than we think.   

The Bees and Bromden-Sharing the Same Problem

Today in class we discussed Chief Bromden’s  “problem” of emphasizing with the other patients.  He explains, “I can see all that, and be hurt by it, the way I was hurt by seeing things in the Army” (136).  Indirectly characterizing himself as empathetic, he juxtaposes and parallels the pain he feels for others to the pain in his own life.  In response to this trait Bromden shuts himself off from the rest of the world in a “fog” where he attempts cut himself off from others.  This characteristic reminded me of the character May Boatwright from Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees.  This novel tells the story of Lily, a young girl who journeys to find out about herself and her mother, who passed away at a young age.  She meets May along this journey and learns of her strong sense of empathy.  Due to this constant pain May encounters, she created a “wailing wall” where she writes down people’s sad stories, places them on the wall and tries to work through the pain.  May often times seems closed off and spends much time alone.  In these novels both characters struggle with this characteristic and find it mentally, physically and emotionally draining.  I found it ironic that these two very different novels contain such similar characters that parallel on numerous levels.  It makes Bromden’s problem seem much less severe.  Although these novels are fiction, it still makes me wonder how many other people, maybe not to the same extremes, feel this strong sense of empathy.

Nursery Rhymes-Not What You May Think

In class the other day we looked at the nursery rhyme “Vintery, Mintery, Curery, Corn” due to the title of Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.  After analyzing the poem and seeing it in regards to Kesey’s novel, the nursery rhyme seemed a little creepy to me.  It surprised me that parents read it to their children.  This made me think back to the common nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosy.”  My older cousin once told me that it really related to history so I looked it up and found out that it does.  It comes from the Bubonic Plague in England.  The plague caused a rosy red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin, “ring around the rosy.”   People of the time believed that the disease came from bad smells so they would carry around sweet herbs, “a pocket full posies.”  This disease created over a 60% death rate which caused the line “ashes, ashes, we all fall down.”    The nursery rhyme “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” also holds another meaning.  This rhyme refers to Mary Tudor, also known as Bloody Mary, a Catholic Queen in England who killed Protestants.  Her “garden” means the graveyard she created, “silver bells and cockleshells” include torture devices of the time period and “the maids” are another term for guillotines.  After learning of these deeper meaning behind the catchy rhymes, they really scare me.  I think of all the times when I made the kids sing “Ring Around the Rosy” when I taught swimming lessons and how creepy it seems now.  I question how these became common rhymes for children and why we continue to read them to them as babies.

11th and 12th Grade English

Today Ms. Serensky mentioned during her “Blog Banter” some of the differences between the AP English 11 and AP English 12 students.  She told of one scenario during an in class writings when she gives the five and ten minute warnings.  The 11^th graders begin to fidget, breathe heavily and shuffle around, while the 12^th graders do not flinch and continue writing.  The comment made me remember 11^th grade English class, a time of stress, panic and fear.  My brother, Michael, at the same time took AP English 12 with Ms. Serensky.  Overall, I did benefit from Michael’s knowledge of English and willingness to help me, but it also created a small resentment toward him.  He would laugh at my very serious questions such as “What is the difference between situational and dramatic irony?” or “In the heading what comes first her name or the class?”  He would shake his head when I would complain during dinner of my inability to write a one page SOAPSTone on an essay from “50 Great Essays,”  all the while warning me of the difficulty of 12^th grade English.  He would make a point to show me when I walked past his poetry papers and I would gasp at his finished 20 page data sheets.  With English 8^th period he would always come to the car, late, with English on his mind.  He would tell me fun stories from class that day and the jokes they shared.  I loathed the thought that the 12^th graders enjoyed class while just entering the class made me nervous.  However, looking back now I see that I am no different.  I find amusement in the 11^th graders anxiety for such simple tasks and apprehension for each class.  I now see that I have grown much from where I started and the huge difference between the11th and 12^th grade English classes.