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In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, control is a major issue. The use of control is used differently in the two main characters. First off is Nurse Ratched’s control over the entire ward. She uses her power and authority as control over the patients and employees. Her way of control is very strict. She makes sure everyone knows she is the one in charge and what she says goes. All the patients in the ward obey her every word. Nurse Ratched uses this power to have complete control. She doesn’t want anybody to be able to overthrow her or have their own thoughts or ways at all. All the patients know when and where they are to be and what they are to be doing at all times during the day. Her control also goes a step further. There is also a punishment. All the patients know that if they do not follow her ways that they will have to get electroshock treatment to correct their “bad behavior.”
The ward was always run under the power and control of Nurse Ratched until McMurphy came. McMurphy possessed a different kind of control. Yes he still pretty much had control over the patients as well but the patients had a type of respect for him. He helped the patients try to overcome the control of the Nurse. Although McMurphy’s control was also used to “take” things from the patients they didn’t view it like that. They didn’t mind giving these things up to McMurphy because he did things for them. From teaching them to dance to getting them a fishing trip. The patients were under the control of McMurphy but this was better than the Nurse’s control. McMurphy’s control was more understandable and seemed to be used more to help than to hurt.

The idea of name is very important in this story. Every character has his or her name that represents them. Its not even like they are their own person. If you are born into a name that is how you are looked at. If your family has a history, then you carrying on that name carries on the history as well. One place this is important in the story is when the mother brings up the name of the family that killed her husband and son. She is always looking for any sort of connection to that name. It could be a distant relative with the same name and she will hold that against them as well. She even was holding it against the bridegroom because at one point he was seeing someone with that name. Names seem like a tattoo or branding that you can’t get rid of even if you are nothing like the rest of your family. Even today that comes about with names. If someone is very wealthy and someone even mentions their last name they are automatically looked at as being stuck up because they are rich. Names carry alot with them. Things you may want or not want. But often times more than just letters.

What can the reader of a story get from the author? A lot actually. In the novel The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende there as many situations that the author has the chance to view as good or bad. Esteban, the patron in the novel, has a sexual problem. He is all the time raping the peasant girls. This seems like such a horrible problem but in the story it is portrayed as bad but in a way not the worst thing in the world. The author points out that the peasants seem to think this is in a way supposed to happen. She makes it a point for one of the peasant girls to say that this is what happened to her mother and grandmother like it is a ritual thing that will happen. The reader then sees this raping as bad but what is normal for the patron to do. The patron in this story also visits whore houses off and on. In today’s society we think of such thing as on of the lowest jobs or livings a woman could have. The whores of the house are even looked down upon as not as good as the rest of the world. Isabel Allende does something interesting. She makes the idea of these whore houses something that was looked at as normal. By having Esteban go there it was almost like him just going to a grocery story or just to visit a friend. The whore of the house, whom Esteban met before, even states that her dream is to open her own house and she would know the exact way to run a successful business. The patron then looks at her with ambition and dreams as that of a great woman. That is the last thing someone today would want to do right? If someone is looked at as the lowest of all people the last thing they want to do is keep going as that right? The author of this story makes the reader forget about the viewpoints of today and accept what is “right” or “normal” in the time of the novel.

Digital literature. The beginning of a new era. How long have books been written? How many times are stories read off in a sequence from a piece of paper with words written or typed? A lot huh? The world is moving on. Step out have some fun. These words on paper don’t have to be the only way to read or write literature. Some authors seem to be trying new creative ways. One way that is out there is the use of video games that include words. This seems to be nothing more than words flying across the computer screen. Does it make the mind think? Of course! A little harder than normal actually, but is it really literature. That seems a little hard to state saying that there really isn’t a story or even complete sentence actually. Nothing but random words and phrases. These games are not the only way of using this digital literature though. Another way an author is experimenting with this is having every visitor to the site add their own lie to make a little “book” of lies. Think about this one. It may not be a story but it seems to have a little more thought and meaning behind it. People are writing their certain lies for a reason. Rather it just be what is on their mind or maybe even the truth that they really want to be a lie. Ever think of that? This type is so much easier to read and comprehend as actually having some sort of meaning behind it. Though not a clear story line it at least seems more capable of reading as a group of thoughts. And in the end isn’t that what an author is doing when they are writing a story? Authors seem to be creating these new ways of literature that make the mind think in a different way. Does difference make it not literature? Is being different and busting out of the normal a bad thing?

The whole idea of the corridos brings about many interesting discussions. One of them being the many different versions that have been recorded. This type of literature seems so different from what many people would consider. But it is considered literature isn’t it? Why not. It has the same elements. It tells a story, and has characters. The thing is, it changes. Throughout the versions certain elements of the story change with the person telling it. This could be explained by a few things. First off by the story being repeated through generations people may forget some parts or maybe even add some, or they could even be sided to one character in the story making the other one sound more like the bad guy. The whole fact that the story isn’t in book form and written down gives the opportunity for change to occur. Another interesting thing about corridos that might make someone argue the face that they are not literature is that the story is sung. Before someone can argue that think of one thing. When reading the lyrics to any song doesn’t it almost always tell a little story? The corridos are just like lyrics to a song. They tell a story. And isn’t a story considered literature?

In the book Ceremony the idea of stories comes up often. One way that this idea is expressed is in the story about the hummingbird and fly that is interesting woven into the book. This story seems to parrallel the storyline of Tayo and the other characters. At times things that happen during Tayo’s ceremony can compare to something that happens in the story. For example at one point in the ceremony when Tayo finds the girl that helps him get the herbs it is just like in the story when they go to get tobacco from caterpillar. This parallel of the stories seemed to keep a very mysterious interest in the reader.
Also, with this culture stories played a big role. This was the peoples way of communicating ideas, rituals, and even little lessons. At the beginning of the novel it is even mentioned that stories are everything the people had. They wer not just used for entertainment but for every part of life. When a story is passed there is no way of being destroyed. In the end it just comes to the pure fact that stories are how and what the people of Laguna culture lived by, and in the book Ceremony, the author really tries to emphasize this idea in all these different ways.

Clothing styles, music, and trends are constantly changing over time. Another thing that changes that many people don’t think about or even realize is language. Think of trying to read a shakespere play. Most likely its going to be challenging and need to be analyzed before comprehending, but in the time he wrote the plays that was the normal language people spoke. Language seems to always be changing and for someone not from this time it may be difficult to read. Due to the difficulty of the reading someone may not appreciate the piece of work as much. Sometimes language puts a barrier on the ability to understand or even enjoy reading literature. Not only if the language is of a different time period but sometimes this barrier is also present when the language is too sophisticated for the reader. Struggling to understand what is written while reading, can be very frusterating. This most of the time causes the reader to miss the purpose or entertainment of what he/she is reading, causing the reading to be useless. The language of a piece of literature is very important and plays a big role in the experience of a reading.

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid. Almost everyone of us has heard , read, or been told these stories at least once in their childhood. What did we think about these stories when we were younger? Usually nothing more than Walt Disney’s versions of these fairy tales, a story for children to read enjoy and maybe even envy. In most cases these stories also had a lesson to be learned, but isn’t that how lots of things are when we are younger? In the cute little story ways we try to sugar coat situations that children need to be aware of. The situation is there and the children see what happens if someone does the wrong thing, but it is all in a happy ending children’s story book kind of way.
Stepping away from Walt Disney there are these fairy tales out there that aren’t written in this storybook kind of way. They have harsher punishments, more graphics, and less of the princess, “candy coated” elements. Lots of people say they would never read these stories to their children. But why? Yes they might be a little more scary but not enough to scare a child. In some of the other versions the lesson is so “candy coated” that the children don’t even pick it up. So what is the fairy tale used for then? Just a story for entertainment? Or is the parent still trying to get the moral through to their child?
Today this kind of fairy tale could never be read in a public school without causing a riot among parents and the public. Society today seems to try to blind children from most of the dangers and lessons that they should be learning everyday. But is that really working? Children used to get hit in school if they did something wrong, and their parents would even read them stories that had harsh punishments to get the point across. Look at what is going on in the world today with our children. They are getting into bad stuff at such a younger and younger age. So did these stories with harsher lessons actually get the message across to the children? If this is the case maybe we should go back to reading these types of fairy tales.

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