Second Cuckoo's Nest Blog

At this point I believe that McMurphy is wining in his feud with Big Nurse, if only for the moment. The one thing that has been the strength of the Nurse throughout her days at the ward is the ability to so intimidate people that her actions are never questioned and dissent of her methods is never voiced by those around her. I see McMurphy as having the current upper hand because he is turning this tried tactic of the nurse on its head; the defiance that he shows towards the Nurse gives strength to those around him and now many people are letting their opinions be known and going against the Nurse's rigid schedules. McMurphy has the power of the people behind him. I believe that the introduction of McMurphy into the ward has had dramatic healing properties for Chief; so long has he been under the Nurses spell that he sees himself as being physically shrunk by his time in the ward. The energy and rebellion that courses through McMurphy's veins has enriched the Chief, making him closer to the giant of a man that he was before coming to the hospital. However, I do think that the way events are transpiring confuses the Chief; he wants to root for McMurphy because he views him as a hero, a knight come to the rescue of the ward's patients, but he has never seen the Nurse beaten and he cannot commit fully to following McMurphy because of his anticipation of McMurphy's eventual loss. I personally am rooting for McMurphy, he is a rebellious spirit that is also trying to help out others afflicted similarly to himself.

First Cuckoo's Nest Blog

I would say the Nurse is the Villain of this story because she is a "ball-cutter" and she is a very hateful person who takes advantage of these men. She makes the patients feel, "like frightened , desperate, and ineffectual rabbits" scared for their own skins. She even spent a prolonged amount of time finding employees who had "just the right amount of hate". The protagonist, McMurphy, is also and anti-hero. he is not a very good person, seeing as how he gambles and fights, but the fact that he is trying to liven up life in the Ward and free the patients from the tyrannical rule of the Nurse is noble.

Great Gatsby Reading Blog #3

1. Why do you think that the setting of the book was so heavy with symbolism? Fitzgerald could have chosen any aspect of the story to be symbolic of the events that were happening, but he chose the places in which they occurred to do so. Why?
2. Analyze how Fitzgerald feels about dreams, are they futile and worthy of abandonment? Or are they Something to live for, a goal that the universe necessitates we work for?
3. Why do you think that Fitzgerald chose to have Tom "win" at the end of the book? Why was it that Gatsby had to die for his point to be proven?
4. How effective in propelling the plot was the use of parallelism in Chapter 7, where the truth comes out?

Black Bottom Stomp

This music is lively and upbeat, good for dances of the time like the rag and foxtrot. I feel that its cordial sounds and cheery tempo would have been quite the atmosphere at Gatsby's parties. His parties were where the aristocratic could come out and let go and enjoy themselves, taking part in lively dance and festivities, very different from what I suppose the stiff-necked parties of the East Egg would be like.

Great Gatsby Reading Blog #2

The introduction of Meyer Wolfsheim does two things for us: it shows that Gatsby is familiar with many groups of people, some of them rater unique; it also makes us question whether Gatsby is in some sort of elicit business and how he came to get his money. The effect that these suppositions have on our idea of Gatsby are whether he is really so honest and benevolent a person as he seems and that there may be some more sinister reasons behind his "not wanting to offend anyone". The introduction of knowledge of Gatsby and Daisy's past make everything that Gatsby has done in the past five years of his life look like some pathetic ploy to win back love that he missed out on so long ago. He says that he wants everything to go back to how it was, and all of his actions, even inviting people to parties so that he might learn of her whereabouts, were moves towards that goal. It makes him seem less impressive and grandiose and more sad and almost pathetic. The more and more I learn of Gatsby's past the more I have to question how he rose to such high status and wealth in the world, it seems that fate stunts him at every opportunity. It also makes him seem like less and less of an aristocrat and more of an everyday man with big aspirations. All of the knowledge of Gatsby that comes the reader's way in this chapter bolsters respect for the man but the initial feelings of awe surrounding him have diminished. In its place I find empathy and wonder at how Gatsby came to be what he is in the novel from his origins as a clam-digger. 

Great Gatsby Reading Blog #1

Gatsby is the novels namesake, and will unquestionably be the hero in the end of this book. My reasons for saying so are many: he hosts many large parties so that people may have a good time, but he is responsible and does not drink himself (pg 50). He is also incredibly generous and invites his new neighbor Nick to his party and then out to try out his hydrofoil. I believe that he is a generous person and will be a kind of guiding light if Nick gets too caught up in the world of high fashion and partying. Nick will be somewhat of a hero, more of the person we are rooting for since we can relate to him fairly well, but I think that the circumstances will get the better of him. Jordan Baker will be a villain, her high class and indifferent attitude will lure Nick into feeling stronger about her than he should and being further sucked into living outside his means. She is bad news-bears for nick although he does not recognize it yet. she is inherently a liar and this will get Nick into trouble later in the novel (pg 58). Tom may turn out to be a villain, but right now he is just someone who is restless in his own life, he drags Nick into his problems because he feels that he is a friend although Nick may not feel quite the same way. His affair with his mistress, Mrs. Wilson, is nothing new to his pattern of moving city to city, although i fear that the toll it is taking on his wife who is now with child may spill over into Nick's life as he attempts to care for his cousin as best he can.

Bua's Style

The exaggerated lengths and proportions of objects in the paintings creates emphasis. His painting deal predominantly with black culture and more specifically with the organic rhythm of dance and music.the paintings seem to have a very upbeat nature and the stylized features and lanky limbs of the figures seem to give them a sense of life. the shading and contrast between light and dark ad both emphasis and realism to the peices. Reminds me of creole artwork.