One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    I really like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest so far. The book is about Chief Bromden, a Native American in a mental hospital, and his encounters with the people there. My favorite part about the book is that it’s written in a creative way that I haven’t really encountered before. Bromden pretends to be deaf and mute, so he has little to no interactions with any of the characters (as of halfway through the book). This allows the story to be told as if it was in third person with Bromden’s views and hallucinations added on to make it more interesting.

    Bromden is in a mental hospital, and not without reason. He has some sort of affliction that causes him to see and hear things, and he believes that everything is run on some sort of machinery. There are scenes in the book in which Bromden has intense hallucination/dreams, involving fog machines and being taken into the basement and watching a man get sliced open. Bromden believes that these visions are real, so sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not the things that he’s talking about are actually there.

    Bromden continuously mentions the electro-shock therapy, so a lot of tension is building with that aspect of the story. McMurphy (the new inmate who causes quite the ruckus)  is starting to break under the Big Nurse’s strict and somewhat sadistic rules, so I expect that he’s eventually going to get the treatment. In our group, we talked about how McMurphy is comparable to a Jesus, being the savior of the inmates. The EST table is shaped like a crucifix, so If McMurphy is EST’d and then becomes a martyr, that would be so totally Bible.

Word Count: 287

Emersonian Self-Reliant Man

The Emersonian self-reliant man is one who does not follow a creed or way of life. In other words, it is someone who thinks for themselves and doesn't conform to other people's beliefs. Consistency is big enemy of self-reliance. Being consistent means that the individual is re-stating what they have said in the past, "because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts."Emerson believes that the individual shouldn't rely on their memory to make a point; the present provides the best experience.s The Emersonian individual should have the ability to do what they want, similar to a child as Emerson puts it. A child is in its own world, not trying to please anyone or accomplish a certain long-term goal- they just exist and do what they please because they are not aware of any opposite force against them. 

Society is one of the opposers of self-reliance.  Society consists of everyone working together to make things for others - If one is a part of society, another is benefitting from that person's labor. To Emerson, in society, "The virtue in most request is conformity." Self-reliance revolves around not having to conform, so they are aversions to each other. A man can hold the same beliefs as the majority, but only if he came to those conclusions himself, without any driving outside force that convinced him. If he shares a belief with a majority just because many people believe that idea, he is not self-reliant. AN individual can hurt others. Emerson says that the self-reliant man shouldn't hurt others: "If you are not [noble], I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions." He's saying that hurting someone because they do not share the same beliefs, or because they said something that the person in question doesn't like, then calling yourself a self-reliant man and hurting them is completely hypocritical. A real self-reliant man would be glad that the person is thinking for his or her self and not agreeing with the self-reliant man.

native american debate response

I think that this mascot debate is kind of ridiculous. It’s sort of hard to solve an issue like this when both sides are being equally as silly. The NCAA is trying to ban all mascots and team names that contain anything involving Native Americans. This is already in itself a stretch; they are asking the teams to cross out their names from any previous achievments, and change their symbol and name. The teams shouldn’t have to cross out anything, but they also have to admit that some of the names are pretty racist. Not all of them, like the Braves, but the Redskins specifically catches my attention. That’s like having a team with a black guy as their mascot and calling them the Blackskins. It’s pretty blatantly racist.

Also, their doesn’t seem to be much word from the party in question: the Native Americans themselves. The Florida Seminole tribe seemed to be fine with it, but that’s all we’ve heard from. They don’t really get a say themselves, but they also don’t have an evident problem with the names. Right now it seems like the argument is probably a group of white dudes arguing with another group of white dudes about another race. I think they should actually get an opinion from the Native Americans to proceed.

Word Count: 218

American Dream comparison

After reading A Raisin in the Sun and The Great Gatsby, The two books are from complete opposite perspectives, and I came to the conclusion that we read them in the wrong order. This sounds kind of silly, but the way that the American Dream is presented in both caused me to to come this conclusion. A Raisin in the Sun should’ve been read first to get an idea of how it is difficult to achieve the American Dream when one is poor. Once we had that in our heads, we should’ve read Gatsby to show that being rich and also having achieved the American Dream can be just as bad, if not worse, than being in poverty.

A Raisin in the Sun follows working-class family who has just come into an extra sum of money left over in the father’s will. The American Dream is a major theme of the book, but the family hasn’t achieved it. The lack of the dream is more evident. Walter tries to reach his dream by using the money to invest in a liquor store, but they get duped and the money is stolen. The whole play focuses on the hardships of being poor, and how difficult it is to obtain the American Dream from nothing. They still end up with a new house, but they altogether don’t increase in happiness very much. We should have read this one first; we would’ve gone into The Great Gatsby already seeing what it is to be poor, and starting a new book to see what is to be wealth.

The Great Gatsby focuses on the upper class lifestyle, and the ritzy luxury that it entails. On the outside, being rich seems awesome, but Nick describes a lot of it as phony. While people are having a good time in Gatsby, a lot of it is portrayed as false happiness, and an obligation to be elegant just because of one’s social class (Daisy’s fake laughter comes to mind). In addition to that, a lot of pretty bad stuff happens- Tom and Daisy cheat on each other, there’s some sketchy insider trading business, and three people get killed. That’s even worse than the events in Raisin in the Sun.

I think it would’ve been really interesting to read Raisin in the Sun first, to get an idea of the hardships of being poor. We probably would’ve all had the opinion that living in conditions such as those and also achieving the American Dream would be very difficult, and rich people have it easy. Then, when we read The Great Gatsby, we would be expecting something a little less dark and more to do with those who have achieved the American Dream already. It couldn’t be as bad as poverty, right? WRONG. We would’ve seen that those particular wealthy people’s lives all kind of suck. They’re also pretty bad people.

A Raisin in the Sun and The Great Gatsby both portray the American Dream from different perspectives; from those who are poor and can’t achieve it, and from those who are rich and have already achieved it. The way that the books are written make it seem as if neither option is a very good thing. That isn’t to say that one can’t be poor and be happy or be rich and be happy, but from these viewpoints, that’s pretty much what it’s saying.

Word Count: 566

American dream analysis

Community Inquiry Analysis

    While doing this project, I saw that signs of the American Dream is ubiquitous in my neighborhood. To me, the American Dream is about the freedom to pursue what an individual wants to do in his or her life. For this reason, I focused on small businesses. After interviewing my subjects, I decided that with such a small selection of viewpoints, it is very difficult to determine whether or not the American Dream is present.
All of my subjects had different stories of how they came into their occupations, and all had varying views of their jobs. For example, Joey, the barber, wanted to become a hair stylist and now owns his own barbershop. On the other side of the spectrum, Augustine, the owner of the jewelry and electronics exchange, is young and is pursuing a career as a freelance graphic designer while running the store to keep afloat. With this perspective, I broadened my search into simply whether or not small businesses exist within my neighborhood. The answer is YES; there’s practically only small businesses, aside from the usual walgreens or gas station. In conclusion, the American Dream is definitely present within my community, although some people haven’t achieved it yet.

Community Investigation Proposal

For my community investigation, I will be focusing on West Walker. West Walker is the triangle made by Irving Park, Pulaski, and Elston. I will talk to two local business employees, and someone from my family (probably a parent). The businesses I am thinking about visiting are Two-Way Grill, Chicago Grill, Joey'z Hair Cutz, and the Jewelery and Electronics Exchange

American Dream article

Steve Hogan, the mayor of Aurora (the city in which the Dark Knight Rises shooting took place), recently tried to ban violent video games. If that doesn’t work, he at least wants to implement a tax on the sales of violent video games. The American Dream is largely tied to the Constitution; free speech is the First Amendment, and everyone can agree that it is one of the most important ones. Video game violence is fully protected under the First Amendment, so banning them would be considered unconstitutional. Some may also argue that the right to own a gun is the American Dream. I don’t really agree, but it’s in the constitution, so banning guns would also be unconstitutional. However, when the Constitution was written, there weren’t mass shootings with AK-47s in movie theaters. It seems kind of ridiculous to me that violent video games are considered more of a factor in shootings such as Sandy Hook and the one in Aurora than the ability to own an actual assault weapon. Hogan supports the right to own a gun (in moderation), which isn’t that bad; it’s a problem if he thinks that violent video games are worse. I love video games, and if they were banned I would be pretty peeved.

Word Count: 211