One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest: the Power of Laughter Essay

Jimmy Buffet once said â€Å"If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane. † When an individual is no longer capable of laughing, he is also no longer capable of being in control of himself. This happens when a greater authority has the power to deny a person of their laughter; which, inevitably, denies him of his freedom. Ken Kesey conveys the idea that laughter and freedom go hand in hand throughout his novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Kesey portrays laughter as a parallel to freedom through various literary symbols and imagery in order to illustrate how the power of laughter can free a man who is under the control of an unjust authority. Through the characterization of Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, Kesey illustrates how the manipulation of others and the challenge of authority is a key component in the ability to laugh. Through the characterization of Nurse Ratched, Kesey illustrates how one person can manipulate others for her own specific intentions. Throughout the story, it is clear that Nurse Ratched (Bug Nurse) manipulates the patients and faculty to control them so she has all the power. As the book starts, we are immediately brought into this mental ward in the eyes of Chief Bromden. As he walks down the hall, and the aids insult him because he is dumb and deaf. However, little do they know that Chief is the exact opposite. As they continue to speak as if he weren’t there and hand him the broom, â€Å"They laugh†¦[it is a] Hum of black machinery, humming the hate and death and other hospital secrets† (10). The laughter of the black aids is not clear and freeflowing like laughter should be. Instead, it is described as a â€Å"hum† which illustrates that even the aids do not have the freedom to laugh. They are â€Å"black machinery† or descendents of the combine which demonstrates that the faculty on this ward is under the control of Nurse Ratched and the combine. It is also evident that they are all working together because when machines are working correctly, they hum in synchronization, just like these men are doing with their empty laughter. Along with the machine-like laughs, the men also know what is going on in the ward because chief implies that their humming contains all of the mysteries. Kesey uses machine-like references and imagery in order to illustrate Nurse Ratched’s influence on her employee’s; she is the reason there is no laughter on the ward. Another cene that expresses Big Nurses power is when Chief is describing how Big Nurse hates when things are out of order. Chief explains that even her uniform has to be crisp and clean at all times, and when its not, she still smiles and pretends not to care, but inside it bothers her to no extent. He makes it clear that he sees, â€Å"her sit in the center of this web of wires like a watchful robot, tend her network with mechanical insect skill, know every second which wire runs where and just what current to send up to get the results she wants† (30). Big Nurse is portrayed as a mechanical spider who has the knowledge and ability to control whatever is in her â€Å"web. † Kesey references her as machine-like figure due to her constant necessity to be in control. Everything she does must be in a certain order and flow a certain way. When Chief says she knows how to â€Å"get the results she wants† it makes it clear that she is able to manipulate everyone. This demonstrates that her manipulation takes away all of the patients power to do anything; it even takes away their freedom and laughter. Another example that portrays this idea is in the article Salvation Through Laugher. The author, Stephen L. Tanner, is analyzing Kesey’s work, and as he discusses the first chapter of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, he notes how, â€Å"Miss Ratched is pleased when a ‘completed product’ goes back into society as a ‘functioning, adjusted component'† (Tanner 57). Tanner’s analysis expresses how Big Nurses intentions are to create these robots that do not have the ability to think for themselves. A â€Å"completed product† or success, will be think and act like the faculty, just another part of the machine. The pleasure Nurse Ratched gets out of these success’ illustrates that she loves gaining power and taking away people’s freedoms. Nurse Ratched manipulates the men on the ward and the faculty in order to gain power and take away all of their freedoms, even their freedom to laugh. Kesey conveys that the challenge of authority is the key to finding true identity. The protagonist, McMurphy immediately is introduced as this man with a huge, impenetrable ego. From the moment he steps on the ward, Chief notices that he’s different. Upon McMurphys arrival, Chief is awakening from the fog he is in. He’s in the day room with his inmates and is listening in on their conversations. Suddenly he hears Nurse Ratched announce that there is a new arrival. McMurphy enters the ward and is laughing. Chief notes that, â€Å".. it’s free and loud†¦[it] sounds real†¦it’s the first [real] laugh I’ve heard in years† (16). This illustrates how McMurphy, even from the beginning, has the intentions to challenge the rules. Before him, no one laughed on the ward, or even spoke above an indoor voice. However, as soon as he arrives, his laughter is â€Å"loud and free† which demonstrates that he is boisterous and independent. The combine will not succeed in taking away his freedom, nor will Nurse Ratched take away his ability to laugh. A second example is the scene in which McMurphy and his inmates disregard Big Nurses orders that they cannot watch the world series and watch it anyway because they had the majority in the second vote. As they all stop cleaning and sit down in front a blank TV screen, Nurse Ratched’s anger builds. Finally, she loses it and screams at McMurphy that he is , â€Å"‘supposed to be working during these hours! ‘ Her voice†¦a tight whine†¦a saw ripping through pine† (127) â€Å"her voice sounds like it hit a nail†(128). McMurphy’s breaking of the rules and influence on his inmates drives Nurse Ratched to the edge. Her voice hitting â€Å"a nail† illustrates authority running into a large bump and stopping it right in its tracks. The whining in her voice demonstrates that McMurphy is frustrating her, he is testing her power and this worries her, because she does not want to lose her power, and McMurphy is threatening her. However, no matter what Nurse Ratched does, she cannot seem to stop McMurphy and his free laugh. One of the most vital scenes is when McMurphy breaks the glass in the nurses station just after Cheswick commits suicide. He walks up to the nurse’s station, â€Å"†¦as big as a house! †¦[and says] in his slowest , deepest drawl how he figured he could use one of the smokes he bought†¦then he ran his hand through the glass†¦[it came] apart like water splashing†(172). McMurphy, haven been gone for a short while, challenges Big Nurses power and shows her that he’s back and is not losing this war. Him being â€Å"as big as a house† gives a visual that his power is radiating off of him. When he asks for his cigarettes, its in a slow and deep voice, and he does not wait for a response, just runs â€Å"his hand through the glass† it illustrates that he is not asking permission for anything. He will go against all of her rules because she cannot control him. The imagery Kesey uses to illustrate the glass shattering because when water splashes, there are many droplets and its not just one massive drop. McMurphy did not just break the glass or scratch Big Nurses power, he shattered it. He made his point that he has the power, not her, and he will always be free. Throughout the story, Kesey continues to have McMurphy constantly breaking the rules and challenging conformity in order to put across the idea that challenging authority can bring individuality. Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, conveys the idea that laughter and freedom go hand in hand when it comes to a person being an individual. Through the characterization of Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, Kesey suggests that manipulating others and challenging authority is an essential part of laughing and freedom. I have come to learn that freedom can be achieved by laughing and it’s a necessity to laugh, therefore it’s a necessity to be free. After reading this novel, it is clear that laughter is crucial part of individuality and without it, we would all be mechanical robots because as Kesey once said â€Å"if you lose your laugh, you lose your footing. â€Å"

A Father’s Story

Stories often have a main character that is centered on because he/she fails at some responsibility of theirs or falls short of their goal. In â€Å"A Father's Story† written by Andre Dubus, Luke Ripley is a character that succeeds in his responsibilities as a father. Luke shows love, compassion and above all a protective instinct and desire to help his daughter. He emphasizes that he is very religious although perhaps not very devout. All of these characteristics help him fulfill his fatherly duties to his daughter during her stay at his house. Luke has had an interesting life preceding the main events of the story. He has lost his entire family, making him alone in a large house with nothing but horses and a radio to keep him company. Despite those trials, Luke has it inside him to continually show love to his family when they do return, especially to his daughter even though she kills a man. Andre Dubus emphasizes this love and compassion Luke has through some of the background information he gives leading up to the main events of the story. Dubus shows small details that Luke a centers his attention on and the efforts that Luke puts forth to try and love his family after they leave him. There also comes a point in the story where Luke's heart's â€Å"longing to love† as he calls it, makes him bitter with Father Paul. Luke's friendship with Father Paul brings about another very interesting character trait in Luke. This is his religious side. Based on the way that Luke recounts the events of his life, religion is a mayor part and focus of his life. He seems not to be very devout and strict; he says that â€Å"being a real Catholic is too hard. † Still though, he goes to each Sunday Mass and Father Paul is his best, and in truth his only friend. Luke wakes up early each morning and rides his horse to the church. Luke falters only twice as far as his chastity and marriage beliefs are concerned and he describes those two incidents as having been in the distant past and not a reoccurring habit. Luke also realizes that he cannot force or tell his children what to believe but he still tries to point them in the direction that he believes to be right. Luke explains that his religion and Father Paul help to keep him company and keep him strong when his family left him. The main focus of this story however is not about Luke's love and compassion, or his religion; it is about just his fatherly instinct and desire to protect and help his daughter. The entire story, up till the climax Top point, is aimed at Luke's ability to empathize with his daughter and provide her with the comfort and help that she needs. First of all, Jennifer is the youngest child, the baby in the family. This automatically puts her in the position to receive more attention and care from her father. Jennifer also seems to be the one that visits her father the most often and for the longest periods of time. Luke enjoys the time that he gets to spend with his daughter. He relishes in the little details and subtle changes that take place over time. He points out how they are growing up and getting steadily more mature. Luke shows us that he understands and empathizes with his daughter and her transformation into a young adult when he says, â€Å"it was womanhood they were entering, the deep forest of it, and no matter how many women and men too are saying these days that there is little difference between us, the truth is that men find their way into that forest only on clearly marked trails, while women move about in it like birds. Jennifer then wakes her father in the middle of the night to tell him that she has just hit a man, and might have killed him. This is enough to test any father's love, patience, and temper. But Luke rises to the occasion and his character doesn't falter he firsts comforts his daughter and learns the whole story of what has taken place and what has upset her so badly. Then after she has calmed down, and only after she has calmed down, Luke leaves to try and find this man. The result is that Luke finds the man, and watches him die because he is powerless to save him at this point, he does not tell his daughter this, he only says that the man is dead. Then Luke says something interesting, he tells us â€Å"If one of my sons had come to me that night, I would have phoned the police and told them to meet us with an ambulance at the top of the hill I could bear the pain of watching and knowing my sons' pain but never my daughter's. This illustrates with perfect clarity Luke's special love for his daughter and desire to protect her in a way that varies greatly from that of his feelings for his sons. Stories often have a main character that is centered on because he/she fails at some responsibility of theirs or falls short of their goal. In â€Å"A Father's Story† written by Andre Dubus, Luke Ripley is a character that succeeds in his responsibilities as a father.

Debenhams Strategy Analysis

A recent improvement in the wider market has boosted the retailer by almost 30% since the start of 2012, taking the shares towards the upper band of the downward channel. On 8. Xx earnings the valuation remains undemanding, but the relative valuation in comparison to the sector has narrowed recently. Furthermore, it doesn't have the tangible asset backing relating to property that many of the other major retailers have. Recent restructuring has reduced their net debt to IEEE. Million, but this still represents almost half the market capitalization.Many analysts are forecasting little pre-tax profit growth over the next few years and given the vulnerable technical outlook combined with possible downside macro-economic shocks, which is believed to be a stock to avoid in the short-term. Despite this environment, Deadbeats has taken market share in all of the major clothing categories as customers have responded favorably to the changes made to the design, quality and value of their prod ucts and the improved in- store environment. Overall, share of Deadbeats of the total clothing market increased by 0. %.Yips Triangle Internationalization – might be defined as a geographical dispersion activities across national borders or world widely connection. For instance, products that have been made or purchased abroad and been sold at home country. Industry Globalization Drivers * Cotton price rises * Growth potential in a market * Consumer uncertainty over Job cuts and income prospects share from Arcadia, Deadbeats and Next * M;S took * Multi-channel retailing Increase in market share * Declining conversion rates the new store acquisitions successfully Departure of key personnel and failure * to attract or retain talentFailure to develop and implement roll out or Industry Globalization Drivers – According to Yip (1992) there are four sets of factors such as cost, market, government and competitive drivers which affect company and drive the business towards th e internationalization. Deadbeats' Industry Globalization Drivers: * Cost Driver – Increased cost of product development relative to market life. For example, in 2010 Deadbeats has played down fears that its clothing will cost more because of cotton price rises.Floods in China and Pakistan have severely hit crops, pushing up wholesale prices to a 1 5-year high. According to chief executive of Deadbeats Pl. Rob Templeton cotton prices are only part of the equation. Prices are up 4% and volume is down 2%. What is driving inflation is Force (currency markets). Although high street retailer Deadbeats tried to calm fears, saying the harvest in India – the world's second biggest cotton producer – was expected to be very good, the company started looking for alternatives. * Market Driver – Growth potential in a market.Recently company has been very focused on looking at Deadbeats' price points. So what they have been doing over the last few months is consolidati ng some of Deadbeats' supply chain, reviewing where they are buying room and how they buy and, in some cases, lowering cost prices. In addition, high street retailer has revealed half-year pre-tax profits of El 20. Mm, a rise of 17. 9%. The boost to figures has helped by the opening of four new stores and the acquisition of Denmark leading department store chain Managing du Nor. Government Driver – Consumer uncertainty over Job cuts and income prospects. In 2010 September, Deadbeats were cutting prices by up to 25% rather than waiting for the traditional end of season sale. The main reason for those reductions was that Government spending cuts were still shaking consumer confidence. The BRB (British Retail Consortium) warned the growth figures were flattered by a dismal performance in August 2009 – the worst in the second half of that year. Even though, company was pushed to look for a place in other markets. Competitive Driver – Rise of ‘lead' companies. In 2002, Deadbeats shares fell 10 to IPPP as the market was slightly disappointed with the company's current trading figures where like-for-like sales grew by PC for the first six weeks of the second half. According to Luck Evenhanded, M&S chairman and chief executive during February and March M&S outperformed everyone else on the high street. The company took share from Arcadia, Deadbeats and Next. This situation pushed Deadbeats, which has 97 stores, to open another four in the next financial year.Global strategic levers look at strategic decision making process via which company participates in the global market. This model includes the latter market participation, variety of products and services, location of value added activities and competitive moves. Multi-channel retailing Deadbeats makes use of multiple retail channels to reach the end market. Besides the brick-and-mortar stores, Deadbeats offers its merchandise through an online store, www. Beams. Com. In the first half o f 2011, the company introduced a Euro- denominated website for the Republic of Ireland.Management and Organizational Factors Departure of key personnel and failure to attract or retain talent Recently Deadbeats faces significant delays and prevent achievement of business plans. In order to attract and retain talent, both succession and personal development plans are in place throughout the organization. In addition, target-led, performance-related incentive schemes exist. Even though, skilled and well-educated labor is not that easy to get, so Deadbeats are forced to develop and look for it in different sectors. Annoys MatrixMathematician and business manager Igor Annoys looks at alternative corporate growth strategies, which examines a company's growth opportunity from both market perspective and product or service perspective. Market penetration * Despite the current economic climate and competition, Deadbeats maintains and is expanding clothing space and productivity ( own, desig ners label and concession) between 2009/10 and 2011/12 through refurbishments and acquisitions both in the I-J and abroad (franchise and delivery services), competitive pricing (drastic sale promotions), advertising (Multiplicand – websites, APS and TV

The Thoughtful Forecaster

Becoming a thoughtful forecaster is important to the development of any company today. Understanding the financial aspects of your company can be the deal-breaking point of whether your company is a successful one or not. In the case, â€Å"The Thoughtful Forecaster†, we learn that sometimes you are right and sometimes you are wrong, which is partially due to one’s bias. We also learn that being a thoughtful forecaster involves trial and era. It isn’t easy but throughout the processes you start to understand the financial relationships within your business.The financial statements provide information needed in order to make a proper analysis and provides you with the historical strengths and weaknesses of your business. The income statement, also known as the â€Å"profit-and-loss statement†, is utilized to measure the flow of cost, revenue, and profits over a period of time. The balance sheet gives an over view of business investments and the financing in a particular time. Together these two statements can give a thorough outlook of the business’s performance and a better understanding of the mechanics that make up the business operations.Interpreting and utilizing financial ratios is an important way to evolve into a successful financial forecaster. Examining a business’s performance includes: growth rates, margins, turnover, and return on investments. Growth rates capture the year-on-year change in percentage of a particular line item. It can be separated into two growth measures: unit growth and price growth. Unit growth is the growth of revenue due to an increase in units sold. Price growth is the growth revenue due to an increase in the price of each unit.Margin ratios are the percentages of revenue that has not been consumed by any business costs. Margins also measure the cost structure of the business which includes important definitions/ratios. These are: gross margin, operating margin, and net profit margin. Turnover ratios are used to measure productivity, or efficiency, of business assets. It is created by dividing a measure of volume from the income statement by a measure of investment from the balance sheet.There are several measures of turnover and they include: receivable turnover, inventory turnover, PPE turnover, asset turnover, total capital turnover, and payable turnover. An alternative form of measuring the asset productivity is in â€Å"days†, which takes the investment amount divided by the volume, which is then multiplied by 365 days. The resulting number is the average number of days in a year that an investment item is held by the business. Return on investments (ROI), is the profit generated per dollar of investment and the measure for calculating return on investments.This measure includes: pretax return on assets, return on capital (ROC), and return on equity (ROE). Financial ratios are useful in forecasting financial statements because they show the relationsh ips across financial-statement line items of the past. The financial models can be helpful in identifying the impact of assumptions on the forecast. Most financial models are composed in excel through a spreadsheet. By doing this it makes it easier to see the assumptions for the different forecast scenarios but it is also used to correct any of the assumptions that were inaccurately made.The forecasting process should go hand-in-hand with the constant economic changes and you should take into consideration the industry and economy wide pressures it endures. These pressures include: inflation, price-growth assumptions, and any economic recessions. Industry reality should also be taken into place and here you should consider business profitability and follow the guidelines that qualify a business to have higher or lower profitability. Having a high profitability does not always mean a high performance.It is important to recognize that the strategy of competitors do not stand still, an d your forecasting should be adjusted when needed according to aggressive competition. Two elements that become a problem in business forecasting are optimism bias and overconfidence bias. Optimism bias is stated as a systematic positive error in the expected value of an unknown quantity. Overconfidence bias is a systematic negative error in the expected variance of an unknown quantity. It is a difficult task but it is important to have an unbiased outlook for the forecast, which is done by having estimated high-side and a low-side scenarios.When forecasting the financial statements of the Maytag Corporation for the end of 2004, the company’s annual report provided me information from the income statement and the balance sheet from the previous two years. On there is calculations and a variety of ratios including the sales growth to return on assets. The ratio analysis gives us a sense of the trends in the business performance. Next it shows that a thoughtful forecaster would need to make assumptions into the future.Although these aren’t completely accurate, they can give us a clearer more centralized view of the analysis. With the qualitative/quantitative research and the historical data that was given we can assume the company will maintain its position in a declining industry. An increased entry of foreign competition will lead to zero sales growth for Maytag in 2004. Although all the events of 2004 cannot be predicted with the guidance and use of thoughtful analysis, we can conclude a reasonable and unbiased expectation of future performance has been represented.

Pauls Case Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Pauls Case - Research Paper Example The story commences with Paul’s faculty hearing after he was suspended from his high school located in Pittsburgh. He arrives at the meeting in outfits that are shabby and debonair at the same time. In particular, he had a red carnation in his buttonhole, which affronted the members of the faculty. As presented in the book, Paul is described as a narrow-shouldered, tall person with large pupils that strike the chord of a drug addict (Cather 7). The members of the faculty had a hard time to coherent their feelings about Paul. They all have a feeling that Paul hates them deeply. His family members view him as a person who had no interest in school. Moreover, the faculty members complain of disturbance caused by Paul in the classroom, and his defiant nature to the student’s council among other bodies. When Paul is still in the presence of the council, he keeps smiling, which makes his accusers feel insignificant. Some of the misdeeds he was identified with included disorder, ill will and impertinence to the staff and his fellow students. Moreover, he is also described as suave due to his nature of raising his eyebrows, which were regarded as irritating, and the brilliance in his eyes, which quivered the teacher’s casual touch (Cather 10). Paul’s drawing master was always on his side claiming that the teacher’s did not understand him clearly. Moreover, he also states that the mother to Paul had died after his birth in Colorado. These statements make the teachers and other members of the faculty ashamed about their ferocious nature towards Paul. Later on, Paul went Carnegie Hall that is located in Pittsburgh where he served as an usher. He had arrived quite early that day, so, he went through the Hall’s gallery to get a view of the paintings of Venice and Paris (Cather 20). In his strolling, he stares at one painting named blue Rico. Afterwards, he proceeds to the changing room together

Factors Contibuting to Individual Differences in Stress Response Coursework

Factors Contibuting to Individual Differences in Stress Response - Coursework Example Suffering from some chronic illness may be a source of stress for many people. It is important to understand how to respond to these stresses and factors contributing to differences in individual responses to stress. For instance, while alcohol proves effective in managing stress in some people, it has contradicting results in others (Sher & Walitzer, 1986). Stress response is the natural coping mechanism of the body to respond to stressful events and it involves the release of ‘hormones and glucose into the bloodstream to provide extra energy and alertness’ (Gilles, 2009). Researchers in response to stress often employ different approaches such as a consideration of the stimulus, the response, or the transactional perspective. However, regardless of the approached used, it is generally recognized that the individuals exhibit differences in the ability to respond to different stressful events. The differences can be attributed to the environmental, socio-cultural, and ge netic factors specific to the individuals. Some of the individual factors include personality traits (Kazmi et al, 2009), gender, social class, culture, ethnicity, age, and genetic composition (Davidyan, 2008). This paper examines the background of these observed individual differences with a focus on three contributing factors namely the environmental, cognitive, and genetic factors. ... mographic or historic developmental factors include gender, age, ethnicity, genetic predisposition, history of trauma or abuse, and the individual medical history (Davidyan, 2008). The psychological factors include whereas the social factors include acculturation, social support, socio-economic and educational status, leisure time activities (Davidyan, 2008). Environmental factors Various studies on human epidemiology have indicated that the early life experiences contribute significantly to the development of differences in how the individuals respond to stressful events in later stages of their lives. The differences that are observed in the psychological environment in which a physical stressor occur account for the variability in stress response (Sapolsky, 1994, p.263). The researches on the developmental programming of the stress system have examined the roles played by the environmental stressors or the exogenous glucocorticoids in the development of sensitivity to stress by an individual (Claessens et al, 2011). It must be noted that these factors do not stand alone in providing the influence. The environmental factors interplay other factors like the gene combination to define the differences. The outcomes of early experiences do not determine precisely the fate of an individual in the later stages. A class of environmental, cognitive, and genetic factors takes part in molding the overall outcome of the early life experiences. Personality traits and other dispositional traits have a stake in explaining the stress responses (Avitsur et al, 2006, p.289). However, there are cases in which the environmental factors are powerful and can override other factors like the genetic factors (Claessens et al, 2011). Various aspects of the environment working at specific

Health Systems and Healthcare Systems Coursework - 5

Health Systems and Healthcare Systems - Coursework Example Key among the roles of the government is to provide every Nigerian access to basic healthcare facilities without discrimination. In Nigeria, primary health care services are available in both the rural and urban areas. The agencies provide basic care to citizens regardless of their class or status. There are various aspects supporting the evaluation of the primary health care services in Nigeria. Primary health care services also include training on prevailing health problem and techniques of controlling and preventing the problems. It ensures proper nutrition among citizens and promotion of food supply and childcare, family planning immunization and prevention against major infectious diseases. There is significant evidence in the health promotion interventions making active enhancement of human health care. Primary healthcare also concerns the satisfaction of health- related Millennium Development Goals among the marginalized group and poor members of the population. World health organization (WHO) applies health promotion techniques to health and related social system and various risk factors including disease and health issues. Organizations are concerned with improving the quality of life by performing health promotion services. Health promotion has crucial roles to play in fostering public health policies and health -supportive environments promoting positive social conditions and skills promoting healthy lifestyles (Boman & Isiaka 2015, p.1). World health organization supports the country in improving infrastructure for organizing planning and initiating multispectral health policies and programs in Nigeria. Health system concentrates towards health promotion promotions initiatives including and their capabilities geared towards promoting health. There are advocacy and social mobilization for policy in support of health