Combine Institutions

The combine is a large machine that is used to harvest grain on many farms.  The combine cuts up the grain real small.  The psyche ward that is shown in Cuckoo’s Nest is portrayed by Chief Bromden as a combine.  The chief feels that it is a combine because all of the patients in it have no authority and are thought of as inferior.  They are made to feel like they are being cut to pieces emotionally.  It is not only the patients that were belittled in the Ward.  Even the Doctor was a victim of the Big Nurse taking away the manhood of each and every male in the ward.  McMurphy is just as vulnerable as every other male on the ward since the problem was not of personality but instead it was based upon gender.  The patients did not see the full extent of the problem and believed that McMurphy was different because he would never give up.  For awhile McMurphy was able to withstand the punishments from Big Nurse but eventually just like every other man in the ward, he would be forced to lose hope and give up.    

Many institutions are run similar to this where the people do not have many rights and are belittled by authority figures; however an institution should not by synonymous with being run like a combine.  In many institutions the main goal is to help the people instead of making them feel weak.  The decision if an institution is considered a combine is not black and white.  There are many gray areas that depend on how each and every institution is run.  Schools for the most part should not be considered combines because the students are meant to be helped.  On the other hand authority figures in some schools may make some rules that are not in the best interest of the students and which take away some of their rights.  Some authority also feel that the students are inferior to them, which in a way is true, however for a school to be run as smoothly as possible, a teacher has to be able to identify with students and treat them somewhat as equals. 

Psych School

Framingham High School is run very similarly to the psych ward in Cuckoo’s nest.  Nurse Ratched does not care about the wellbeing of each of the patients and only cares about the ward running smoothly.  Nurse Ratched tests different dangerous medicines and procedures on her patients.  She does not care what happens to her patients except that they behave.  I have seen something similar going on at FHS.  I am not accusing Mr. Welch of not caring about his students but he could be doing a lot more.  For example my sister is a sophomore in the marching band and like many other people in the band is having trouble getting enough credits to graduate.  Many band students have to quit the band in order to get all the credits to graduate.  My parents have tried to get my sister to quit band for one semester so that she can get enough credits, however my sister is completely against quitting band at all.  One of the possible solutions that the band has is making varsity sports (or just sports in general) to count as gym credit.  Actually playing a sport teaches the student more about teamwork and everything else learnt in a gym class.  I know that the band has been trying to talk to Mr. Welch about the situation and he seems to just be ignoring them.  It doesn’t seem like he’s saying nothing can be done about the situation, but it seems more like he doesn’t want to do anything about finding a way for the students in band to get enough credits to graduate.

            The vice principals at Framingham High School most closely relate to the Black boys who help out the big nurse.  I feel that overall the vice principals at FHS are not very well liked.  There are some vice principals that are not too bad, just as Mr. Turkle was nice to Chief Bromden, however there are some who are not as nice.  The black boys and the vice principals are the people who make sure everyone is doing as they are told.  The vice principals are the ones who are able to punish the students while the black boys also give out punishments.  The punishments at school are nowhere near as severe as at the psych ward but you get the idea.  After just getting back from a girls hockey game where a fight almost broke out I realized that the vice principals and the black boys almost act as referees of sporting events.  They are the people who stop fights from happening.  A referee is meant to break up a fight right away and the same thing goes for a vice principle or the black boys. 
            The guidance counselors and also the teachers at FHS are sort of like the male doctor at the psych ward.  These people for the most part are there to help you.  The doctor’s main job at the psych ward is to try his best to help the patients.  Another similarity is that teachers, guidance counselors, and the doctor get there power from someone else.  They get there power from the big nurse and black boys which correspond to Mr. Welch and the vice principals.

Simply the Symptoms are gone, not the illness

Some people believe that when the symptoms of an illness go away the illness is cured.  This is an assumption that is often made, however I believe it is untrue.  My mom is a Neurology nurse at Saint Elizabeth’s (not the same hospital as Walter Freeman).  My family also watches a lot of medical TV shows like the House, Royal Pains and Gray’s Anatomy.  I am not obsessed with these shows like the rest of my family, but I still watch them occasionally (As a matter of fact one of the few times I watch Gray’s anatomy was yesterday).  I should not be basing my opinion off of TV shows because they are not always accurate, however that is what I am going to do.  In these shows symptoms of a disease going away occasionally means the person is cured, however in many cases the person gets worse when a symptom goes away.  I also know that in real life a person may seem like they are better and be released from the hospital, however they come back a short period of time (it may be days, weeks, even months) later suffering from the same exact symptoms as they did the first time.  If a person with a disease gets better for a period of time it does not mean that they would not have the same problem in the future.  Some diseases do not even show symptoms until they are too late.  A doctor or nurse may send a person home after their symptoms from a certain disease cease to exist at that moment in time; however that does not mean that the person who has the disease is cured of the disease for the rest of their life.  It means that the person is not showing the signs of the disease at the moment and doesn’t say if the disease is cured or not.