The Hard Times of Harding

The group meetings, headed by Miss Ratched, are where the Acutes share with eachother any little gripe, any grievance, anything they want changed should be brought up before the group and discussed, or else that anger will build up inside and they will never be healed. It's been thought that if men learned how to get along in a group, he'll be able to function properly in society. The group's purpose is to help show him where he's out of place; how society is what decides who's sane and who isn't, so you got to measure up.
At the meeting, Harding becomes the patient chosen to share his past and talk about it. Instead of the discussion being open and helpful, poor Harding is being accused of not only being gay, but he is blasted by the others because he could not please his attractive wife. McMurphy brings this up to Harding and tells him that these group meetings are nothing but a "pecking party". If one chicken in a whole flock has a wound, the others will attack the wounded one and all the chickens could wipe out one another. He points out that Miss Ratched is the chicken who pecks first and Harding is merely just the wounded chicken. Harding completely disregards what McMurphy is saying, and says that the group meetings are therapeutic and that Miss Ratched is not a monster, but a sweet-loving nurse who only wants what is best for the patients. However, McMurphy does not believe for one second that the nurse is caring. Rather, she is the ball-cutter of men; emasculating them of any manhood they once had, and leaving only a patch of hair behind where the balls used to be.

"The hell with that; she's a bitch and a buzzard and a ball-cutter, and don't kid me, you know what I'm talking about." (Kesey 58)

Harding then continues on to telling the other patients that Miss Ratched is a "veritable angel of mercy" and that everyone knows it. That she is unselfish woman who helps the unforunate by doing generous volunteer work. When Harding is finished telling a story about Ratched's unyielding kindness, he looks around and sees that everybody's watching him. He does his best not to laugh and moves around uncomfortably, making small noises under his breath until he finally whispers out through his teeth, "Oh the bitch, the bitch, the bitch." (Kesey 59)

Do you think McMurphy can help Harding?
Is Nurse Ratched really the ball-cutter of men?

Mo Money, Mo Problems

Money.

Money...

Lie for it

Spy for it

Kill for it

Die for it

So you call it trust

But I say it's just

In the devil's game

Of greed and lust

They don't care

They'd do me for the money

They don't care

They use me for the money

- (Money lyrics by Michael Jackson)


Michael Jackson wrote these lyrics because he knew that money created monsters out of people whose life revolved around money and getting as much as they could. Money didn't change Michael, it changed the people around him. Michael was very spiritual and caring and he was not a lustful, greedy person because he saw that people would want to use him for money and he didn't want greediness to control another human being.


"The only crazy I was was when I married him. I knew right away I made a mistake. He borrowed someones best suit to get married in and never even told me about it..." - Myrtle (p 39)


Myrtle is venting out her anger to Catherine about her husband. She thought he was a gentlemen who had lots of experience and training with horse breeding, but he didn't. Myrtle is now saying that her husband is not fit to lick her shoe and regrets ever marrying him. What I believe she expected was her husband to have a lot of class and wealth. When he couldn't meet these requirements, she has an affair with Tom, who actually is very wealthy. In my opinion, money makes people not just greedy, but lustful as well, because that's why Myrtle is attracted to Tom. "Money" lyrics by Michael Jackson describe just how money can change people, and how it irrevocably draws people into this lifestyle completely revolved around money.


Do you think Myrtle would leave Tom if he didn't have money?
Why is Tom so boring?

The Fate of Bigger "than life" Thomas

"Bigger understood every word; and he seemed not to react to the words, but to the judge's face. He did not move; he stood looking up into the judge's white face, his eyes not blinking... he lay on the cot and something deep down in him said, It's over now. . . It's all over. . . ." (Bigger's reaction when the judge sentenced him to death, 417)

When the judge sentenced Bigger to his death, aftering hearing both the arguments from Max and Buckley, he and the jury decided upon Bigger's fate in about an hour or so; which in my opinion, a judgement made much too soon. It's Bigger's listless reaction to this that piqued my interest as to why he acted the way he did. Throughout the entire book Bigger was the guy living on the edge with all of the situations he got himself into, including: the fight with Gus, the murder of Mary, the ransom note, the rape and murder of Bessie, and running from the police. Yet when this part of the book appears, Bigger puts up no resistance to the fate that has been cast upon him; as if he already knew how his life would end.


The fate of Bigger, I believe, connects with the identity he has in Chicago and throughout the entire nation of the white America. Why? Bigger has been living in opression his entire life that not only cut off his relationship with the white folks of Chicago, but his own race as well. Bigger did not live in any other sort of lifestyle than the oppressive one; that is, until he met Max that truly changed how Bigger viewed himself and the world around him. Indeed, Bigger's death was a cruel one, but I think that Richard Wright chose the fate he did for Bigger because he wanted the reader to understand Bigger's interior motives for what he has done and how America deals with him, even though the white politicans, policemen, and the rest know they are responsible because of the hate they themselves have toward blacks. Max sums it up best when he describes how much of an impact Bigger really has made.

"My plea is for more than one man one people. Perhaps it is in a manner fortunate that the defendent has committed one of the darkest crimes in our memory; for if we can encompass the life of this man and find out what has happened to him, if we can understand how subtly and yet strongly his life and fate are linked to ours-if we can do this, perhaps we shall find the key to our future, that rare vantage point upon which every man and woman in this nation can stand and view how inextricably our hopes and fears of today create the exultation and doom of tomorrow." (382)

Loeb & Leopold & Bigger

"He wanted to suddenly stand up and shout, telling them that he had killed a rich white girl, a girl whose family was known to all of them. Yes; if he did that a look of startled horror would come over their faces. But, no. He would not do that, even though the satisfaction would be keen." (Wright 129)

In the beginning of book two, Flight, Bigger is trying to find a way to cover his tracks in the murder case of Mary. At first, he isn't sure of what to do, but he then decides to blame it on Jan, a Red, and tells the story of what happened that night in a different way than what really happened. Some truth was told in Bigger's story, but according to him, it was entirely Jan's fault and he's to blame for Mary's sudden disappearance. Eventually Bigger convinces Mr. Dalton and his private investigator Britten that Jan is the true culprit. While Britten and his men are busy trying to catch more leads on the Communist group, Bigger thinks it's a good idea to make a ransom note for Mary. He would say that Mary was alive, and in order for the Daltons to get their daughter back, they would have to pay a ransom of $10,000. Of course, Bigger wasn't going to do this act alone. He needed the help of someone; a person who was blind in the sense that they couldn't see clearly, and saw things in a gullible way. Bigger went to Bessie's apartment to tell her his idea to earn more money. Bigger then confesses to killing Mary when Bessies continues to ask him why he's certain that Mary won't come back. After a long time of trying to convince her, Bessie eventually caves in when Bigger threatens her very life with a knife. Bigger truly believes that no one would suspect a poor negro living in the slums of Chicago, would in any way have to do with a murder; especially one that involves a rich white girl. In a way, Bigger's way of thinking is similar to that of the infamous, deadly duo of Richard Loeb & Nathan Leopold, more commonly known as "Loeb & Leopold".

Loeb & Leopold were two wealthy, white boys living in Chicago who murdered a young boy named Bobby Franks. Their reason for the murder wasn't because of revenge or a certain hate for the boy; no, it was to prove to themselves that they could commit the "perfect crime". They thought that they would be the last people to be suspected of murder. After all, why would two brilliant college boys would want to murder anybody? Bigger too, also knows that he would be the last person suspected of murder. In the 1920s, blacks were thought of as unintelligent humans whose only purpose was to serve white folks. For that reason, Bigger felt that he could get away with his murder of Mary and take the ransom money too with his accomplice Bessie never wanted anything to do with the murder, but had to or else she would have been killed.
And with that, I will say that both Bessie and Bigger are blind but not in the technical sense of the word. They are blind because they do not fully understand the situation they are getting themselves into. Bigger is so full of pride and confidence that he feels he could do almost anything he wanted to. Bessie on the other hand, doesn't feel any sort of pride whatsoever, but is completely engulfed in a life of shame of who she is, and fear. These are not completely stable people, but neither were Leopold & Loeb. I'm not saying that Leopold & Loeb weren't blind as opposed to Bigger and Bessie, they were. Both were completely convinced that they could get away with the murder because they thought of themselves as geniuses who could get away with murder, but in reality, it was their pride that got them caught in the first place. In the end I think that Bigger will fall down the same path they have with the pride he carries within himself.

"Do you think Bessie has a choice to help Bigger or does she have no say?"
"Is it possible that Bigger will kill Bessie?"