In English class we are reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Journal. The combine is refered to multiple times in the book. A combine is a harvesting machine that is used in the fields to cut grain. In the book, the combine is refered to as the ward and all the rules and regulations the Big Nurse has set for the patients. McMurphy is just as vulerable to the combine as all the other patients. He is given the same rules to follow as everyone else, except he, unlike the rest, chooses not to follow them. The combine has not gotten to him yet because he is being rebellious and not following the rules of the ward. He goes on and does whatever he pleases while the other patients obey whatever they are told to do. He is different hence the nurses and Black Boys do not know how to handle his behavior and attitude.
     I believe every institution is in some way a combine. For example in school, there are some kids who rebel against what they are told to do and others who follow the rules. The schools try to keep the students in check, but sometimes they fall a little short. Schools try equally with every student, but some kids don't want or accept the help of the school. Kids tend to rebel like McMurphy against rules at school because they think its cool, but most of the time they are just hurting them selves and others around them. Combines are used to help institutions stay organized, but they do not always work out that way and sometimes miss a few people on the way.

It's kind of scary to think that a school and psych ward could have similarities, but in fact they do. The psych ward from the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has a few similarities to the way our high school is run. One similarity is the Big Nurse and our Principle. Everyone at school has to follow the principles orders or else they could get in big trouble. He keeps things in check and makes sure everything is runnign smoothly. The Big Nurse also has similar responsibilities as the principle. She has to make sure all the patients are taken  care of and the nurses know what they are doing. Everyone in the ward is scared of the Big Nurse because she has authority and basically runs the warda according to the way she wants it to be ran.
Another similarity between the psych ward and the school is the various people that attend each. At school, there are many different races, cultures and ethnicities that make up the school community. Along with those differences there are also many attitude variations at school. Some people are quite and keep to themselves and others are loud and like to be noticed. Similarly, there are many variations of patients at the ward. There are quite patients like Cheif Bromden and the other chronices and there are more talkative patients such as McMurphy and the othere Acutes. The patients sometimes act up just like kids at school do.
A final similaity betweent school and the psych ward in One Flew Over The Cucckoo's Nest is the way everything is schedualed. At school was have a scheduale that varies everyday, but keeps everything in order and helps run the school smoothly. Depending on the day, there is a different period order. Sometimes the principle changes up the schedules if there is a dilemma or if the day is being shortened. This is similar to the way the ward organizes their day. The Big Nurse has a schedule that everyone follows, and depending on the way she feels on a certain day, she changes it up. The Big Nurse sometimes takes away the patient's playing time if she feels like it. Although it seems scary to find similarities between a psych ward and school, there are similarites thatcan be traced.
  

       This week in class we watched a video on labotamy. It showed the begining of the procedure and how labotamy ended up being a bad treatment at the end. The whole procedure of labotamy seemed like a good long term solution but only helped out the mentally ill for a short amount of time. It ended up hurting the patentients a lot more phyisically then treaating them. There is a great difference between a mental illness and a physical illness. Physical illnesses such as broken bones can most of the time be easily cured. Mental illnesses are not like physical illnesses. They take time to heal if not leave the patient with physical damage. Doctors that operate on physical parts have it much easier than mental illness doctors because most of the time it is dificullt to pinpoint the cause of the behavior.
       It's fine to experiment on humans in order to find a cure for a diesease as long as the the human is dead because then the side effects will be known. Or the experiment could be used on someone that is desperate and can't find anyother cure to their disease. Not everything has to be human tested, sometimes animals can be used unless it is very harmful and could hurt them.
       
    

        We always end up disscussing movies in english class. I  dont really watch many movies that people would consider there top ten favorites. I couldn't name ten favorite movies, but i have a few that I really like. In no particular order I like Elf, Space Jam, the Harry Potter Series (excluding #6), Step Up 3D, Iron Man, Mall Cop, Forest Gump, and Shrek!  I love Mall Cop mostly because of the riding on the scooter and when he plays guitar hero. I think Kevin James was super funny in it. My favorite part was when Paul Blart gets in a fight with a grandma in Victoria's Secret. Speaking of action, Iron Man was also very good as well. Robert Downey Jr. is an amazing actor. I thought it was extreamly disgusting when he had to replace the machine that kept him alive.
        The entire Harry Potter series is probably somewhere at the top of my list of favorite movies. I could probably watch them over and over again with out getting sick of them. I love the british accents that they have because it reminds me of Jay Seam who is mu favorite singer and has a british accent. I also think Forest Gump is a funny movie. Many people don't think it's supposed to be funny, but some parts are histerical, like when he says Jenny. Love it. Shrek is also wicked funny. Especially donkey, probably one of my all time favortie animated characters.
        Going back quite a few years, my favorite movie as i was growing up was Space Jam. When i was younger, I couldn't comprehend how they got cartoons in a real life setting. It amazed me. I was in love with Micheal Jordan, so that perhaps could be a reason why I was so in love with Space Jam. I saw Step Up 3D over the summer and it somewhat reminds me of Space Jam with all the cool affects. From all the movies I have seen this year I'd have to say that Step Up 3D was my favorite. Moose was such an amazing dancer and I love the songs from the movie. There was this one guy who does the robot extremly well and I wish I could do the same exact thing.

       Many different themes are shown in The Death of a Salesmen. Three themes that stick out to me are cheating, things falling apart and time. Cheating is shown when Willy is speaking to his wife, Linda, about how much he made and goes to a flash back of him and his secretary. He gives his secretary new stockings. When he recovers from his flashback, he relizes Linda is stitching her old ones and takes them from her and throws them away. Willy relizes that he is already broke and that instead of saving his money, he is spending it on his mistress while his wife needs stockings. He hates the fact that his wife needs to use her old stockings.
      Things falling apart is probably the most prominent theme in the book so far. Right in the begining of the book Willy returns home from his not so successful trip to New England. He blames his car for not working properly. If his car breaks down how is he going to make money? He's not! This is a reflection of his life in a way. He's becoming old and running out of fuel. As he gets older, it's going to become more and more difficult for him to make a living and support his family. He also won't be able to fulfill his dream about becoming rich and successful like his older brother.
       Time is also a significant theme in the book. When Willy has his flahback of his brother coming home, Ben says that he only has a few minutes to visit. We aren't sure if Ben actually said this or if it is just a misconception on WIlly's part, but it means a lot to Willy. Ben saying that he onyl has a few minutes could be Willy thinking to himself that he doesn't have much time to live up to Ben's "legacy". Willy is getting old and really hoped to become filthy rich by now. This hasn't happened so far and it seems as if his dreams of his boys becoming filthy rich won't come true either.
     

     In The Death of a Salesmen, Willy is always worried about his kids. When Biff and Happy are kids, Willy tries to teach them that they should try to be the best they can possibly be. Having Biff staying at home when he's in his 30's doesn't really make Willy all that excited. Willy had different thought of the two boys when they were young. He wanted them to be salesmen as he is. When Ben came to visit, Willy tried to show his sons off at how obidient they are. He always felt the need to show off his "amazing" sons.
     It is good for a dad to support their kids as they grow up. It helps them build confidence. It was nice of Willy to show support of his sons as they were matureing, but that is not always a good thing. For example, when Biff took the football, Willy was fine with it an told him that it was a good thing his coach didn't get mad at him, that means his coach likes him. Stealing is not something you would encourage your children to do under most circumstances. Willy should find a way to support and encourage his sons without making it seem like he wants them to do something bad.
    Willy seems to not be able to make up his mind in the book. When he says that Biff is lazy and then says that he is not makes it seem like he feels bad as a father to be mean to his son. When Willy says that his chevvy is amazing and then says its bad, just makes Willy seem like he's losing his mind. He can't seem to agree with himself with anything and that worries his family becasue they think he is going crazy.
     When Willy contradicts himself, Linda seems to agree with whatever he says. She doesn't think that it's wierd at all that he can't make up his mind. Apparently she loves him way to much. I think that if she doesn't tell Willy that he's acting weird, he won't know and won't be able to fix whatever it is that is making him do that. If Linda told him that he was contradicting himself, then maybe he could go to the doctors and see if he is mentally stable or if he has some disease of some sort. Willy's family should take him out of his imaginary world and tell him what hes been acting like.

     This week in class we finished up The Scarlet Letter. I personally wasn't really a fan of the way it ended. I think how Hawthorne makes all the characters just die, isn't very clever. For such a "negative" book, there should have atleast been a happy ending. If not a happy ending, it should have been more interesting, in my opinon. There were so many places the story could have gone. I thought Chillingworth should have died and Hester, Pearl and Dimmesdale should have escaped to England because they already recieved punishment for their sins.
      We also watched the movie. It was SO bad. Not gonna lie, the acting was horrible and so was the movie in general. It was interesting to see how different the movie was from the way I pictured it from reading. I pictured the scaffold to be a lot more roomier than it was shown in the movie. Chillingworth was depicted a lot more uglier than I thought he would be. The jail was not as I pictured it either. I thought the jail would be like an actual jail but smaller and with grey brick walls or something. Pearl wasn't as annoying as the book showed her to be. She didn't really do anything in the movie that made her seem like the devil's child.
     Hester's eyes in the movie were so creepy! I understand that they were trying to single her out from the rest of the townspeople because she was supposed to be beautiful, but the contacts just made her seem scary. They looked so fake. She seemed depressed throughout the movie. From reading the book I pictured her to be more lively after the scaffold scene. She just wasn't happy as the book made her seem when she was doing charity work and whatnot. The Scarlet Letter was not the best book I have read, but it wasn't to bad either. I guess since the book is so popular, I expected it to be a lot more interesting.