One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest - Essay Example He manages to convince some patients, however, in the end, McMurphy’s attempts prove futile. Despite the unsuccessful attempt to escape, McMurphy’s actions produce alternate favorable outcomes. Therefore, discussed below, are the reasons why McMurphy chose not to escape, his gift to fellow patients, and, the influence both parties had on each other. Despite having a flawless escape plan, McMurphy chose not to go through with it for the following reasons. Firstly, McMurphy realized that he would leave some of his helpless friends behind if he followed through on the escape plan, for example, Billy who did not consider himself as being ready to leave the hospital. McMurphy, therefore, feared that the progress made during his stay inside the mental institution would be destroyed by his departure. As a result, none of the patients would have the courage to take charge of their lives leading to self-recovery. Secondly, the drugs prescribed to the patients when mixed with alc ohol made it physically impossible for patients to follow through with their escape plans. Therefore, McMurphy could not leave some of his new friends behind especially because of the incapacitated state in which they were in. Thirdly, McMurphy understood that Nurse Ratched would inflict further harm on the patients left behind if his plans to escape materialized. He came to this conclusion, after thinking about Ratched’s behavior towards those who displeased or disagreed with her. He did not want to leave his friends vulnerable when questioned about his whereabouts. McMurphy symbolizes hope for the patients locked away under the harsh, inhumane treatment within the mental institution. Therefore, he bestows hope on his fellow patients who are in a state of hopelessness because of the inhumane treatment they undergo under the directives of Ratched. Before McMurphy’s arrival, nobody dared to question Ratched because of the repercussions that would ensue. Therefore, McMur phy’s courage to challenge Ratched worked to strengthen other patients resolve. The patients realized Nurse Ratched’s ploys held no power over their ability to recover and return to the outside world. The fact that McMurphy did not abandon his fellow patients by following through on his escape plans reflected McMurphy’s genuine concern for his friends. This helped to reassure other patients that they are worthy of love and genuine affection and that people still care for them despite their mental afflictions. The fact that, Nurse Ratched and her colleagues, including Chief Bromden, result to performing a lobotomy on McMurphy shows that they felt threatened by the impact he had on his fellow patients. McMurphy changed his fellow patients by making them realize that they had it in them to get better and return to normal. This occurred by taking up the role of the leader amongst his counterparts and rebelled against Nurse Ratched’s harsh treatment. This made other patients realize that they could take control over their lives. In addition, this allowed the patients to understand that they all individually possessed the capacity to influence the direction of their recovery process. For example, Billy managed to speak without a stutter after a successful sexual encounter with Candy during the execution phase of the escape plan. Despite Billy’s achievement abruptly coming to an end after Nurse Ratched threatened to expose him to his

The Manifestation of Race, Ethnicity, and Faith in British Education Literature review

The Manifestation of Race, Ethnicity, and Faith in British Education - Literature review Example Since the 1980s, the leading cultural fundamentalist group of the New Right in the United Kingdom has not just disparaged and ridiculed such policies, but has aimed to enforce its own chauvinistic and racist perspective of British national identity on England’s and Wales’s National Curriculum (Pathak 2008). Antiracist educators in the UK have not taken seriously the concept of ‘new racism’ introduced by Barker (1981 as cited in Cashmore & Troyna 1990). As far as the concept is considered at all in antiracist research, it is merely cited and its value to education seems never to have been taken into account. This literature review will provide a brief review of literature on identity politics and multiculturalism, specifically concerning three of the most debated issues in the UK: (1) race, (2) ethnicity, and (3) faith in education. The author chooses the three abovementioned issues because of their persistent presence in the British society. These three issues are the major factors that put several social groups in a disadvantaged position, specifically in education and long-term employment (May & Sleeter 2010). As stated by Korn and Burzstyn (2002), access to wealth, influence, full involvement in economic, social and political life, or what may be referred to as complete citizenship, greatly relies on education. This is particularly factual for ethnic minority groups. Without a practical educational attainment they confront the double threat of exclusion and inadequate qualifications. Those who drop out from school and then fail to acquire additional training or education, are prone to become part of a marginalised group with potentially detrimental repercussions for race relations where in traditional perceptions about Asians and African-Americans (Mitchell & Salsbury 1996) are established. The first part of the literature review will discuss the distinctions between race, ethnicity, and faith. It will refer to the different definitions given by several authors. The second section will discuss the issue of race, ethnicity, and faith in the British education system. The issue of multiculturalism in education will take precedence in this literature review. Distinctions between Race, Ethnicity and Faith In this literature review, a brief description of the notion of race, ethnicity, and faith, as well as the distinctions among them, will be discussed. The concept of ‘ethnicity’ is quite new. Before the 1970s there was hardly any discussion of it in anthropology works and literature, even a mention of its definition (Faas 2010). Prior to the Second Wo rld War, the word ‘tribe’ was the chosen word for ‘primitive’ societies and the word ‘race’ for contemporary societies (May 1999). Because of the strong connection between the ideology of the Nazis and the concept of ‘race’, the word ‘ethnicity’ eventually succeeded ‘race’ in Europe and the United States (Spalek 2007). The discourse on ethnicity is confounded by a diversity of associated concepts applied to distinguish comparable trends, like nation, race, minority, and tribe. Several researchers and scholars apply these concepts synonymously while others use them as distinct terms (Spalek 2007). Nevertheless, the connection between race and ethnicity is complicated. Even though there is much continuity they are different notions. For instance, Pierre van den Berghe defines the term ‘race’ as a specific classification of ethnicity that makes use of genetic attributes as an indicator of ethnici ty (Cashmore & Jennings 2002, 122). Although the connection between the two notions is more complicated than the above definition, his description is quite accurate (p. 122). British scholars normally exclusively attribute ethnicity to