THE FOG

Oct. 3, 2012

One of the most important elements of symbolism in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey is the fog. It appears in multiple occasions during the progression of the novel, and it is porbably the only element that appears so many times in the story that has the capability to be symbolized as much as it is. When I first read about the fog I thought it was some sort of feeling, like fear or anger. But as I kept reading, I saw that it can symbolize anything... any feeling or situation the reader infers when placed in that situation of suffocation and distress. But since I can't talk about everything, I've decided to compare the fog to power. 

When the Fog is introduced in the story, the Chief begins to hyperventilate and freak out because of a haircut, until nurse Ratched comes in and brings the Fog in with her. Chief becomes silent and calm after breathing in the fog, and wakes up from a dream a couple of hours later not knowing where he is, but technically re-learning his place. he is reminded that he does not have any power in comparison to the nurse, and that he is just a helper that is supposed to be silent and obedient when asked. As a reader, I analyze this and realize that the fog is just a tool of power and control the Nurse uses when she needs to teach a lesson. 

When the "Big Nurse" uses the fog, or so Chief says on page 100, all he can see is her face made of a white and grey cloud that comes out of that machine, which not only brings out the fear of blindness, but also the feeling of sadness and hopelessness, making the patients of the ward so distressful that they only wish the fog gets thick enough that they can g o their own little worlds and forget about the life they live in. 

The fog has become a symbol of many things, power and manipulation being one of them. This comparison also reflects on the society of the time, how politics was all about who gets the final say at everything, and up to what point can power get to a person before self destruction. Kesey makes a great job at mirroring those attitudes with the nurse's fog, and how with further analyzation, we can see how she too drowned herself in the satisfaction of power and control. 

WAITING FOR GODOT

At first when I finished the novel, I felt like I had read a joke. I asked myself repeatedly what is the meaning of the play, what is the purpose of making life look so meaningless, and above all, how can this make it to one of the most important classics in American literature? Then it dawned on me, this classic novel is drowned with symbolism. At first I thought of existentialism, but realized that it is not as broad as the existentialism of The Stranger per say, but it was existentialist in some level.

These men are waiting, for something or someone called Godot during two whole acts, under a tree, doing nothing. And I realized, that the symbolism behind this was not just waiting, but how humanity waits for God, their whole life, a fate every being in humanity is going to go through that, so they just wait for this mystical energy everyone is going to go through, everyone expects to meet, but no one knows what it’s like.

Another symbol in the novel is the dependence of Vladimir and Estragon of each other. They mention repeatedly how they can’t stand each other, but at the same time how they can’t live without clinging themselves one to the other, and that shows the human custom of attaching ourselves to things we know someday we will lose, and anyway we want them, because we feel the need to attach ourselves to something that will make us happy, even though it is certain that either way we will die alone and we can’t do anything about it.

The tree is something completely different regarding symbolism. For one thing, the tree changes drastically (having or not having leaves) from one act to the other, so we can infer that it also has to do with the loss of track of time. When someone is about 7 years old, they feel that one hour is an eternity, and one year is practically a lifetime. But as that kid starts getting older, hours are faster, years turn into minutes, and days turn into seconds, making us feel that when we turn 50, a lifetime has gone by, and we don’t even notice it. In the novel, the tree is always there, but the leaves change, so we can infer that the book is not a couple of days long, actually it’s years, but the characters feel it like days, proving my point, that humans after a while, lose track of time.

THE STRANGER #3

“Everybody is here; everybody exists, but there is no reason as to why.”

Well, this is a quote that can pretty much summarize the entire novel. It is exactly what Meursault lives by, and how he goes through his day-by-day life. But since I wanted to write something rather interesting and different for this prompt, and not actually summarize Meursault‘s life, I figured to use this quote either way. You see the fascinating thing about this quote, and the reason why I actually wanted to write about it, is because despite everything that happened to Meursault during the end of the novel, he has been in absolute denial to turn to god, unlike most of humanity would when it comes to the proximity of the end of one’s life on earth.

Since we all know the existentialist way that Meursault’s brain functions there is no need for me to repeat it. But what is really strange about the last few chapters of The Stranger, and what I have come to realize after a few moments of thinking about it, is that the way this quote acts upon Meursault during the last few chapters of the novel is absolutely controversial. You see, when Meursault had nothing to worry about in his life except for the heat of summer and the thought of having to go back to work on Monday, he would live by that quote, and proving himself repeatedly with comments like “Maman was buried… and really, nothing had changed” (pg.24). But after the Arab’s murder, and the proposal of the prosecutor to penalize Meursault with death, everything pretty much turned around for him. He realized that there were things he actually enjoyed to a point of love, as much as things that he hated with his gut and couldn’t resist them. And as he realized that he did have something to care for, he actually hung on to the quote even more. Because he somehow felt that if he actually cared about something, if he tried to hold on to something more than his thoughts, he would become merely another lost soul that dies and has really so much to lose and no choice in surviving what every living thing goes through, death.

In fact, coming to analyze this reaction even further, I believe that this is a very natural but rare way of reacting towards death. Every person, animal, plant, or other living thing in existence knows that there is going to be a point in their life, when they are going to die, and in fact never come back.  So most people rationalize and decide to life to the fullest, be the best they can be and make sure there is nothing they regret doing or not doing when they are in their death bed. And when it comes to that, they hold on to the one invisible thing they know or at least trust to know is real, God. But in the rare case of an existentialist, they do exactly the opposite. Meursault proves that he does not need anything, because there is no point in holding on to something, get attached to anything, if in the long run, nothing really matters. In the long run, nobody really matters, or has a reason to exist, so why get caught up in things a silly as material objects, and other people? Meursault’s answer is simple. There just isn’t, and nobody really matters.