Book Review

Nurse Ratched is the head nurse in the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Her appearance is described as a doll in the novel because her white uniform is perfect and wrinkle free. She also wears her hair the same every day and is constantly smiling. She looks so perfect she could be displayed on a shelf.

Nurse Ratched is manipulative, evil, perfectionist. She has to have everything in the hospital run the way she wants it to. She uses patients against other patients. For example she will have patients spy on each other so she can find their weaknesses. Then she will use those weaknesses to make them feel like naughty little boys and scare them so they will never challenge he authority. She also controls the doctor so what ever she wants to happen to the patients does.

She is motivated by seeing everything in the hospital running the way she wants. She likes the control she has over everyone and everything. She also seems to enjoy seeing the patients in fear and miserable.

She has one main conflict through out the novel. When McMurphy is admitted to the hospital he doesn’t seem to be afraid of her, everyone in her hospital start to revolt. She tries everything in her power to scare him, but nothing seems to work. She still pretends to have control during the entire novel and just smiles when things don’t go her way. Then at the end of the novel McMurphy throws a party and Nurse Ratched scares a patient so much he commits suicide. When McMurphy finds out about the suicide he tries to kill Nurse Ratched. She survives the attack and McMurphy is given a lobotomy. Then all her problems are over when one of the patients kills McMurphy.

Nurse Ratched does not change through out the novel. She is still the same evil nurse from the begging to the end.

I don’t have any personal connections with the character.

Nurse Ratched is an effective character because she is a perfect villain. She is also effective because she never losses complete control of her hospital. She keeps the reader hating her during the whole novel. She also makes you wonder if this type of person is really allowed to work in the medical field.

Book Review

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is about the future when firemen burn houses instead of saving them. It is illegal for people to own books in the future, so if someone finds out if there is a book in the house firemen will come and burn the house. When one of the firemen meets a girl, he starts wondering what is in the books.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/
The site gives a more detailed summary of the book.


Fahrenheit 451 makes you think of how much TV and other forms of entertainment controls what people think. It also makes you think of how important books are and what the world would be like with out them.
http://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheit-451-Ray-Bradbury/dp/0345342968
The site gives a couple more reviews of the book.


The site below gives Ray Bradbury biography. It talks about how he writes about the future in all of his books. It says he used to sell newspapers on the street corners of L.A. He would spend his nights in a library and his days writing.
http://www.raybradbury.com/bio.html

The Crucible

1. What was Miller's point in writing The Crucible?

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/4191/MILLER/millers.html#Who_was_Arthur_Miller

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_CRU.HTM
The sites tell how Miller wanted prove to people how McCarthyism was the same as hunting witches.
I think he was trying to show people how bad McCarthyism was. He wanted show people how no matter what you said to defend yourself it could be used against you. He was trying to make people realize that MaCarthyism was just as bad as the witch trials in Salem. I think he did prove to many people MaCarhyism was the same as hunting witches.

2. How are McCarthyism, the Red Scare, Arthur Miller and The Crucible interrelated?

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthyism.htm

http://mtmt.essortment.com/mccarthyismred_rmfw.htm

The sites talks about McCarthyism and the Red Scare.

The Crucible, McCarthyism, and the Red Scare are all related because they all deal with persecuting people. They all kill and imprison people who don't believe exactly what they believe. They don't give the accused a chance to defend themselves. They also use everything the accused say against them.

3.Document other times in American history when 'witch hunts' were conducted and discuss the outcomes of the Salem witch hunt and the other witch hunts you find. What do they all have in common?
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html

This site tells how the Japanese were treated and why during World War II.

The Japanese were forced to go to camps during World War II. The camps were over cowed and had poor living conditions. Later some of the people could leave the camp if they enlisted in the army. In the end many Japanese Americans renounced their citizenship.

http://www.indians.org/articles/indian-reservations.html
This site tells about the Indians and reservations.
The first settlers tried to convert the Indians to Christianity. Later the Indians were forced to live on reservations. They were killed if they would not move to the reservations. Some of the new laws prohibited Indians from hunting. Many of them didn't know how to farm and didn't want to learn so they died of starvation.
The Indian and Japanese witch hunts forced people to move. All witch hunts are caused when people try to covert people of a different culture. The government tries to protect people during witch hunts, but ends up killing innocent people. The outcome of any witch hunt is people dieing for no reason.