Fear—Period 3
- Fear of nurse’s authority is what keeps the men in hospital. Authority keeps them sick. A doctor even said this about the nurse “All my veins are running ammonia” showing that everyone fears her.
- At one point Billy says, “Sure, if I had the guts I could go outside today”. He doesn’t have the guts because the nurse uses fear to keep him down. Every time progress seems to happen, the nurse brings up something to make him feel insecure. As part of her therapy, Nurse keeps telling the men that they cannot fit into society. As soon as they seem to recover, she brings up something terrible about them to push them back down.
- The nurse’s notebook is a symbol of fear—fear of what is in the book…what could be in the book. The book forces people to turn on each other. The nurse has the power of the Combine behind her and she has power over people by manipulating their fears and desires. Powerful people can use fear to control others. Fear reduces personal power and makes people do things they would not normally do.
- Laughter is also a symbol. Some fear it. When Mack enters the hospital, he opens up a new way of looking at the world to the patients. They begin to realize that laughter makes a person strong, independent. The patients have forgotten that they can fit in/be accepted. Laughter is the antidote to fear.
- Mack shows the patients a way of getting over their fears and pulls them out of the fog.
- The fog is also closely linked to fear. Chief slips into it and away from reality in order to find comfort. They become reliant on the fog. Leaving the fog means leaving one’s comfort zone, but when it clears, Chief finds he can leave the hospital.
- The nurse is also fearful. She fears losing control over the patients. Her therapy doesn’t make anything better. Is this because she thinks the patients are hopeless? She even tries to hide her sexuality/femininity while on the ward.
- The 1960s saw the beginnings of social change. Mack is an instrument of social change.
- The Disturbed ward, lobotomies and EST are used as fear tactics to control the patients. They fear pain and losing themselves completely by becoming vegetables. The lobotomy cuts to the men’s deepest fears. When Mack was turned into a vegetable, none of the men in the movie seemed scared that Chief murdered him. They knew that being a vegetable was worse than being killed.
- Men fear the medicines that are supposed to make them better.
- Mack fears staying on the ward forever and going back to the work farm. What was his childhood like? He empowers the men and takes away their fear, but this tires him.
- Harding fears being outed as gay. “The finger of society” is pointing at me.
- Billy fears his mum’s judgement. P. 315
- There is a big connection between fear and power. What’s the best way to gain power?
- Mack is not perfect.
- How does laughter connect to power?
Fear—Period 4
- Nurse is a symbol of fear for all the men…but each man fears something different. The patients are scared to change anything, but Mack encourages them and this gives them strength.
- The goals and conflicts between nurse and Mack show power.
- Mack fears being stuck inside the hospital. Mack was scared and put on a show for the men on the ward. He becomes fearful when he keeps having to go up against the system. Chief notes how pale and tired he looks.
- Fear is used to control and manipulate. An example of this is how Nurse breaks Billy by threatening to tell his mum about Candy. P. 315
- EST and lobotomy are used as fearful tools of control and not therapies.
- The patients have been milled by the Combine and they see Mack’s freedom and are empowered by it. Mack become a martyr because he can’t break the system…it breaks him. His flame is extinguished, but he inspires others to want to leave the hospital and be free.
- All this ties into the idea of rabbits and wolves. The men feel that they are and always have been rabbits. They have given up their power to be “protected” by the wolves (admin). They rely on the wolves to protect them from the harshness of the world. By the end of the novel they are no longer rabbits, they are now men.
- There is no therapy in this place. The nurse uses implication and undermines trust between the men in order to rule by fear. She rules by dividing them as much as possible.
- The fog is a place to go when the Chief feels fearful. Drugs also cause the fog.
- The concept of big vs. small also fits into the topic of fear as those who are “small” feel fearful and weak. Those who are big feel strong mentally.
- The control panel fits into this topic because when Chief finds courage, he realizes he can break it and use it to escape the hospital.
- People with authority act like they have authority and people listen to them. At the start of the book, the men were afraid of those in power, at the end they were less so.
- How does fear connect to our world and our lives?
- The music is like nurse on the ward. Her presence can be felt everywhere.
