Society--Period 3
- Modern society is like the mental institution
- Everyone has a role in the power struggle…nurse has power and is the rule maker
- She’s an example of callous leaders in the real world—some figures who resemble her would be dictators
- Mack and the others are people in society who are looked down upon
- Nurse doesn’t look down on others--she is a tool used by the asylum….the patients aren’t really crazy, they could still be functioning members of society, but they aren’t typical. The asylum pulls people back from being individuals and tries to fix what isn’t broken
- This is very different from Mack who wants to let people be themselves.
- The patients aren’t really very sick, they are just scared of the world and want to hide in the hospital.
- For example, Harding was just gay. He didn’t feel safe in society, so he went to the hospital where he felt safe.
- The hospital is a microcosm of society and anyone who doesn’t fit must be changed to fit society’s standards
- Those without power must obey those who do; that’s why the men obey the nurse.
- The hospital is a symbol of society, filled with people who do not fit.
- The Combine represents evil forces in society that mill people down, make them uniform and the same. The Combine is also all the rules and expectations set out for people in society. Nurse Rachet is a representative of the Combine and “the ward is a factory for the combine” page 40. The nurse wants everyone to be the same and Mack wants people to be individuals.
- Mack allows the men to see themselves for who they are because they have lost touch with that.
- Nurse wields her power sneakily. She never directly attacks them, she implies stuff. This is similar in society where people are judged in the same way
- A hint is made about someone and whoever says it sits back and lets the others attack the target.
- Nurse likes people to be uniform and compliant…a repressive society demands uniformity and compliance. She refuses to change schedules even.
- Electroshock therapy and lobotomies are also tools of repression and punishment given to those who do not follow society’s rules.
- Consequences for those who don’t act the same way
- Society demands that people conform to its rules.
- Harding notes that the “finger of society” was pointing at him because he was different. Society beats down those like Mack (the individuals). Society would rather just lock away people who are different, electrocute it away. Society would prefer to have an emotionless vegetable than deal with someone with problems (p.250ish quote).
- Nurse’s adherence to a schedule is like how society pushes people into living structured lives…you must go to college to get a job to afford a family etc.
- Mack was the self-sacrificing individual who helped people find their place/voice in society and he is also a symbol of the way society oppresses individuals.
- Mack’s laughter is his strength and shows he didn’t fit into society’s plan for him.
Society--Period 4
- Society decides who has power and who doesn’t/what is acceptable and what is not.
- The Combine is a symbol of how society affects people—it mills them down like pieces of wheat. The nurse is an official for the Combine (p. 192)
- On p. 64, Harding says “The world belongs to the strong”
- When Mack wears his whale shorts, this shows that he is not wearing the “uniform” society (the hospital) wants to dress him in. This shows he is an individual who rebels against the rules.
- When the patient in Disturbed killed himself in the toilet, Chief wonders why he did it and said “all he had to do was wait” because the institution would eventually kill him. The Combine cuts down people and keeps going until you are “fixed” and are the same like everyone else (p.221)
- The machines area what runs the Combine, the machines are the ways in which society controls individuals and supresses their impulses.
- When Chief has a nightmare that someone on the ward dies, the victim is full of rust not blood. This shows that the hospital has stripped this patient (and others) of their humanity.
- The fog is where the patients go to escape the Combine and nurse’s rules. Mack reaches into it and brings them out.
- All the people in the hospital are there because society sees them as problems. They’ve been pushed out of society and into the hospital…and the hospital is no escape.
- Harding has been made to feel shame just for who he is.
- When Mack smashes the glass window, he is showing that society’s rules can be broken/that they are fragile.
- Authority figures are feared by the patients and the powerful use this fear to manipulate them.
- Change can happen when people band together…like the patients who rally around Mack.
