literature reviews have narratives with clear messages about real-world activities or ideas. What distinguishes a community and its people is their understanding of how to serve others while still maintaining human dignity. Human behavior is due to kindness and feelings of justice because humans are more evolved species. Different people, on the other hand, do not know the true meaning of what it means to be a human being in the world because they regard others as inferior or place themselves in upper social groups that need special care. People with mental illnesses are discriminated against without taking into account that they are human beings who deserve to be treated with respect. The paper explores two works by Euripides and Kesey to illustrate what it means to be human and madness.
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
The novel was written by Ken Kesey in 1962 to serve as the study of human mind and institutional processes together with the critique of behaviorism as well as the celebration of the humanistic principles. The writer relates the narration of the conflict between the rebellious and repressive wills of Nurse Randle Patrick and Ratched from the perspective of the obsessed schizophrenic called Chief Bromden. Except for the fishing excursion by Patrick with the accompanying physician and eleven victims, the whole novel is set in the mental health centre where McMurphy could be or not be faking madness to escape the extensive labor in the institution. “The patients are categorized as chronics or Acutes where the former are regarded curable while the latter are considered as the failed attempts of the medics to force their conformity on sufferers via lobotomies and electroshock therapy” (Kesey 71). Furthermore, the Acutes have surrendered to incomplete living where the uninformed whims of the feminized and mechanized society have weakened and made them ineffectual.
According to the novel, to be a human is all about having empathy and respecting other people’s dignity. Based on the author’s statement, “man must struggle for the individuality within the conformist community that suppresses personal appearance as a way of maintaining order” (Kesey 101). Initially, the grouping of men as Chronics and Acutes illustrates the loss of human dignity since patients did not have names. Furthermore, the therapy sessions and activities are programmed with the precision which is preferred by Ratched who strips the humanity of the sufferers with the aim of controlling and make the ward as a well-oiled machine. However, the major attribute of what it takes to be human is demonstrated when Randle became a patient and started to treat other victims with dignity. Randle’s introduction of human empathy to the patients transformed the wards which made the men recognize that they had sacrificed their rights and beings by being committed to the institution. After rediscovering human dignity via McMurphy’s aid, the men tried to fight back their control.
The novel presents madness as the most delightful sense where the society ascribes insane to individuals who do not conform. Besides, the author explores the notion of what it means to be insane or sane with the major aspect being the fear factor. Some of the inmates admitted that anxiety kept them within the facility walls because they prefer to be in the institution rather than facing the responsibilities outside. Based on the mental mayhem illustration in each section, the text displays madness as the coping mechanism that serves the hegemonic approach of the American Capitalism. Through Bromden, Kesey reveals the enclosed world of the ward in the mental hospital where the patients are victims of the community that need conformity which to the big machine and socio-economic conspiracy. Bromden refers to the ward as “the factory for the Combine for fixing the mistakes in the schools, churches, and neighbourhood”(Kesey 126). The presentation of mental mayhem is the imaginative construct that elaborates the dominant social order during the 1950s.
Medea
Medea by Euripides is the drama that evaluates the fine line between hate and love. The Medea’s passionate nature differs from Jason’s calm, which makes him cold in comparison. Medea undertakes revenge on her husband Jason after he abandons her and marries Glauce who is emperor Kreon’s daughter. After hearing the vow, the king banishes Medea together with her children from Corinth although she manipulates him by asking one day to prepare which is a good time for revenge. She apologizes to Jason and sends her son to Glauce with a beautiful dress as a gift which is poisoned so that to burn her skin when she sweats. However, Creon tries to save Glauce but she dies from toxins. Fearing that Corinthians would blame the death of Glauce on their son, Jason rushes to Medea’s home but find she had already slaughtered the kids as a final action of revenge against the hero of the Argonauts. Moreover, Medea boards the chariot that was sent by Helio and denies Jason’s request to see their children for the last time. Medea flies to bury her sons on the Hera Mountain where she lives in Athens full of grief and bitterness. At the end of the play, the question why a mother would assassinate her children is answered.
According to the drama, humans have basic emotions such as passion, fear, and anger which influence one to make hard decisions that have negative consequences. Although it can be debated that the deaths of the children were fated at the beginning, it is true that the act illustrates the triumph of perverse forces in human traits. The eventual indecisiveness, as well as motivational conflicts of Medea, represents the warping of human sentiments. “The only loyalty was to her anger which sprung out of love and required revenge” (Euripides 76). Additionally, the fearsome, strong, and depressing drama portrays the stark vision of human life. Despite leaving her kids to marry another woman, Jason was mindful of his sons since he fears that people would blame them for the death of Glauce. The scenario illustrates the human empathy which is realized when one understand the mistakes and the likelihood of adverse consequences of certain actions.
The drama portrays madness as the strength. During the classical era, females were expected to be a powerless and meek creature but Medea’s potency is considered as her madness since she controls and decides the destiny of her rivals. Medea broke the rule via the manifestation of the mental mayhem that poisoned her brain. She left everything because of Jason to the extent of murdering her brother and forsaking her father. “Oh, my country! Father! In what dishonour, I left and killed my brother” (Euripides 165). The decision to revenge was a result of despair and fear for her kids. “She will not raging until someone is struck” (Euripides 94). The nurses thought that Medea would cause death for her own children, which depicts how the ability to stay with her kids was seen as madness. The play remains one of the Greek tragedy where the kin-killer is unpunished at the end of drama as well as the child-killing where the deed is conducted in cold blood which is contrary to the temporary insanity. Through performance, Medea’s madness is highlighted as the determination and skill in manipulating strong male figures with the aim of attaining her own desires.
Conclusion
Conclusively, human beings are faced with alarming situations that require insane acts due to the forcing circumstances in the society. In both the Euripides and Kesey work, some of the people in the society encounter rough moments of discrimination and unfairness but they take the extra step to come out of the slavery. In Kesey’s novel, people need to have human empathy, which can be demonstrated by respecting each other and delivering services through dignity. Further, the volume represents madness as the American ideology of the era where people cannot think outside it walls due to the fear of the outside world. On the other hand, Euripides demonstrates that human beings are full of emotions that influence their decisions, which in return make them to be termed as insane. Moreover, people can view someone’s strength as madness without because anything done contrary to the social norm is regarded as insanity.
Work Cited
Euripides. Medea. Start Publishing, 2012.
Kesey, Ken. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Viking, 2012.
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