Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Essay Example

Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Essay Example Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Paper Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest Paper Compare and contrast the ways in which Ken Kesey and Chuck Palahniuk explore the consequences of the use and abuse of power ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘Fight Club’.  The use of power for good and the abuse of power, as well as their consequences, are elements that are explored in both ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Kesey and ‘Fight Club’ by Chuck Palahniuk. ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Cuckoo’s Nest)’ contains characters such as R. P. McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, and ‘Fight Club’ contains the Narrator and Tyler Durden, all of whom may both use and abuse power. Both Ken Kesey and Chuck Palahniuk had rebellious streaks at some point in their life, and the fact that characters in their novels that have power and are shown to abuse it would suggest that they have a negative outlook on power, possibly believing it is a source of corruption. For example, Kesey formed the Merry Pranksters in 1964, a group that rebelled against those with power, such as the law enforcement, by taking large amounts of LSD and fleeing to Mexico. The novels therefore feature characters who have access to power and experience the consequences in similar and contrasting ways, which I will explore in further detail. : Firstly, characters in both novels use power to liberate others and give them their power back. McMurphy in ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ influences the other patients on the ward through his laughter: â€Å"it’s free and loud and†¦ it’s lapping against the walls all over the ward.†[1] McMurphy laughs when he first enters the ward, and the power of his laughter is emphasised because of the way Kesey describes it as â€Å"lapping†, suggesting it fills the ward and envelops everyone. His laugh and rebellious nature eventually help to give the other patients the power of laughter back, who are at first too afraid to laugh because of Nurse Ratched and her power. One of the ultimate consequences of McMurphy and his power of laughter is to inspire the Chief to escape even after his death. This lasting effect on others is shown similarly in ‘Fight Club’. Tyler Durden at first gives men their power and masculinity back by creating ‘Fight Club’, as a man is described as a â€Å"loaf of white bread† but â€Å"six months later, and he looks carved out of wood. This guy trusts himself to handle anything†[2], using power similarly to McMurphy for the good of others to give men their confidence back, lost in the modern society due possibly to being raised by women and lacking father figures, ideas that Durden mentions later in the novel. The writer Bret Easton Ellis believes that ‘Fight Club’ â€Å"rages against the hypocrisy of a society that continually promises us the impossible: fame, beauty, wealth†[3], shown through how Durden rebels against the constricts of society and tries to free men through the creation of ‘Fight Club’. However, ‘Fight Club’ later escalates into Project Mayhem, which was based on the rebellious Cacophony Society Chuck Palahniuk became a part of in his adulthood in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s, who committed acts such as a public Christmas party involving pranks and drunkenness. Tyler is shown to then abuse his power as he treats the men as ‘space monkeys’, suggesting they are disposable and are used as a part of a goal to then be left to die. The men are required to have a uniform of â€Å"Two black shirts. Two black pair of trousers†[4], which suggests that the men are no longer being freed by Durden, but controlled and a part of Durden’s master plan that only he knows about. Similarly to the Chief escaping in ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’, even after Tyler Durden’s death, the way he uses his power has a lasting influence on the men who tell the Narrator at the end they â€Å"look forward to getting you back†[5], showing how they are waiting for Durden’s personality to come back to lead them, and that even though he is gone they still believe in his cause. Both McMurphy and Tyler Durden therefore use their powers to try to liberate others and create a lasting effect on them as a consequence, even after they are gone, suggesting Kesey and Palahniuk believe that power can have a great, lasting effect on others. Through the abuse of power, the emasculation of men and threat of castration is created in both ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’. Tyler Durden’s ‘Fight Club’ is created to try to return men’s masculinity, which links with the time the novel was written in the 1990’s. At the time, ultimate fighting clubs had been thriving in various American cities, introduced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1993, and were an influence on Palahniuk’s writing. Because of the decline of interest in professional boxing due to the corruption within it in the 90’s, American audiences wanted a new form of entertainment. The Narrator and Durden grew up without a father figure in their lives, and Durden describes the men in society as being a â€Å"generation of men raised by women†[6], and thus tries to restore their masculinity. This could also link to Chuck Palahniuk’s past, as his parents separated and divorced when he was fourteen, leaving him and his siblings to spend their childhood on their maternal grandparent’s cattle ranch. However, Durden hypocritically uses his power to introduce a threat of castration to any men who are a threat to closing any ‘Fight Club’s down, highlighting a theme of emasculation in contrast to Durden’s attempts at restoring masculinity. An instance of this is when Durden abuses his power to gather space monkeys and threaten to castrate the police commissioner until he calls off his investigation, and later also tells the space monkeys to threaten to castrate the Narrator. Durden also threatens to then send the commissioner’s testicles to newspapers, by saying that â€Å"If even one Fight Club has to close, we’ll send his nuts east and west. One goes to the New York Times and one goes to the Los Angeles Times†[7], which cr eates a similarity between it and ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ through the use of the same rhyme, but whereas in ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ it is used to represent McMurphy’s rebellion, here it is used as a representation of castration. Similarly, Nurse Ratched creates a threat of castration through the abuse of power in ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ and emasculates the male patients by hiding her feminine nature as a way of controlling them as a part of the Combine. The Combine is a greater organisation that wishes to have power over society, the mental institute being one of the places under its control, and the way McMurphy rebels against it could link to Kesey’s outlook of power being a bad and corrupting presence, as Kesey himself was involved with the Beat movement in the 1950s, which rebelled against repression on society. A theme of castration is created when a patient named Rawler commits suicide by castrating himself, and the Chief remarks that â€Å"all the guy had to do was wait†[8], suggesting that he felt as though the castration was inevitable anyway and would have been done by Ratched if not himself, similar to the way Durden uses the threat of castration to control men. Critic Catherine Cooper commented on this also: â€Å"The men are all dehumanised and even emasculated, a fact which is emphasised by the first of three suicides in the novel, Old Rawler’s death by castration.†[9] I agree with her thoughts, and although Rawler’s suicide could be considered a consequence of Ratched’s abuse of power to emasculate the men, the suicides of Cheswick and Billy could be considered partly as a consequence of McMurphy’s use of power to disrupt the ward, which I will explore later in the essay. Also, similar to how Durden comments on the men being a generation of men raised by women, the male patients in ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ have often been involved in relationships with overpowering women, for example in the Chief’s case he was raised by his powerful mother who made his father â€Å"too little to fight anymore and he gave up†[10], having an effect on the Chief and his father’s masculinity. Though Tyler Durden begins as a man who restores masculinity to men, he becomes one who also abuses power to create emasculation, similar to Nurse Ratched who abuses her power to emasculate her ward of male patients, both characters using it as a form of control, reflecting Kesey and Palahniuk’s possible views on how power can easily corrupt.

The Crimes of Suzanne Basso

The Crimes of Suzanne Basso Suzanne Basso and five co-defendants, including her son, kidnapped a 59-year-old mentally disabled man, Louis Buddy Musso, then tortured and murdered him so that they could collect on his life insurance money. Basso was identified as the ringleader of the group and instigated the others to torture their captive. An Unidentified Body On August 26, 1998, a jogger discovered the body in Galena Park, Texas. Based on the observations of the police, when they arrived at the scene, they determined that the victim had been killed elsewhere, and then dumped on the embankment. He showed severe injuries, yet his clothing was clean. There was no identification found on the body. In an effort to identify the victim, investigators reviewed missing person files and learned that a woman by the name of Suzanne Basso had recently filed a report. When a detective went to her apartment to see if the victim found in Galena Park was the same person that Basso had reported as missing, he was met at the door by Bassos son, 23-year-old James OMalley. Basso was not at home, but returned shortly after the detective arrived. While the detective talked to Basso, he noticed that there were bloody sheets and clothing on a makeshift bed on the floor of the living room. He asked her about it and she explained that the bed belonged to the man she had reported as missing, but she did not explain the blood. She and her son James then accompanied the investigator to the morgue to view the body of the victim. They identified the body as   Louis Musso, the man she had filed a police report as a missing person., The detective noticed that, while Basso appeared to be hysterical on viewing the body, her son James showed no emotion when he saw the horrific condition of the body of their murdered friend. Quick Confession Having identified the body, mother and son accompanied the detective to the police station to complete the report. Within minutes after the detective began talking to OMalley he confessed that he, his mother and four others- Bernice Ahrens, 54, her son, Craig Ahrens, 25, her daughter, Hope Ahrens, 22, and her daughters boyfriend, Terence Singleton, 27, all participated in beating Buddy Musso to death. OMalley told investigators that his mother was the one that planned the murder and spearheaded the others to kill Musso by administering brutal beatings over a period of five days. He said that he was terrified of his mother, so he did as she instructed. He also admitted to dunking Musso four or five times in a bathtub filled with household cleaning products and bleach. Basso poured alcohol over his head while OMalley scrubbed him bloody with a wire brush. It remained unclear if Musso was dead or in the process of dying during the chemical bath. OMalley also provided information about where the group had ditched evidence of the murder. Investigators found   items that were used to clean up the murder scene that included bloodstained clothes worn by Musso at the time of his death, plastic gloves, bloodstained towels, and used razors. Wooed to His Death According to court records, Musso had been widowed in 1980 and had a son. Through the years he became mentally disabled and had the intelligence of a 7-year-old child, but had learned to live independently. He was living in an assisted living home in Cliffside Park, New Jersey and had a part-time job at ShopRite. He also attended church where he had a strong network of friends who cared about his welfare. Police discovered that, two months after the death of her live-in boyfriend, Suzanne Basso, who was living in Texas, met Buddy Musso at a church fair while she was on a trip to New Jersey. Suzanne and Buddy kept up a long-distance relationship for a year. Basso finally convinced Musso to move away from his family and friends to Jacinto City, Texas, on the promise that the two would marry. In mid-June 1998, wearing a new cowboy hat he had purchased for the occasion, he packed up his few belongings, said goodbye to his friends, and left New Jersey to be with his lady love. He was brutally murdered 10 weeks and two days later. Evidence On September 9, investigators searched Bassos Jacinto City small cluttered home. Within the mess, they found a life insurance policy on Buddy Musso with a base payout of $15,000 and a clause that increased the policy to $65,000 if his death was judged a violent crime. The detectives also found Mussos Last Will and Testament. He had left his property and his life insurance benefits to Basso. His Will also read that no one else was to get a cent. James OMalley, Terrence Singleton, and Bernice Ahrens signed as witnesses. They would all assist in his murder. The detectives found a   hard copy of Musso’s Will written in 1997, but the more recent copy of his Will on a computer was dated August 13, 1998, just 12 days before Musso would be murdered. Bank statements were found showing that Basso had been cashing Mussos Social Security checks. Further documents indicated that Basso had   tried unsuccessfully to arrange to take over the management of Mussos monthly Social Security income. It appeared as if someone had fought the request, possibly Mussos niece who was close to him, or his trusted friend Al Becker, who had been handling his benefits for 20 years. There was also a copy of a restraining order forbidding Mussos relatives or friends from making contact with him. More Confessions Each of the six perpetrators confessed to different degrees of involvement in Mussos murder and the attempted cover-up afterwards. They also all admitted to ignoring Mussos cries for help. In a written statement, Basso stated that she knew that her son and several friends beat and abused Musso for at least a full day before his death, and that she also beat Musso. She confessed to driving a car belonging to Bernice Ahrens, with Musso’s body in the trunk, to the site where O’Malley, Singleton, and Craig Ahrens dumped the body and then to a dumpster where the others disposed of additional incriminating evidence. Bernice Ahrens and Craig Aherns admitted to hitting Musso, but said Basso was the one pushing them to do it. Bernice told the police, (Basso) said we had to make a pact, that we cant say anything about what happened. She said if we get mad at each other we cant say anything. Terence Singleton confessed to hitting and kicking Musso, but pointed the finger at Basso and her son James as responsible for administering the final blows that caused his death. Hope Ahrens’ statement was the most odd, not so much in reference to what she said, but because of her actions. According to the police, Hope said that she was unable to read or write and demanded a meal before giving her statement. After scarfing down a TV dinner, she told police that she hit Musso twice with a wooden bird after he broke her Mickey Mouse ornament and because he wanted her and her mother to die. When he asked her to stop hitting him, she stopped. She also pointed most of the blame to Basso and OMalley, who, corroborating statements by Bernice and Craig Aherns, who had administered the final blows that caused his death. When the police attempted to read her statement back to her, she brushed it off and asked for another TV dinner. Lost Opportunities Not long after Musso moved to Texas, his friend Al Becker tried to contact him to check on his welfare, but Suzanne Basso refused to put Musso on the phone. Concerned, Becker contacted different Texas agencies requesting that they conduct a welfare check on Musso, but his requests   were never answered. A week before the murder, a neighbor saw Musso and noticed that he had a black eye, bruises and bloody cuts on his face. He asked Musso if he wanted him to call for an ambulance or the police, but Musso only said, You call anybody, and shell just beat me up again.   The neighbor did not make the call. On August 22, just days before the murder, a Houston police officer responded to a call of an assault going on near Jacinto City. Arriving on the scene, he found Musso being led around by James OMalley, and Terence Singleton in what the officer described as a military-style run. The officer noted that both of Musso eyes were blackened. When questioned, Musso said three Mexicans had beat him up. He also said he did not want to run anymore. The officer drove the three men to Terrence Singletons apartment where he met Suzanne Basso who said she was Mussos legal guardian. Basso reprimanded the two young men and comforted Musso. Assuming Musso was in safe hands, the officer left. Later, a note found in a pair of Mussos pants was addressed to a friend in New Jersey.   You must get ... down here and get me out of here, the note read. I want to come back to New Jersey soon. Apparently Musso never had a chance to mail the letter. Five Days of Hell The abuse that Masso endured prior to his death was detailed in courtroom testimony. After arriving in Houston, Basso immediately began treating Musso as a slave. He was assigned a long list of chores and would receive a beating if he failed to move quickly enough or complete the list. On August 21-25, 1998, Musso was denied food, water or a toilet and was forced to sit on his knees on a mat on the floor with his hands on the back of his neck for long periods of time. When he urinated on himself, he was beaten by Basso or kicked by her son James. He was subjected to violent beatings administered by Craig Ahrens and Terence Singleton. He was abused by Bernice and Hope Ahrens. The beating included being hit multiple times with a belt, baseball bats, punched with closed fists, kicked, and struck with other objects that were around the apartment. As a result of the beatings, Musso died on the evening of August 25. In a seven-page autopsy report, numerous injuries on Mussos body were cataloged. They included 17 cuts to his head, 28 cuts to the rest of his body, cigarette burns, 14 broken ribs, two dislocated vertebrae, a broken nose, a fractured skull, and a fractured bone in his neck. There was evidence that blunt force trauma extended from the bottom of his feet to his upper torso, including his genitals, eyes and ears. His body has been soaked in bleach and pine cleaner and his body was scrubbed with a wire brush. The Trials The six members of the group were charged with capital murder, but the prosecutors only sought the death penalty for Basso. James OMalley and Terence Singleton were convicted of capital murder and given life sentences.Bernice and her son Craig Ahrens were convicted of capital murder. Bernice received an 80-year prison sentence and Craig received a 60-year sentence. Hope Ahrens trial ended in hung jury. She worked out a plea deal and was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder and agreeing to testify against Basso. Suzanne Bassos Trial Performance By the time Basso went to trial 11 months after her arrest, she had dropped from 300 pounds to 140 pounds. She showed up in a wheelchair which she said was a result of being partially paralyzed after receiving a beating from her jailers. Her lawyer later said it was due to a chronic degenerative condition. She mimicked the voice of a little-girl, saying she had regressed to her childhood. She also claimed she was blind. She lied about her life story which included tales that she was a triplet and that she was having an affair with Nelson Rockefeller. She would later admit it was all a lie. She was granted a competency hearing and the court-appointed psychiatrist who interviewed her testified that she was a fake. The judge ruled that she was competent to stand trial. Each day that Basso appeared in court she looked disheveled and would often grumble to herself during testimony or squeal and wail if she heard something that she did not like. Hope Ahrens Testimony Along with the evidence found by investigators, the testimony given by Hope Ahrens was likely the most damaging.   Hope Ahrens testified that Basso and O’Malley brought Musso to the Ahrens apartment and that he had two black eyes, which he claimed he got when some Mexicans beat him up. After arriving at the apartment, Basso ordered Musso to stay on a red and blue mat. Sometimes she had him on his hands and knees, and sometimes just on his knees. At some point during the weekend, Basso and O’Malley began beating Musso. Basso slapped him, and O’Malley kicked him repeatedly while wearing steel-toed combat boots. Hope Ahrens also testified that Basso hit Musso on the back with a baseball bat, hit him with a belt, and a vacuum cleaner, and jumped on him. Testimony was given that Basso weighed about 300 pounds at the time that she jumped repeatedly onto Musso while it was obvious that he was suffering from pain. When Basso went to work, she instructed O’Malley to watch the others and make sure they did not leave the apartment or use the phone. Each time that Musso tried to get off the mat, O’Malley beat and kicked at him. After Musso sustained injuries from the beating, O’Malley took him into the bathroom and bathed him with bleach, Comet and Pine Sol, using a wire brush to scrub Musso’s skin. At some point, Musso asked Basso to call an ambulance for him, but she refused. Ahrens testified that Musso was moving very slowly and was clearly in pain from the beatings. Verdict The jury found Basso guilty of capital murder for murdering Musso during the course of kidnapping or attempting to kidnap him, and for remuneration or the promise of remuneration in the form of insurance proceeds. During the sentencing phase, Bassos daughter, Christianna Hardy, testified that during her childhood Suzanne had subjected her to sexual, mental, physical and emotional abuse. Suzanne Basso was sentenced to death. Profile of Suzanne Basso Basso was born on May 15, 1954, in Schenectady, New York to parents John and Florence Burns. She had seven brothers and sisters. Few real facts are known about her life because she often lied. What is known is that she married a Marine, James Peek, in the early 1970s and that they had two children, a girl (Christianna) and a boy (James). In 1982 Peek was convicted of molesting his daughter, but the family later reunited. They changed their name to OReilly and moved to Houston. Carmine Basso In 1993 Suzanne and a man named Carmine Basso became romantically involved. Carmine owned a company called Latin Security and Investigations Corp. At some point he moved into Bassos apartment, even though her husband, James Peek, was still living there. She never divorced Peek, but referred to Carmine as her husband and began using Basso as her last name. Peek eventually moved out of the home. On October 22, 1995, Suzanne placed a bizarre quarter-page engagement announcement in the Houston Chronicle. It announced that the bride, whose name was listed as Suzanne Margaret Anne Cassandra Lynn Theresa Marie Mary Veronica Sue Burns-Standlinslowsk   was engaged to Carmine Joseph John Basso. The announcement claimed the bride was an heiress to a Nova Scotia oil fortune, educated at Saint Annes Institute in Yorkshire, England and had been an accomplished gymnast and at one time even a nun. Carmine Basso was reported to have received a Congressional Medal of Honor for his duty in the Vietnam War. The ad was retracted three days later by the newspaper due to â€Å"possible inaccuracies.† The $1,372 fee for the ad had gone unpaid. Basso sent Carmines mother a letter claiming that she had given birth to twin girls. She included a picture, which the mother later said was obviously a picture of a child looking into a mirror. On May 27, 1997, Basso called the Houston police, claiming that she was in New Jersey, and asked that they check on her husband in Texas. She had not heard from him for a week. Going to his office, police found Carmines body. They also found several trash cans filled with feces and urine. There was no restroom in the office. According to the autopsy, Carmine, age 47, was malnourished and died from erosion of the esophagus due to the regurgitation of stomach acid. The medical examiner reported that there was a strong smell of ammonia on the body. It was listed that he died from natural causes. Execution On February 5, 2014, Suzanne Basso was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. She declined to make a final statement.