Thank You, J.J. Cale.

Pop Culture; is the single story. As a Colombian, there have been countless time where the mainstreams of society have targeted, and banned any positive ideas serving from Colombians.

Living eleven years in a very privileged NorthShore suburb of Chicago, my eyes opened to a new kind of "single story." My first encounters with discrimination for being Colombian date back to kindergarden, first grade, basically since I can remember. But these first years of discrimination affected a great deal, I would take questions like: "Is your Dad a landscaper?" or "Is your Dad in the import, export, business (if you know what I mean)?" to heart. But as years passed, I realized that this single story of Colombia does not give birth in the minds of my friends, but from the mainstreams of American Culture. I realized very similarly to Adichie that even your "roommates" would express such stereotypes not in the way of an insult but a question, a sign that they don't know better. A sign in which their family doesn't even know better. This tone may seem condescending or disrespectful, but the ideas in my friends possessed were spoon fed. Their parents, amazing people, grew up in a time where Harrison Ford  starred in "Clear and Present Danger" and where J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton were singing; "If you day is done, and you want to ride on... Cocaine!" Both amazing pieces of art, but a prime example of the cause of a single story.

Don´t get me wrong, eleven years assimilating to the stereotypes of American society will leave anyone guilty of the single story. I too have committed the same expressions that once left me questioning my pride as a Colombian. Even in Colombia the single story of the Typical American exists; the "fat bastard."

T.I.A.

Although hard to digest, Kurtz loses the battle between Africa and himself. The continent that made him untouchable also brought  his demise. With the fall of Kurtz, Conrad imposes the ultimate expression of irony, in which, humans participate their whole lives. A similar message is depicted by Ridley Scott´s Blood Diamond. 

Blood Diamond illustrates the turmoil that have been casued by the white man´s quest to satisfy himself, a goal that has proven impossible to accomplish. The movie takes place in the mining fields of Sierra Leone and the the story of a family,  nation, continent, ripped apart by the "White Man´s Burden." A whiteman who rose to power, wealth, and women by taking the most of Africa, the continent who gave it all to him. But as it was once said "what goes up must come down" the same story goes with the mercenary in Blood Diamond. The same goes with HOD, Kurtz became a "someday" thanks to Africa, and that "somebody" was extinguished "with twice the speed of our upward progress; and Kurtz’s life was running swiftly, too. . . " The ironic circle of life that has been so highly critzced by the philopsohers of the 20th century is clearly present in Conrad´s ideology. A lifetime of sweat, cruelty, and sacrifice gives man the allusion of someday of becoming something, but when death calls,which is much swifter than the rising to power,  the man isn't ready because at no point in time did he ever realize what he became..."The horror! The Horror!"(130) As Marlow states "I saw on that ivory face the expression of sombre pride, of ruthless peer, of craven terror-of an intense and hopeless despair." Not even the best, most knowledgeable men die with the comfort of fulfilling their goal of dying with a clear conscience in leaving a successful legacy. So much work for no reward? Is that what; Ridley Scott and Joesph Conrad try to express?

Whether a battle of "principles" or the direct pursuit of wealth, there is no thesis on the "effective way" of how to leave a successful legacy. Many die in vain, discomfort, and others like the existentialists just "accept." Di Caprio just accepts and says: "T.I.A" "This is Africa."

Use Purell

It is safe to say that getting shot by an arrow, is a safer bet than drinking water. Not only in Africa has disease turned the tables of conquest; Guns, Germs, and Steel  shows how an entire empire fell to the hands of sickness. Can this time the fallen empire, be European?

Overhearing the Manager´s Uncle speak of leadership, and specifically of "standing the climate"(58), Marlow realizes Kurtz´s ingredient. As stated in Part One, Kurtz´s ability to immunize himself from any disease in Africa makes him an idol-figure. It is not the natives´ military power that determines the fate of the Europeans, it is mother nature. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond tells the story of the many conquering expeditions that Europe has been involve in: from Sub-Saharan Africa to South America. The most interesting is Mexico´s story. In short; the Spanish Armada lead by Hernan Cortes had not to fire their weapons, all they had to do was interact. One by one the Aztec population started to fall of disease. Such ¨superhuman¨ features made the Conquistadors resemble gods to the Aztec people: domination. 

A similar story starts to unravel in the beginning of Part Two. The only thing that needs to happen for a leader to rise and conquer is surviving interaction. Interaction with the natives, and the "patient wilderness" as Marlow states it. The problem is that unlike Guns, Germs, and Steel, Marlow´s expedition is not intended on evangelizing natives or direct interaction, Marlow´s plan is to take mother nature´s sons away. They are only after the "ivory-that can be smelt in the air..."

It seems as though this expedition isn't human versus human, but a battle between Man and Superman. Will Marlow conquer mother nature or fall ill like Mr. Kurtz, at the height of his power?

Soldiers...Of Fortune

Patriotic? The word empire, has become a word much too glorified. A word that many times is paralleled to "King and Country," but far too many times have these Sir Francis Drakes forgotten their principles and gone to conquest a name for themselves. The word; nation is lost and the highest bidder comes into plain view. Mercenaries. 

One cannot help asking as the novel runs deeper into Africa, the true meaning of glory. "He was the only man of us who still followed the sea..." Marlow is the first to question the significance of imperialism. As he furthers into the Congo, and hears the stories of: money, ivory, and Mr. Kurtz. The connotation of glory and light starts to quickly fade away. "ELDORADO EXPLORING EXPEDITION..."  suffices in expressing what this "nurturing of less privileged peoples" in Africa was all about: money. This idea of: money, foreigners, and  Man-of-Wars, created a comparison to what Conrad is trying to express; BlackWater. 

Even though Marlow doesn't seem to be a cold-blooded "conquistador," his whole situation of being English, working for a Belgian Company in Africa, creates an image of a Mercenary. He may not be committing the atrocities but his companions are. A "Soldier of Fortune" is the image that is created in my mind when these imperialistic descriptions are narrated. “The word ‘ivory’ rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it." Mercenaries are often described as nationless, men living in exile. Men who have given up the nationalistic sentiments that lie in fighting for your country by selling themselves to the highest bidder. In addition, the map that illustrated the "proportions and disproportions" of Africa shows that not only King Leopold was enforcing his self-interests with foreign forces. 

As Part One comes to a close, Her Majesty´s Empire seems to be not so majestic after all. And the reader  is left wondering whether or not; God should save the Queen?

Mismatch

"Hide your wives and daughter; hide the groceries too.
The great nations of Europe comin through."

The irony in this phrase is that the singer expresses Europe as "great nations" but such nations of glory are also cautioned. Nations of such wealth were still stealing, and still raping. The irony is that Europe is supposedly more civilized but the fact that less civilized persons have to hide their families and their groceries are the satire imposed. 

"There's pictures in a museum, some lines written in a book
but you won't find a live one, no matter where you look."

There is no irony present in this part of the song. The author wants to exaggerate the fact that the conquerors write history. He wants to mention the forgotten memories and cultures of the indigenous personnel, especially by mentioning that even the birds were extinct. 

"Church told him were gay,
soooooooooooooo
he had them torn apart by dogs on religious grounds they say
the great nations of Europe were quite holy in their way."

The irony here is that the church should symbolize an authority, but an authority of good, an insituticon to spread the word of god. The complete opposite is mentioned in the song, an insituiotion that compels their "loyal disciples" to spread the word of god by killing and discriminating. The exact opposite of the word of god. "The holy way" of Europe is in fact not holy, its the complete opposite of holiness. 

Bromden to Chief Bromden

 Cagey. Foggy. Secluded. Futile. Are the adjectives that symbolized Bromden. Words that provoked:  uncertainty, misery, and the complete illustration of an unrecoverable human being. But with Mcmurphy´s "fox ability to make a quick dollar..." Change becomes a daily factor in Chief´s life.

Chief Bromden throughout the beginning of the novel is depicted as the insane of the insane. He hides from his fears, he lets the tyranny and medications get the better of him. The fact that he poses to be deaf and dumb, signifies the lack of will, not only on behalf's of the Chief: but on behalf of the whole ward to dignify themselves against Miss Ratched´s treatment. Not even Cheswick and Harding started talking the talk until Mack came into the picture. In addition, not even the information he narrated was reliable at the beginning, but once Mack starts getting momentum on his "revolution", the clarity of Chief´s ideas become evident.

Once Chief reveals desire, change is evident. The Chief discloses his hunger to go on the fishing trip(179), he finally shows the reader that he has emotion, that really has some sort of pursuit: a goal. Even though he ends up not signing himself up that day due to his fear of unmasking his "deafness", the reader connects with Chief. But as Macmurphy states several times in the novel, paraphrasing: "power is not present without laughter." The word laughter symbolizes an emotion, something that is close to impossible to portray without words. The most essential change that needed to happen to chief was to speak, to finally engage in a conversation where he conveys his thoughts, his beliefs. On page 186, after giving in to Macmurphy comedy. Besides talking, he finds himself on the verge of laughing, the key to power. One shouldn't take the fact that Chief talks as the most important but the fact that the Chief laughs, he finds something funny, almost as though he finds a sense to life.

The reader then starts to see a pattern, when everybody laughs, they're invincible, such as the parts in the gasoline station, the fishing trip. The laughter gives a sense happiness, a sense that produces power. But at this height of the novel, Chief has changed indeed but hasn't acted alone. He hasn't had the drive to act on his own drive. Not until he finds himself being taken advantage of by Mack, he then does something that had never happened before: he acts on his own anger. He stomps off to be alone, he cries, thus showing that Chief can lift the panel, expressing colossal strength, but his tears show expression. Both attributes are used by Kesey to construct the image of the new Chief, a normal human being.

The Chief finally reaches the peak of his evolution with the suffocation of Mack and his escape.(281) He acts on his criteria, on his beliefs, and on his experience to dignify Mack. He suffocates him creating a Hero, and a villain out of Big Nurse. He then escapes, not like Mack was going to escape, he escapes with a plan in mind, he foresees his future and embraces the present.

Confident. Free. Ambitious. Happy.

"Intimidation"

The Big Nurse, is not: your typical soccer mom. Expressed as villain, but seen as a saint by many, Miss Ratched Always gets her way. An authoritarian. Repressive. Undemocratic. Are the perfect parallels to Miss Ratched´s depiction. A woman who has a deeper voice than men. 

"Intimidation" is a word that is used frequently by Chief Bromden. A word that besides existing in the text: it has a deep connotation throughout Miss Ratched´s confrontations. Intimidation is a word that helps the reader visualize what is thought by the characters in the ward. "Just sitting....smiling...she has taken control...making everyone aware she is the force to be dealt with."(133) In a room full of men, such confidence, such finesse, is what turns the tables to Miss Ratched´s favor. Carrying herself as something better, more elegant and smarter: is what separates the woman from the "boys." Using the term "boys" to represent the male staff underlines the colossal figure that Miss Ratched consists of. 

A mother figure. A woman who calls the her superiors out: "You are very-very wrong." Iron-will is the engine. An engine that feeds on "patience-years," fear, and confidence. A stubbornness that "acted like confidence...that worried."(137) The words are hypnotizing, and with absolute composure, even the manipulators are put to sleep: "...only way to lift his commitment is by acting like she wants..."(150) Even McMurphy seems to fall under such intimation exercised by the Big Nurse.

"She couldn't be wearing lipstick," and failing to "conceal her big old breasts" symbolize that such "outsized badges of femininity" are a not an expression of hard effort into intimidation. Such natural aspects on the physical side, complements the simplicity of intimidation coming naturally to the Big Nurse. 

Curable?

1960s. Sex. Drugs. And more drugs. One Flew Over the Cuckoo´s Nest is in fact a prettycuckoo novel. In an age of counterculture, Ken Kesey, writes on the definition of what is truly insane. The fog represents the "combine", the system, that seems to be the oppressive power. But due to the fact that the Chief is in a mental hosiptal: the reader is left questioning whether the fog symbolizes the insanity of the Chief or insane techniques of the combine.

Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock (1969)

Granted, I am no doctor. I seem to think that the tactics used by Nurse Ratched are the truly insane characteristics of this mental institute. The fog that is endured by Chief Bromden is not shaving cream covering his eyes, its the electroshocks that have placed him in a constant mind of hallucinations: A Chronic. The way this mental institute is handled is insane: the point of sending a supposedly insane person to a mental institute is to help cure this physiological disorder. The exact opposite is occurring under Miss Ratched´s perfect planning. She creates the fog.  She creates the fear. She makes the patients develop strategies like Chief´s to survive. This totalitarian and oppressive system creates an absurd scenario: it creates insanity. Kesey ridicules the insanity of society, he indicates the true problems are created by ones "up-top."
The fog, Chief sees, is the perfect example of the paranoia that is lived in the confinement under Miss Ratched and The Blacks. Chief panics to the idea of not being in control, of knowing that not even by acting deaf will he evade the idea of being in another person´s hands. The symbolism of being incapable to see ¨six inches in front¨ is the terror and anxiety caused by being touched by the hands that will make you a vegetable. Slowly yet surely, discretely yet swift, Miss Ratched, creates a fog in each of her victims.  (victim is a far better word than patient maybe puppet could qualify.) Miss Ratched is fog. Fog is fear. Fear becomes insanity.

Distortion

Well-acted yet weird, different but clear, the movie presents a different feelings as to the original play. While reading WFD, I felt no significant emotion coming from the characters: no clarity as to what was really going on in the characters´ minds. The monotonous tone produced an extreme level of boredom, as to which impaired the act of actually being able to analyze the character´s thought. 

But in the movie, this impairment of not begin able to "read" the character is nonexistent. The movie expresses the characters in an obvious matter: a way in which the viewer can interpret what the actor feels. This ability of knowing exactly what the character is trying to say, or more importantly what the character feels, conveys a varying perception to the viewer. The act of questioning is extinct, the director eliminates any doubt, and expresses  his perspective on how he questioned and analyzed the play. While reading Lucky´s speech, I pictured a man, a man with deep thought, surprisingly intellectual with his long redaction of speech, an overall philosophical man is conveyed. I interpreted Lucky for the first time as a man of wisdom. But the same speech in the movie, is not the same character that I interpreted. The director transforms Lucky into a schizophrenic-like figure, a possessed man, speaking as thought the lines had been memorized before, a robotic sentiment is acted: the eyes and the frozen body. 

This makes me feel as though the whole point of WFD is: eradicated. The entire play is so boring and simple that it obligates the reader to think deeply, ask questions, and leave the reader to conclude what he/she conclude what Beckett wanted to say. The movie cheats the viewer from what WFD signifies. Boring yet interesting, simple but profound, the play must be read before watching the movie, the reader must have his own idea before being spoon-fed what a director thought Beckett was trying to portray. 

A movie in color?  Don't even think about it.  

Incredibly...ridiculous

An incredible thriller; Waiting For Godot, not. Beckett´s play will indoubetbly be placed in my Hall of Shame. Shame isn´t the correct word to describe what I felt while reading the play, but it defenitely will not be parralled with my Hall of Fame. I mean no offense to Beckett´s honorary position in the arts, but this text really wasn't for me. Despite the mind-boggling boredom, Waiting for Godot and The Stranger associated in my mind. Both books try to reflect an opinion on what society and the human-being represent. Both authors try to express their philosophy on the behavior of man, even though each idea is distinct, a message is sent.

Beckett induces perplexity into his message, he bewilders the reader by disorganizing time and reference for the reader. But the hints that he sends such as the names, Adam, Cain, etc., express the human race in a more direct fashion. Beckett underlines the "five more minutes¨ slogan that has stained society. The incapability to act on one´s will. The uselessness of society is highlighted and procrastination is defined as a daily part of society. While Camus, in his novel; places ridiculous events to represent society. His hints are embedded through Monseuir Mersault´s extraordinary actions: random murder, passionate sex but lack of love, addiction. 

It´s always interesting to garner the ideas, conceived by authors that have left a mark in history, but the way Beckett expressed his was bottom-line boring. The repetitiveness is essential for expressing the circular aspect of daily life, but Beckett´s technique proved to be monotonous and unstimulating. 

Ball of Stress

A man who throws society aside, and  lives in the now, is quite frankly a superhuman. I am not saying that the actions of taking the motto "living only once" are impossible. I know plenty of people who have skydived, smoked, and have never fastened their seatbelt. It is perfectly normal for people to care about the future. The problem is the past. Not even Meursault, the messiah of existentialism could could cope with the "series of choices...", choices that would "create stress."

Meursault again schemes the reader into thinking that he is man of no passion, no dwellings on the past:  a person who frankly doesn't give a @#∞¢. Camus tries hard to engage the reader into disliking Meursault: the murder, maman´s burial, and with such disasters no feeling? Such feelings leads the reader to think of Meursault as a psychopath. But suddenly all the choices that Meursault has executed fall hard on his supposedly YOLO lifestyle. 

Once Meursault lands is jail, he dwells on the PAST! He thinks about sex (Marie), true love (maman), and society as a whole (the chaplain.) The chaplain, that tries to persuade Meursault to repent his sins is ousted by Meursault. The first time that the Camus depicts Meursault as infuriated, and not only infuriated with a man, but a man who signifies society. A man of god, the symbol in which the majority of the world strives to express tampers with Meursault´s emotion. Stress can be resembled with Meursault´s situation, a man who realizes that his end is near. A man who realizes that he has snowballed, and for once he is illustrated on his past, and what his future will bring him. 

"Life is a series of choices, creating stress." 

Why Not?

Camus leaves the reader guessing why Mersault does ands feels such things. At the beginning I really didn't get why Mersault doesn't describes his "mourning" the way he does, or why he doesn't seem to find a meaning to his life. But all my quarries with the novel tempered with the slaughter that Mesault commits the day at the beach. "I knew I’d shattered the balance of the day, the spacious calm of this beach on which I had been happy. But I fired four shots more into the inert body, on which they left no visible trace."(39) Such a random event, leads to endless questions. I was just getting accustomed to Mersault´s existentialist   lifestyle, but just as a life of boredom and bottom-line shameful  seems to be "normal," Mersault looses his bearings.  

But such a thought, a thought that Mersault is completely insane, seems to distance itself from the core of what is really going on. Even though Camus doesn't explain why Mersault does such a thing, it becomes unnecessary, once I realized Mersault´s goal in life: none. Once I realized that Mersault has no goal in life: he lives for nothing thus justifying such actions. He doesn't mourn his mother, doesn't love Marie, and frankly doesn't care about dwelling on the murder he has just committed. Camus leaves the reader to finally solve the existentialist formula. The fact that life is meaningless, doesn't lead to: why? The formula leads to "why not?"

Pathetic?

"It occurred to me that somehow I’d got through another Sunday, that Mother now was buried, and tomorrow I’d be going back to work as usual. Really, nothing in my life had changed." Before analyzing this passage in class, I thought this passage to be pathetic. Pathetic in a way that for most people in the world, the mother figure reflects: affection, warmth, and bottom-line love. Thus leads to the thought that such words from Monsieur Meursault formulate a man with no moral principle, a man full of depression. But once knowing the meaning of existentialism, such an assumption of a depressive human being can be postponed. Espeacially due to the following quote. 
"The sun was getting low and the whole room was flooded with a pleasant, mellow light." This quote labels the definition of existentialism. Monsieur  Meursault finds himself the night before the traditional funeral, mourning his mother in a ¨bleak white room...¨, with her companions from the nursing home. One would think that the feelings being expressed on such an occasion of mourning, would due gloomy, dark, full of sorrow. But the reader finds himself reading a totally different situation, the setting starts to be expresses. In very situation where Monsieur Meursault finds himself in ¨mourning¨, everything from the clothes of the people to the sky or light is described but nothing of sorrow is articulated. Meursault lives in only the present, he never laments the past, and only describes the exact presentation in where he is located. And very scarcely, the future is blathered. 

Tainted Love

       "Inside, the crimson room bloomed with light."(17)  Fitzgerald from the very beginning of the novel starts hinting at what life really is behind the doors of the Buchanan residence: crimson. A deep red, a dark red that almost hints as purple, almost although disguising its real core. Much like Daisy and Tom go about their lives. Lives that for many appeal as ideal, but as the ¨bloomed light¨ is pealed: a shade of misery is bestowed. A misery that is covered in harrowing occurrences. A household that doesn't even know and care about their child´s whereabouts, a relationship torn by adultery, and the presence of a trophy wife. The "crimson room, " only acts as a curtain to the red that lies beneath its surface. A red that symbolizes anger and blood.

Crimson Skies