Reading Between, Around and Through the Lines

Section I: The Concrete Experience

In the process of compiling the literary works I intended to include in this project, I began to notice a common thread that connected the works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry that I generally choose to read. That common tie that binds these books together is that they all seem to center, in one form or another, around the theme of oppression. Perhaps this is because I have some deep psychological need to diffuse the power struggles I experience within myself by gleaning insight from the pages of someone else’s experience. Or, perhaps it is merely because I have a predisposition to “root for the underdog”. Regardless of the reason, be it simple or complex, almost everything I read seems to engage a “David and Goliath” scenario.

Take for example, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. There is no doubt in my mind that the mental institution that comprises the primary setting of the narrative is intended as a metaphor of societal oppression. This symbolic novel relays the story of an inmate standing up against the powerful forces that operate a psychiatric hospital, but it represents much more than just a classic case of “man versus the establishment”. The questions raised by Kesey are almost as chilling as his descriptive tales of inmate abuse. Kesey compelled me to ponder just how thin the line is that separates insanity from sanity, and treatment from control. Representing a heroic struggle of personality against an institution of mindless conformity, I found “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to be one powerful piece of literature.

Similarly, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, which I first read the summer after I graduated high school, is a tale of oppression that translates into a deeply moving novel chronicling the ups and downs of a black family in the 1930’s and 1940’s. A myriad of historical and social issues are addressed, including race relations in the pre-civil rights south, segregated schools, sexual abuse, patriotism and religion. Autobiographical in nature, this tumultuous story centers around Marguerite Johnson, affectionately called "Maya", and her coast-to-coast life experiences. From the simple, backwards town of Stamps, Arkansas to the high-energy city life of San Francisco and St. Louis, Maya is assaulted by prejudice in almost every nook and cranny of society, until she finally learns to overcome her insecurities and be proud of who she is.

Along the same lines, the attempted resolution of racial conflict is also a key concept in Eric Foner's A Short History of Reconstruction. The Reconstruction was a long and cumbersome process which spanned from the early part of the century to almost 40 years following the end of the Civil War. In reality, there is no "short" history of reconstruction, however Eric Foner manages to sum it all up quite succinctly. Foner opened my eyes to a great deal of information, such as how dynamically this period led to dramatic changes in people's perceptions of race, economics, politics and social structures, and that in fact, many of these changes still echo throughout the South today. The question persists, however, that if this period truly acted as a catalyst for change in the South, did it also have serious effects on the entire nation, and can I apply those experiences to my own life?

Racial oppression is also the primary theme of In The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It, The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson. There is no more credible documentation of this time in history, or any other for that matter, than an actual first-hand account. Robinson offers an insightful direct account of her experiences as both a black woman and as a Civil Rights activist. Robinson had experienced an incident similar to that of Rosa Parks in which she absentmindedly sat at the front of a nearly empty bus, then ran off in tears when the bus driver screamed at her for doing so. Robinson was not however, weak, by any stretch of the imagination. The incident only made her stronger and more determined to reverse the injustices which were hindering the advancement of an entire race of people.

Political change is also by and large, a derivative of some variety of oppression. In Citizen Governance: Leading American Communities into the 21st Century, Richard C. Box provides a model for improved local governance, utilizing his extensive background as a professional in local government as a blueprint for his perceptions. The intent of his book is twofold: Box’s first goal is to illustrate the diverse functions held by citizens, public practitioners and elected officials, gleaning ideals rooted in American political theory and public administration theory to authenticate his views. The second is to offer his perceptions of how these assignments can be redirected towards helping citizens become more active and energetic participants in local governance. Box believes, as I do, that people who allow themselves to be oppressed by refusing to take advantage of their rights as citizens need to be sufficiently inspired to encourage change, but have not been instilled with the c onfidence they need to believe in their own power.

Religious oppression is another form of subjugation, as is gender oppression. Both of these elements can be seen in the poetry of my favorite poet, Anne Bradstreet. In a time when Puritan literary works were based almost solely on the purpose of moral instruction, Anne Bradstreet pioneered the concept of weaving personal feelings into the moralistic threads of poetic verse. Intrinsically, however moral righteousness and honest human emotion are contradictory. Therefore, Anne's voice of Puritan faith often conflicted with her personal experiences and perceptions. The contrast between Anne's deeply embedded moralistic ideals and her emotional reactions to the harsh realities of her personal traumas and failures is apparent throughout the majority of her 17th century lyric poetry.

Section II (Reflective Observation)

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey's use of description and symbolism not only enhance the depth of the narrative, but they provide the reader with amazing insight into the character’s minds, hearts and souls. In fact, the characters themselves can be viewed as metaphors of society; not just the institution. R.P. McMurphy, for example represents the rebellious faction of society that was so loudly expressing itself during the sixties and seventies. He, like the hippies, challenges authority and brings about change by inciting others to rebel as well. He is both dynamic and crude, both funny and pitiable, as he rallies the other patients around him by challenging the dictatorship of Big Nurse. He encourages gambling in the ward, smuggles in wine and women and openly defies authority whenever possible. In the end, Nurse Ratched teaches him the ultimate lesson on authority, which could be seen as a warning against rebellion. His lobotomy is “the establishment&# 8217;s” way of quieting the unruly protests of those brave enough to speak their minds. The character of Billy is also meant to show us that disobedience can have disastrous consequences, when the evil Nurse Ratched drives him to suicide. The Chief, who acts as the narrator, is a tall and strong Native American who pretends to be mute and deaf in order to protect himself from pain. His character is representative of the way society was very silent in the fifties until people finally couldn’t take it anymore and let their feelings be known with a vengeance. McMurphy rescues the Chief from his silence, and he returns the favor by rescuing McMurphy from life as a vegetable.

Conversely, Richard C. Box, being an expository writer, avoids metaphors and symbolism in favor of a more direct approach. In Citizen’s Government however, could be seen as the reality that Kesey’s metaphors are attempting to symbolize. Box’s perceptions of community and government could almost be a “parallel universe” of Kesey’s institutionalized community and the authority figures that oppress them. Both communities are about individuals acknowledging that they have a collective identity, that they may have common interests which separate them from other communities and that they may have a common vision, an aspiration as to what they want for their own futures.

Maya Angelou’s experiences could also be seen as a metaphor for society vs. the government. Her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, molested and raped her, but her fears kept her from telling anyone what had happened for a long time. When she finally did admit to Mr. Freeman’s atrocious behavior in court, she lied and said it only happened once. After this traumatic incident, Maya became mute, unable to face her truths or her lies. Riddled with guilt after Mr. Freeman was killed by her uncles, Maya decided that she had the Devil inside her (from lying at the trial) and must no longer speak for fear that her words might cause another death. Maya stopped speaking for five years but began scrutinize everything around her, including the racial politics and prejudicial attitudes that pervaded her life. This silence could be compared with both the self-chosen silence of “The Chief” in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, as well as the silent masses in BoxR 17;s book, which are also chastised for their fear to exert their own powers and make their voices heard.

Jo Ann Robinson had no qualms about making her voice heard and doing everything she could to instigate societal change. She was initially motivated towards reform by the Brown v. Board of Education, Topeka case which struck down legal barriers to school integration. This was the first major success that black activists had enjoyed and it gave hope to the author that people really could make a difference when they were united, organized, and had justice on their side. It was in part, because of her enthusiasm about the outcome of the case that soon after the Supreme Court's Brown decision in 1954, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson wrote a letter to the mayor of Montgomery, W.A. Gayle, stating that "there has been talk from 25 or more local organizations of planning a city-wide boycott of buses." By 1955, the Women's Political Council, the same council who had previously be disinterested in Robinson’s plight, had plans for just such a boycott. I found this to be personally inspir ing in the sense that one person really can make a difference.

Section III (Abstract Conceptualization)

While we can view One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, from a literal perspective, as a classic story of rebellion and deliverance, we must also view it as a metaphor for one man’s triumph over of “the establishment.” The old saying, “You can’t fight city hall” is challenged, which is represented by the patients rebelling against the hospital staff. Liberals are likely to view this novel as a powerful tale that glorifies the human spirit. Conservatives are more likely to perceive it as an advertisement for social disorder and chaos. I personally thought the book’s most powerful message was that human differences should be celebrated; not censured

I drew similar conclusions from Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. From beginning to end, this autobiography is laden with issues of racial prejudice that perpetuate self-doubt and insecurity. As early as the second page, Maya explains how she wished that she would wake up in a white world, with blond hair and blue eyes, claiming that being black was a living nightmare. There are blatant instances of racial tension throughout almost every adventure Maya experiences, including one in which “ the po' white trash children” confronted Momma in front of her store. This scene culminates with Maya’s insightful realization that in spite of the disparity of power between the po'white trash and Momma, Momma had triumphed by maintaining her dignity.

Eric Foner is able to dissect racial issues from an historical perspective, and show how these issues remained at the heart of the controversy surrounding the period of Reconstruction. By blending historical fact with such emotionally charged issues as race and politics, Foner concludes that the Reconstruction was a basically a failure, and he is able to back up his claims quite convincingly. He disperses the blame amongst a variety of elements rather than placing it all on Abraham Lincoln. The fact of the matter was, nobody quite knew what to do with the freed black man, much less how to treat him; this was a completely unprecedented experience for Americans. Most Southerners depended on slave labor and were at a loss as to how they were going to continue to prosper. The war had been won, but the battles continued to rage.

Anne Bradstreet was a poet who continually fought a battle of wills within herself. She was not only a poet, but a wife and a mother and a victim of fate. She was not purely moral, though she aspired to be morally pure. I couldn’t help but feel empathy for Anne Bradstreet's struggles with life and within her own heart. However I must also assume that though her inner-conflicts were harrowing, her poetry would not have been nearly as moving had she not experienced them.

As daughter to the Earl of Lincolnshire at Sempringham, Anne received a superior education in the noble households in which she was raised and was quite firm in her Puritan religion. She married and bore eight children and continued to live the lifestyle of a "good Puritan woman". However throughout many of her works, Anne begins to question how honest she is being about her faith and feels distress over her inability to live up to the incredibly high standards placed upon her.

An illustration of this inner struggle is depicted in Anne's 1678 poem, The Author To Her Book. Throughout this work, Anne explores the dissension between her innate need to love and accept her child unconditionally, and her ingrained desire to portray him to others as flawless, in both beliefs and behaviors.

Lines 3 and 4 state:

"Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true, Who thee abroad expos'd to public view..."

Although part of the Puritan doctrine enforces a deep reverence for responsibility and honesty, at this point in the poem, Anne is solely blaming societal influences for her child's shortcomings.

Joann Robinson faced similar personal struggles and triumphs in a more modern time. A professor at the all-black Alabama State College, Robinson was active in every level of the Civil Rights movement, even before it had officially gotten off the ground. Subsequent to her distressing experience on the bus in 1949, she tried to start a protest but was shocked and disappointed when other members of the Women's Political Council to which she belonged brushed off the incident as "a fact of life in Montgomery." Fortunately, Robinson did not feel defeated by this insipid attitude, she felt inspired by it instead.

Section IV (Active Experimentation)

Maya Angelou went from living in a place where the religious and pious were the ones who garnered respect, to an environment in which gamblers, hustlers, prostitutes, and gangsters were the ones who held the power. I too had a similar experience when I moved from my quiet hometown to the big city when I was eight years old. I learned quickly, as Maya did, that the more diverse aspects of life I was able to experience, the more well rounded a person I could become. I could also relate, in many aspects, to the part of the story in which Maya and her brother attend a non-segregated high school in California, until at 16 years old Bailey, gets his own apartment. Subsequently, Maya is forced to spend the summer with her father and his malicious girlfriend, Dolores, in a trailer park. After an argument with Delores comes to blows, Maya runs away from home and vows to make it on her own. I too had a brother that moved away from home at an early age, and I have experienced problems with stepfamilies for most of my life. Though my experiences have never reached the tragic depths that Maya’s did, I can unremittingly sympathize with her plight and empathize with her pain.

After years of reading Anne Bradstreet’s marvelous poetic verse, I have learned that time is no barrier to parallel lifestyles. Anne's inner struggles between religious piety and the acceptance of natural human failings mirrors the crevice in my own soul. Her moralistic desire to banish her "unfit" child surely caused a torrent of inner-conflict between her maternal instincts and her virtuous character. Ironically, however, by expressing these emotional thoughts in her poetry, she is actually portraying herself as an unfit Puritan, in that Puritans are instructed to honor the traditional family and embrace all traditional family roles and responsibilities. My religious upbringing inspires the same types of conflicts and contradictions from which the emotional distress can only be justly expressed on paper.

Perhaps the most palpable examples of Anne Bradstreet's disunity with her religious faith are displayed in Verses Upon The Burning Of Our House (July 18th, 1666). Throughout this poem, Anne tries desperately hold onto her optimism and trust in God's will, but cannot keep from bringing her true feelings of despair and resentment to light. The poem concludes with the following lines:

"Yea, so it was, and so 'twas just.

It was his own; it was not mine.

Far be it that I should repine."

By nature, the expressions "far be it" and "so it was" are ones of indignation. Although Anne is "saying all the right things" there is unmistakable twinge of sarcasm within her "gratitude". It would be unnatural for any human being to feel nothing but gratitude upon the burning of their home and all of their valued possessions. However for Anne, these natural human emotions conflict with her deep-rooted belief that The Father knows best.

Quite a bit can be learned from Jo Ann Gibson Robinson’s experiences as well. The Montgomery bus Boycott was a highly significant event in the civil rights movement because it caught the attention of the entire nation. People around the country were made aware of the event because it was launched on such a massive scale and lasted for an arduous 381 days. The boycott moreover set the tone for the entire civil rights movement, in particular giving activists such as Jo Ann Robinson the confidence to believe in and continue to instigate organized, peaceful action towards an aim of unprecedented levels of reform.

I found the book to be inspiring and I feel it has the ability to motivate and encourage people of all races and generations. The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It; The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson treats readers to a compelling visualization and a startling inside look at one of the most significant periods in history, as well as the remarkable woman who was part of it.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched represents the establishment, and is described by Kesey as “enormous, capable of swelling up bigger and bigger to monstrous proportions. She is the ward superintendent, the ultimate authority demanding obedience and perfect order from everyone”. This is the author’s way of conveying that she is powerful like the establishment, and like the government, she makes and enforces the rules. Though fictional in nature, there is an obvious parallel between Kesey’s views of political oppression and Richard Box’s. Box’s perceptions of community issues, along with his views on the theory and practice of public service to citizens and professional administrators are directed toward the goal of improving the quality of public governance through open dialogue and increased citizen accessibility to the process of creating public policy. In simple terms, the transition towards citizen governance needs to revolve around the aspiration of both government officials and citizens for a pronounced shift from "government centric" to "citizen centric" rule. This is a theme that can actually be seen in all of the works discussed here, in that the key to obliterating oppression is to open the lines of communication on an even playing field.