Mcmurphy's Fishing Trip

This is a paper about the book Finding Fish: A Memoir, which was written by Antwone Fisher. By necessity given the nature of the book, the main character will be examined at length. Through careful examination of the main character a deeper understanding of the book can be reached. After the examination, a number of theoretical perspectives will be applied to the main character, as well as an explanation of how these perspectives can be used to evaluate Antwone in order to understand him better. The perspectives that will be used will be the strengths, systems, conflict, humanistic, and psychodynamic perspectives. Following the connection of the perspectives to Antwone, an explanation of why social workers use theories and

Love can come from many different people. It is not always given by a family member. Love is not always given by a romantic interest, either. Sometimes love can be given by friends, especially in a time of need. This can be seen in Chris Crutcher’s short story Goin’ Fishin’. Goin’ Fishin’ is a short story about a boy named Lionel Serbousek, whose family is killed by his previous best friend, Neal Anderson. The story follows him through his grief. Throughout the story, Lionel’s friends are there to guide him through his grief and guard him from the outside world. Lionel’s friends love him like family.

The book is littered with explanations about fishing. I admit that I frequently got lost in these passages. This knowledge is an important element of the story. When a component of the boat malfunctions, readers know the significance of this to the sailors. Without this, the book would have provided a message that only other sailors could understand. Junger, by supplying this information, wants to make sure that all readers can fully grasp the danger and suspense of the book.

Although the nurse has seemingly won because the patients were not able to achieve their primary goal, in reality, their real victory is their combined resistance against Nurse Ratched. The adventure on the fishing boat also exhibits how the patients aid McMurphy in his rebellion. Though he charges them for their endeavor, they once again decide to accompany him and go against the institution, further implying their admiration for him and his cause. Even though McMurphy knows that the nurse will likely punish the twelve other patients severely for lying and leaving the ward with a prostitute under false pretenses, he does so anyway, showing that he will risk great punishment to help his “disciples.” Finally, the patients support the party that McMurphy has in the ward with alcohol and the two prostitutes. The main reason behind this event was to ensure that Billy Bibbit, one of the patients on the ward who lacked self-confidence, got to have a date with Candy, one of the prostitutes whom Billy liked. This event is another example of how McMurphy would risk trouble for himself for the betterment of others and how they supported him in his actions.

The number of men that accompany McMurphy are twelve; the same number of Christ's disciples, many of whom were fishermen . During the fishing the men come into themselves, following McMurphy's lead when he uses the `advantage' in Harding's words of mental illness to intimidate and outwit two gas-station attendants ` The doc wouldn't lie like that about just any patients, but we ain't ordinary nuts; we're every bloody one of us hot of the criminal insane ward, on our way to San Quentin.' As the men and the doctor grow in confidence McMurphy retreats further into the background , allowing the men to individually challenge themselves and grow. For example when there are too few life jackets McMurphy does not do as most heroes would and go without, instead he forces another of the men to do so and assert themselves, in the Chief's words ` It started slow and pumped itself full, swelling the men bigger and bigger.'

Part Three: At the beginning of the fishing trip the men were afraid to leave to the hospital because the hospital was their safe place. They were afraid that people would judge them and they were afraid of the "bad weather" Nurse Ratched told them about. The men had little confidence, especially when the men were taunting and making fun of them before they got on the boat. McMurphy usually does everything for them or tells them exactly how to do something, but this let the men branch out on figure things out for themselves. Towards the end of the fishing scene the men are fishing by themselves without McMurphy's help which shows how they gained confidence in themselves and shows how they can face public interactions. The fishing scene helped

Mack and Harding, another patient on the ward, have been in a argument about the Nurse. Harding believes that the Nurse’s power should be respected, but Mack disagrees claiming that she has cut their balls off during her “pecking party”. Finally, Harding agrees with Mack and replies, “No one’s ever dared come out and say it before, but there’s not a man among us that doesn’t think it, that doesn’t feel just as you do about her and the whole business—feel it somewhere down deep in his scared little soul.” (37) Harding speaks for all the men when he says this, they all have been deceived by the Nurse’s power and true aspirations for the men and Mack is correct and the first to stand for them. Mack and Chief are roommates in the ward, Mack found Chief’s gum collection under his bed, so when they were sitting waiting at the Disturbed, Mack offered Chief gum. For the first time Chief responses, “And before I realized what I was doing, I told him Thank you.” (122) Mack has broke through to Chief, causing the deaf and dumb Indian to speak, after no one else has in almost ten years, just like Jesus healed a blind man. Mack later decides to take the men on a fishing trip, twelve get to go, for the first time the men actually bonded and did something on their

The fishing episode is another great difference between the novel and the movie. In the book, the fishing trip was a planned event that the Nurse kept trying to ruin. Despite her attempts, McMurphy managed to convince Dr. Spivey to join the group when a prostitute named Candy came with only one car. In the movie, McMurphy hijacks a school bus and encourages the other men of his ward to participate in this act of rebellion against Nurse Ratched. Also, the former fisherman, George, was on the fishing trip in the book, but was not at all present in the movie. The fishing trip in the movie was so different from the book because they wanted to show that McMurphy was not conforming to the Nurse's rules. Unlike in the movie, Cheswick was not present for the fishing trip since he was dead. We see from this that McMurphy would have normally asked before taking the men on the trip since he was trying to get on her better side.

When McMurphy finds out that he is one of two patients that are involuntarily committed to the hospital, it makes him realize that he alone is fighting for his freedom, and the others have been repressed by Ratched to the point of being afraid to rebel against her or simply leave. McMurphy fights until the end to free these men of their emasculation even if it

Time passes and McMurphy continues to rebel. As he does so, many of the other patients follow. They break the Nurse’s Station window a couple times, start a basketball team,and even go on a fishing trip. When they return from the trip, the staff says they need to be cleaned so they are sent for “special showers.” A fight breaks out and McMurphy and Chief are sent to the Disturbed ward. Up in the Disturbed ward, McMurphy is given many “treatments” of electroshock therapy. The only way to stop the therapy is to admit that he was wrong. He refuses to admit this and continues to get the electroshock. When Chief says he should just play along, McMurphy says, “‘When I get out of here the first woman that takes on ol’ Red McMurphy the ten-thousand-watt psychopath, she’s gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars! No, I ain’t scared of their little battery-charger’” (Kesey, 250). Though he is going through torture, McMurphy continues to resist Nurse Ratched’s methods of conforming him. He is persistent in not giving in to the society. McMurphy continues to fight, even when everyone knows it’s a losing battle.

Ever since I was a kid I have enjoyed fishing. Fishing relaxes my mind and allows me to get away from the stress of the real world. From the cool breeze around the lake to the fishes nibbling away at the bait, it’s all just very relaxing. There was one day where I caught more fish than I had ever caught before. The entire day had been going my way. My boss called me and gave me the day off and that alone is a good way to start your day. After getting the day off I was able to get a few extra hours of sleep. Being able to sleep in allowed me to get the some rest that I had not been able to get for a few weeks. After getting my well-deserved rest I decided to go to the pet store to get some fish bait. Fishing was not my original plan for that day but since I was able to get the day off and I didn’t have any other plans I was able to plan to do one of my favorite things.

Getting ready for the big day, it was a cool summer morning, the water was like glass, mist on the water. My dad, me, and my friend launched the boat in the water ready for the state Bass Fishing Tournament, we had never been so pumped in our lives. Three!!! Yelled the director, we take off to our first spot of the morning, a spot we had done good in practice the day before. The first spot was a bust but we bounce back and get to our second spot. I throw my chartreuse spinnerbait next to some reeds in the water and next thing i know i'm hooked up!!! I yell “Matt get the net” He scoops the fish into the net and that's our first keeper of the day. Next cast I hook up with another Largemouth bass that weighed about 2lbs. I continue on the trolley

During the summer, when the sun would shine outside until about 8:30 in the evening, I would go over to my papa’s ranch every weekend. Upon arrival I would jump out of the car and run up the front steps to the door. The dogs would always be waiting at the door, two big blonde labs, a small russel terrier and a considerably smaller fox terrier. I would open the door and they’d tackle me down onto the porch and I’d fall into a fit of laughter. Papa would tell them to get off and I’d run in, hugging him as tight as a four year-old could. He’d pick me up and run into the kitchen.

It was four in the morning on the lake of Sandstone Minnesota Grindstone Lake. My Brother Gavin and I went out on the lake in a little john boat to go fishing. We had real heavy action fishing rods and reels. We do not usually use bait just Luers, But today we had decided to use both. So we drive out to the middle of the lake, It is about 230 feet deep. So we catfish rig are lines with a half pound weight and some rotting deer liver as well as brain. It smelled so bad it had made Gavin fall out of the boat. I tried and tried to get him back into the boat for a good twenty minutes or so, Not realizing that I could just use the electric anchor. So I lowered the anchor and got him to step onto it and then I raised it up.