Rereading IS Important

Rereading books is a good way to jog your memory. Sometimes just skimming the book is a good way to remember a basic plot. For my whole life I have been “running out of books” and either my parents would have to find me new ones or I would have to reread my books. Often, I my mom or dad would find me sitting on the couch and say “What are you reading now?” I would answer and they would ask if I had read that book before. When I said yes, indeed I have read this book before my dad for example would huff and ask why I was reading it. My answer always has and always will be that rereading a book allows me to catch important details that I didn’t catch the first, second, third, etc time. I think that this is why it was a good idea to have the AP lit kids reread an old book from our high school career. I was in a group that reread One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. While we did not go over our chosen books in detail, I noticed many new things in the novel. In 10^th grade when I originally read this novel for class, I did not like it. My teacher told me how humorous it was and how the author really criticized world views. At the time I did not understand how the novel was possibly humorous at all. I just passed it as my teacher being a literature freak. The only criticism I saw in the book was showing how terrible mental hospitals were at caring for their patients. I did not see the deeper meaning in the book. Throughout AP lang and AP lit I have learned several new things. AP lang taught me how to read a book and notice stylistic changes. AP lit has taught me how to gather insight from the stylistic changes. I have learned to identify the meaning behind passages and novels. After reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest again I noticed the humor. The way the author describes Nurse Ratched is almost comical in the way that she is a masculine figure with a rather womanly chest. Also, McMurphy is comical in how he seems to easily rebel against the system within the ward. One specific time that McMurphy is humorous is when he and some other patients “watch” the television to see the world series despite the fact that the power has been cut from the TV. The ensuing tantrum that Nurse Ratched has when the patients do not listen to her just adds to the humor. I also now see the criticism coming from Ken Kesey. He wasn’t simply criticizing mental hospitals for the way that they handle their hospitals. He was explaining the idea of power and how it can be transferred from one individual to another. He also explored the concept of an individual and how one person can change. The main character Bromden changed throughout the novel and I saw the distinct change the second time I read this novel. I think that rereading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest really showed me what I missed the first time and I feel a little better about the AP exam after having tucked this good and firm under my belt so-to-speak.