Magaa 1

Jesse Magaa
Prof. Kane
English 115 mw
28 November 2016
Essay 3.1
Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage. -Ray Bradbury.
There is a fine line between Sanity and Insanity, and that line consists of what the majority
believe is normal. The main distinction between the two is simply who has the power to decide
which is which. In literature and throughout history there are many examples that proves this to
be the case to be true. Simply put sanity is what the majority of people (the ones who have the
power) believe is normal and right while insanity is just about anything that goes against it.
The majority (those who have power) of course decide what is sane or insane, because if most
people are about the same then those who arent must be insane (however that isnt always the
case).
In Girl, Interrupted Susanna Kaysen for the most part seemed like a normal teenage girl
when she was narrating her story, even arguing her case with valid points. Kaysen believes that
she was sane the whole time and did not deserve to be locked in McLean (a psychiatric ward).
She even goes as far as to give you he view on the time it took for the doctor to diagnose he as
mentally unfit. Subtracting the half hour waiting to be admitted and wading through
bureaucracy.. (Kaysen 72). In the chapter Do you believe Me or Him where this quote is
from she gives her side of the timing it really took (in her opinion) to get her into McLean. She
believes that her doctor falsely created a time range to add credibility to his diagnoses. Basically
she calls him a liar but with the correct time range to add credibility to her argument. Although

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she didnt seem all that crazy the doctor had the power to send her to McLean because he
thought she had mental issues.
In One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest , McMurphy was admitted into a mental institution
just because he was lazy and was a convicted felon. The people in power couldnt understand
why he didnt want to work or why he would commit crimes so they just thought he must insane.
However even the doctors in there werent sure he was mentally ill, they only left him in there
because the head nurse said she could help. McMurphy ,who wasnt crazy, even said Youre no
crazier than the average assholes on the street. to his fellow patients. If he wasnt crazy and he
believed that these patients werent insane then why were they in there? Easy because they felt
that they needed to check themselves in when they felt they didnt fit in with the majority of
people.
Song of the Hummingbird is a fiction book by Graciela Limn that depicts the mass
differences between the Aztec empire from before and after the Spanish invaded from an Aztec
Princesses point of view. The book is basically and old women doing her last confession before
she dies in which she goes through her life story confessing her sins and informing the young
priest about important historical events. In the book Huitzitzilin (the princess) is telling a Spanish
priest her customs and traditions and the priest (who belonged to the majority) was fascinated
because he thought her people were savage, crazy, and praised Satan for believing in any other
religion other than Catholicism.
The perfect example of the majority deciding what sanity is not always right was Nazi
Germany. The Majority of people sided with the Nazi party and believed in such insane things
yet they were completely convinced they were sane. They believed it was perfectly sane to
alienate, segregate, and exterminate not only Jewish people, but also gay people, gypsies,

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disabled (mentally and physically), and other undesirables. The majority and those in power
believed this was a normal way of thinking and never thought twice if they were actually the
ones who were insane. Now we can obviously see how insane the Nazis were, because sane
people know killing people because they are different than us is not only insane but stupid as
well. As humans we are 99.9% similar so if that 1% is enough for some to hate an entire group of
people than something is definitely wrong with them or they are ignorant plain and simple.
The main distinction between what is seen as sane and insane is who holds the power.
What the majority believe will be seen as sane despite the fact that it might not always be a
reasonable way of thinking. Those in power can easily abuse their power and put and maintain
those who they see as insane in mental institutions and some even go as far as commit atrocious
act that will forever be cemented in history.