Environmental Impacts

Today in church, my mind wandered off a bit and I began thinking of my English blog and how I really did not know what to write.  But, luckily as the priest, Father Mark, began his sermon, the central idea of the sermon related to our book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.  Father Mark began with a story- a bit long but bear with me.  A mother chicken laid her 2 eggs but had to leave them to find food. When she left, a mother eagle dropped her egg into the chicken nest.  When the mother chicken came back, she sat on the eggs until they hatched. When they hatched there were three babies (two chickens and one eagle), but the mother assumed they were all chicks.  So, as they grew, obviously the one looked a bit different, but growing up in a chicken environment, the eagle began to act like a chicken.  Then one day, an eagle flew over the chickens.  And the baby eagle asked an older chick what it was. The chick responded that it was an eagle.  The small eagle saw the resemblance with the eagle in their feathers and wings and said "I have wings and feathers, I should try flying."  The chick responded, "No way. You are a chicken and chickens cannot fly."  So the baby eagle did not ever try to fly.  Father Mark used this story in order to teach the community that if one grows up in an environment in which he/she does not believe he/she can do something, he won't be able to.  Thus, if they grow up in an environment that is positive, loving, encouraging, they will grow up to be a better person and the opposite in a negative environment.  So, in our book, in the mental institution, where the care is poor and the nurses and doctors treat the patients badly, and they live in a negative and harmful environment, they have no chance for change and improvement.  When the workers tell the patients no constantly and treat them as lost causes, the patients will begin believing this themselves and not improve, but actually regress.  Obviously some of the patients are very insane, but others may become worse because of the environment they live in.