The Straitjacket of AP English

Thursday night, as I finished the two sections of the datasheet that I had hoped to have completed by Thursday morning, I decided to take a break, and watch one of my favorite shows, Criminal Minds.  I eagerly turned on the TV and scrolled to the list of recorded shows. Having used more brain power in the prior hour than in the previous 12 days of break, I clicked on the first, “not previously viewed episode,” “The Instincts,”  and sat back to relax. Toward the end of show, to my surprise, Dr. Reid spent the night with his mother at a mental hospital. Seriously?! I thought I had left One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest behind me when I had turned off my computer. I should have known, trying to escape AP English is never successful. Sadly, I could not seem to focus on the end of the show (I have no idea how it ended). Instead, I contemplated the similarities and differences between the image of the mental hospital portrayed on TV and the description of the psychiatric ward in the book. This contemplation spurred many unanswered questions to hover in my mind. I wondered if any major differences exist between a man’s experience in a mental hospital, compared to a woman’s, since in the book, only men resided in the ward and Reid’s mother received little focus in the show. I also could not help but speculate if a figure similar to Nurse Ratched works in all psychiatric hospitals. Do all patients in psychiatric units lack self-confidence like Bromden and his peers? Eventually the show concluded and another episode immediately followed. My brain paused from the constant questioning as in a deep, didactic tone, a character read, ‘“It is a wise father that knows his own child.’ William Shakespeare.” Ahhh, AP English stalks me! At first, I admit, I felt a jolt of disappointed that again, even in a different episode, I was reminded of AP English. The irritation quickly faded however as I realized that I, because of a lengthy datasheet, probably know more about William Shakespeare than most people who have watched that episode. I became somewhat proud to be an AP student, proud of my ability to recall useless facts about Shakespeare’s life and writing career, proud that I have analyzed one of his great works and proud that I can refer to him as more than “one of those famous playwrights.”  Even though my attempt to release myself from the hold of AP English failed, I recognized not only that I experience pride as an AP English student but also that AP English proves impossible to escape.

Reid talks to his mom in the psychiatric unit