One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Final Project Hannah Moriarty

Hannah Moriarty 

Intro to Lit  F

Mr. Dilworth

12/8/14

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Final Project

1. Chief Bromden

1. “I been silent so long now it’s gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it’s the truth even if it didn't happen.” (Kesey p.8)
2. “They got enough of those things they call pills down me so I don’t know a thing till I hear the ward door open.” (Kesey p. 9)
3. “First time for a long, long time I’m in bed without taking that little red capsule (if I hide to keep from taking it, the night nurse with the birthmark sends the black boy named Geever out to hunt me down, hold me captive with his flashlight till she can get the needle ready), so I fake sleep when the black boy’s coming past with his light.” (Kesey, p.85)
4. “I don’t make a sign I heard. He’s trying to trick me. He asks me again to get up, and when I don’t move he rolls his eyes up to the ceiling and sighs, reaches down and takes my collar, and tugs a little, and i stand up. He stuffs the sponge in my pocket and points up the hall where the staff room is, and I go. (Kesey, p.150)
5. “That’s why they have me at these staff meetings, because they  can be such a messy affair and somebody has to clean up, and since the staff rom is open only during the meeting it’s got to be somebody they think won’t be able to spread the word on whats going on.” (Kesey, p.151)

These quotes exemplify who Chief is as a character and how he is portrayed as one who is known as “silent but deadly”. He makes significant progress throughout the story with self confidence and self importance. He is silent for so long and he contains so many thoughts and feelings inside of him that build up to have a great impact on how he begins to conform to the wishes of others. He starts to realize that he is a big help to all of the others on the ward and, with McMurphy’s help, he can speak up in the best way possible. 

Chief Bromden gains a significant amount of confidence as the story goes on due to the endless encouragement from McMurphy. He takes a while to realize him and the others can make a difference on the ward if they really try. He is a Cherokee Indian, thought to be deaf and mute, but is not as he seems. He takes in everything that is said in the ward and uses that to his advantage. When McMurphy arrives at the ward, Chief begins to realize what good he can do them. He is truly a dynamic character, beginning with muteness and later becoming one of my many reasons the ward was over thrown by the patients. McMurphy provides perfect example for Chief and all of the other patients, by persistently pushing the Nurse to do more and more things, which led her to slowly become more lenient. This helps Chief realize that it is okay to take a stand if it makes him happy, even with the risk of being punished or being sent to Disturbed. He ends up being sent to disturbed after he fights with the black boys to defend one of the other patients. This helps him generously with his confidence because he gets a good deal of respect for doing something most of the other men wouldn’t. He becomes confident and is able to help himself and the other patients come out of their comfort zones and make their  lives better.

II. Nurse Ratched 

1) “ She walks stiff. When I open my eyes she’s down the hall about to turn into the glass Nurses’ Station where she’ll  spend the day sitting at her desk and looking out her window and making notes on what goes on out in front of her in the day room during the next eight hours.” (Kesey p. 4)

2) “ I don’t agree that he should be sent up to Disturbed, which would by simply an easy way of passing out problem on to another ward, and I don’t agree that he is some kind of extraordinary being- some kind of ‘super psychopath’.” (Kesey p. 156)

3) “She sounds like a teacher bawling out a student, so McMurphy hangs his head like a student.” (Kesey, p.96)

4) “Please, Billy understand me: I’m not criticizing this sort of activity as such; I just thought it would be better if we didn't have any delusions about the man’s motives. But, at any rate, perhaps it isn't fair to make these accusations without the presence of the man we are speaking of.” (Kesey, P. 265)

5)  “She may be a mother, but she’s big as a damn barn and tough as a knife metal. She fooled me with that kindly little old mother bit for maybe three minutes when I came in this morning, but no longer.” (Kesey, p.61)

Nurse Ratched is clearly the antagonist. Her acerbic tone, controlling attitude and manipulative characteristics all form the basis of her power in the ward. She treats the patients with little respect, and is always trying to turn the men against each other, although she ultimately becomes the source of their strength. 

Nurse Ratched is biggest conflict throughout the story because of her manipulative ways and her hatred for McMurphy. She builds up a bad relationship with McMurphy, which makes it harder on her part because her negativity towards men just makes them stronger. She attempts to downgrade the men by reminding them of how they have no masculinity, or as McMurphy said, “Right at your balls. No, that nurse ain’t some kinda chicken monster, buddy, what she is is a ball cutter.” (Kesey, p. 60) This shows how the men feel about what the Big Nurse is trying to do with their masculinity, and making them feel less superior. The Big Nurse is a very significant character in this story because of how influential she really is towards the patients, even though  she has the opposite intention. She loses her power when the men gain strength from pushing her away from who she really is.

III. R.P. McMurphy

1) “If you’re up against a guy who wants to win by making you weaker instead of making himself stronger, then watch for his knee, he’s gonna go for your vitals. And that’s what that old buzzard is doing, going for your vitals.” (Kesey, P.60)

2) ”Just like she is wondering about me, they are all wondering about what to do with the  redhead back down there in the day room.” (Kesey, p.152)

3) ”After McMurphy doesn't stand up for us any longer, some of the Acutes talk and say he’s still outsmarting the Big Nurse, say that he got the word she was about to send him 

to Disturbed and decided to toe the line a while, not give her any reason.” (Kesey, p.173)

4) “It was the smart thing. McMurphy was doing the smart thing. I could see that. he was giving in because it was the smartest thing to do, not because of any of these other reasons the Acutes were making up.” (Kesey, p.174)

5) “After McMurphy was drawn out of what you call a short retirement and had announced he was back in the hassle by breaking out her personal window, he made things on the ward pretty interesting.” (Kesey, p.205)

McMurphy is a man who is extremely influential. He teaches the other men to not be afraid to stand out or be an individual. He was the driving force for all of the men on the ward, because he refused to let Nurse Ratched take him and the others down. All of the quotes show how he is always outsmarting people, being an individual, and trying to find his own way to do things.

McMurphy has an extreme impact on all of the members of the ward because of his inability to give up. He pushes and pushes until he gets his way, for the other patients’ sake too. He has great intentions to try to help everyone out and it always thinking outside the box.  “It was the smart thing. McMurphy was doing the smart thing. I could see that. he was giving in because it was the smartest thing to do, not because of any of these other reasons the Acutes were making up.” (Kesey, p.174) This shows how much McMurphy really cared and how he was always thinking critically to find a way to beat Nurse Ratched. He was the driving force on the ward because he always kept everyone fired up and wanting to earn more and more. He was always willing to take a stand when the other wouldn’t, and made a huge impact on many of their lives and the ward.

IV.  The Staff

1) “ They’re watching to see what they’ll say about him, and they don’t care anything about some fool Indian on his hands and knees in the corner.” (Kesey, p.152)

2) “ Everyones confused all to hell for sure now. They figured they were proposing just what she’d want, just what she was planning to propose in the meeting herself. I thought so too.” (Kesey, p.156)

3) “Everybody else goes ahead spooning sugar in their coffee and borrowing cigarettes, the way they do before every meeting, but theres tenseness in the air.” (Kesey, p.151)

4) “I been in meetings where they kept talking about one patient so long that the patient materialized in the flesh, nude on the coffee table in front of them, vulnerable to any fiendish note they took.” (Kesey, p.151)

5) “The black boy knew who had spoken to him, but he didn't turn around; the only way we  knew he’d heard it was by the way he stopped talking and reached up a long gray finger and drew it across the scar that he’d got in the baseball game.” (Kesey, p.272)

These quotes show how insensitive the staff members are and how all they care about are themselves. They treat most of the men with disrespect, while bossing them around with every little thing they do. Each of these quotes demonstrates how the staff members treat the members of the ward and how the ward members don’t conform to their wishes.

The Black Boys play a significant role because of how they influence the men, just like Nurse Ratched. They harass and fight with the men, and they always win. The Japanese Nurse, is nice to the patients because he has sympathy for them. They play very different roles because of the different ways they treat the patients. The Black Boys on the other hand, have almost zero sympathy when dealing with them. They treat them with zero respect, as if they were animals and do not take into account their pasts. They only care about themselves and boss people around with every little eating they do. This shows how they can control so many people just by taking advantage of them, just like Nurse Ratched. 

V.  The Other Characters

1)” No one’s 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.” (Kesey, p.62)

2) “You think I wuh- wuh- wuh- want to stay in here? You think i wouldn't like a con- con- vertible and a guh-guh-girlfriend? Well did you ever have people l-l-laughing at you? No, because you're so b-big and so tough! Well,i’m not big and tough. Neither is Harding. Neither is F-Fredrickson. Neither is Suh- Sefelt.” (Kesey, p. 195)

3) “Vote what my friend? Vote that the nurse may not ask any more questions in the group meetings? Vote that she shall not look at us in a certain way? You tell me, Mr. McMurphy, what do we vote on?” (Kesey, p.70)

4) “The Chronics and the Acutes don't generally mingle. Each stays on its own side of the day room the way the black boy want it.” (Kesey, p.18)

5) “Billy here had been talking about slicin his wrists again.” (Kesey, p.262)

These quotes specifically signify how the other, not as relevant characters feel about the ward. They feel unwanted and fed up with Nurse Ratched rules and regulations, but don't know how to confront her, or speak up in any way possible.

There are many other characters that don’t play huge roles, but have large impacts on the wards development and the allegory. A lot of them feel as if they are disappointments because they are different, and Nurse Ratched just adds to that disappointment. ” No one’s 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.” (Kesey, p.62) They are all downgraded, especially Harding being that he is a homosexual, by Nurse Ratched. These characters show extreme improvement with self confidence and defiance to Nurse Ratched, helping tie the story together. 

VI. Motifs

Bible 

1) “ Ellis pulled his hands down off the nails in the wall and squeezed Billy Bibbit’s hand and told him to be a fisher of men.” (Kesey, p. 234)

2) “‘Conductant’ the technician says, ‘Anointed my head with my conductant. Do I get a crown of thrones?” (Kesey, p.283)

The references to the Bible all fill in perfectly when you relate it with the characters. McMurphy comes into the ward and he becomes a role model and he makes sacrifices for the patients benefits. He fulfills the role of Jesus in this allegory. The twelve disciples, or all of the other men on the ward, follow in his footsteps by recreating his actions to try and make sacrifices and fight for their rights. These character schemes give us a different way of looking at the allegory, and seeing how the characters roles almost perfectly fit some of the roles of the Bible.

   

Gender Stereotypes

1) “The hell with that; she’s a bitch and a buzzard and a ball-cutter , and don't kid me, you know what i’m talking about.” (Kesey, p.61)

2) “Yet it seems I have been accused of a multitude of things, of jealousy, and paranoia, of not being a man enough to satisfy my wife, of having relations with male friends of mine, of holding my cigarette in affected manner, even- it seems to me- accused of having nothing between my legs but a patch of hair- and soft and downy and blonde hair at that! Ball- cutter? Oh you underestimate her!” (Kesey, p.64)

Throughout the story, the issue of gender stereotypes comes up multiple times. Nurse Ratched often tries to downgrade the men by making them feel less superior to her because they don’t have masculinity. She tries to play the role of a man; an independent, aggressive and active person who has ultimate control over the men. When Harding is made fun of because he isn't masculine enough, it shows the gender switch in this story. It shows how the men are considered weak or underestimated while Nurse Ratched has complete control and is more masculine then all of the men.  

The Fog 

1) ‘I’d wander for days in the fog, scared id never see another thing, then there’d be that door, opening to show me the mattress padding on the other sited stop out out the sounds.” (Kesey, p.131)

2) “I dont have to stay at that door if the fog comes over me and just keep quiet.” (Kesey, p.132)

The fog shows an endless scare throughout the book. Most of the patients feel lost when they are inside of it, or just on a drug. They feel like they can escape from whatever problems in the ward. It provides a hiding place for the patients, or just Chief, from their imaginations. The fog helped him face challenges in real life while learning to face the challenges of dealing with the fog.