One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Final Project

Bromden

A.   “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, 8)

                        -This book is Bromden’s narrative of his experience on the ward.                                 Therefore he says that maybe not all of it is what happened, but it’s what he saw.

B.   “She’s lost a little battle here today, but it’s a minor battle in a big war that she’s been winning and she’ll go on winning. “ (Kesey, 113)

                        -Bromden talks about how even though McMurphy won the tub                                  room for the patients; Nurse Ratched will always be one step                                              ahead of him. The nurse is in control of the ward and no one can bring her down, because it isn’t just her against the patients, its society against the patients.

C.   “ I couldn’t remember it all yet, but I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands and tried to clear my head. I worked at it. I’d never worked at coming out of it before. I saw an aide coming up the hall with a tray for me and knew this time I had beat them.” (Kesey, 288)

                        -For the first time, Bromden tries to free himself from the fog. This                             is one of the most important parts because after all this time under                                  Nurse Ratched’s rule, he is trying to start over and find himself again. 

D.   “We had just unlocked a window and let it in like you let in the fresh air. Maybe the combine wasn’t all-powerful. What was to stop us from doing it again, now that we saw we could.” (Kesey, 304)

                        -Bromden admits that maybe this machine that supposedly                                         controlled everything, isn’t as powerful as he once thought. Nurse Ratched is fueled by the fear of the patients, but when they aren’t scared of her, she loses her authority, which is what the men begin to realize.

E.   “When I finished dressing I reached into McMurphy’s nightstand and got it cap and tried it on. It was too small, and I was suddenly ashamed of trying to wear it.” (Kesey, 323)

                        -McMurphy was Chief’s role model and Bromden aspired to be like                              him and stand up to the nurse. After trying on the cap, he realizes he will never be McMurphy, but rather himself. He doesn’t have to be McMurphy to make a difference. 

           

            Chief Bromden’s past has taught him lessons about staying out of sight and out of mind because people who are different will be punished, but the bold attitude of McMurphy lifts Chief out of the fog and teaches him to live again. “I remember I was taking huge strides as I ran, seeming to step and float a long ways before my next foot struck the earth. I felt like I was flying. Free.” Bromden begins as an oppressed patient in an asylum that pretends to be deaf and mute to find out what the Nurse talks about. When McMurphy arrives at the ward, he becomes Bromden’s role model. Slowly, Bromden begins to communicate with McMurphy, something he hasn’t done in who knows how long. McMurphy builds him up to be big, not physically but mentally. Bromden had always been terrified of the Nurse, but by seeing McMurphy break her little by little, he is strengthened and starts to believe in himself. He becomes a huge part in the revolt against Nurse Ratched and after winning one last battle against the nurse (Killing the body of McMurphy so the Nurse can use it as an example), he leaves the asylum and rejoins the world.

Randle McMurphy

A.   “Is this the usual pro-cedure for the Group Therapy shindigs? Bunch a chickens at a peckin’ party?...The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go peckin’ at it…” (Kesey, 57)

                        -McMurphy understands that the Nurse somehow has complete                                  power over the patients and that makes them turn against each other. As he describes in the analogy, one man doesn’t something wrong and they all go and attack him for it, but the first person to point the finger in Nurse Ratched.

B.   “Well, sir, win a few, lose the rest is what I say.” (Kesey, 82)

                  -Not only does this saying relate to McMurphy’s gambling                                             problems, it also describes his war with Nurse Ratched. Not every                              battle against the nurse is won, but he defiantly becomes a force to be reckoned with. McMurphy says this after he takes all the men’s cigarettes in cards, but slowly lets them win them back.

C.   “Why, you sure did give a jump when I told you that coon was coming, Chief. I thought somebody told me you was deef.” (Kesey, 84)

                        -McMurphy discovers that Chief is not deaf, but he doesn’t make a                              big deal out of it. He respects Bromden and keeps his secret, which the other men wouldn’t have done.

D.   “I sure don’t want to go against the goddamned policy.” (Kesey, 103)

                  -McMurphy gets mad because there is a policy against everything,                            leaving the mess hall early, having access to toothpaste, the help                                   eating with patients. He likes having some freedom, but everything                               right has been taken away.

E.   “ ‘Winning, for Christsakes,’ he said with his eyes closed. ‘Hoo boy, winning.’ ” (Kesey, 270)

                        -McMurphy confronts Bromden about why everyone is acting like                             he’s a traitor. When McMurphy discovers it’s about                                                            winning, he disappointed because the men have completely been missing the point of what he’s been trying to do. That is why he fights the black boys for George in the showers and gets sent to Disturbed. McMurphy wants to prove to the men, he’s trying to                                  overthrow the nurse for them.

            The bigmouthed, obnoxious, gambling fool that walked in to the ward that day, not only changed the oppressive ward’s policy, but he impacted every one of the patients lives for the better; his name was R.P. McMurphy. His attitude was an obvious foil for the strict, tyrannical personality of Nurse Ratched. McMurphy represented freedom, determination, and individuality, which were all things the nurse stood against. His infectious laughter, inability to follow the rules, and knack for getting on the Nurse’s nerves became a beacon of hope to the patients and gave them the strength to disagree with the Nurse. “That big red hand of McMurphy’s is reaching into the fog and dropping down and dragging the men up by their hands, dragging them blinking into the open.” McMurphy saves the men by getting them to realize that Nurse Ratched isn’t all-powerful. His last act of rebellion, before the Nurse kills his spirit, is ruining Nurse Ratched’s power source, her voice. That is what controlled the men and without it, she has no authority.

Nurse Ratched

A.   “I’m sorry to interrupt you and Mr. Bromden, but you do understand: everyone… must follow the rules.” (Kesey, 25)

                        -In McMurphy’s first few minutes in the ward, Nurse Ratched is                                  already forcing conformity upon him. She doesn’t believe in living life, but rather following the rules of life.

B.   “ ‘I’m afraid’-she stabs the needle down in the rubber-capped vial and lifts the plunger-‘that is exactly what the new patient is planning: to takeover. He is what we call a “manipulator,” Miss Flynn, a man who will use everyone and everything to his own ends.’ ” (Kesey, 27)

                        -Already the nurse has spotted that McMurphy will case a                                             disturbance in the ward. She has the ability to spot trouble as soon as it walks in the door and somehow contain it, at least to society’s standards of ‘contained’.

C.   “It was better than she dreamed. They were all shouting to outdo one another, going further and further, no way of stopping, telling things that wouldn’t even let them look one another in the eye again.” (Kesey, 51)

                        -This really describes how horrible of a person the nurse was. She                               enjoyed how they called out their confessions, confessions that would disgust each other later on. She likes having power over the men, something to taunt them with and remind them of like Billy with his mother.

D.   “ ‘Good morning, Billy; I saw your mother on the way in, and she told me to be sure to tell you she thought of you all the time and knew you wouldn’t disappoint her. Good morning, Mr. Harding-why, look, your fingertips are red and raw. Have you been chewing your fingernails again?’  Before they could even answer, even if there was some answer to make, she turns to McMurphy still standing there in his shorts.” (Kesey, 100)

                        -Nurse Ratched meaninglessly asks how they are doing, she doesn’t                           even care because she gives them no time to respond. The patients are just a job to her, so she says what she has to.

E.   “Do you want to know what I think? I think you are being very selfish. Haven’t you noticed there are others in this hospital besides yourself?” (Kesey, 106)

                        -The nurse is trying to get McMurphy to feel guilty for wanting to                              turn down the volume of the music. Most men, like Chief, probably                                     don’t hear it anymore, but Nurse Ratched wants to make a point.

                         

            Nurse Ratched is a machine-like, army nurse that desires absolute power over the men. She enjoys seeing the men helpless, which is why she makes it her business to know everything about everyone. The Nurse has an uncanny ability to control her emotions even in the most surprising situations, but her voice is her main super power. “She doesn’t accuse. She merely needs to insinuate, insinuate anything….And he’ll feel like he’s lying to her, whatever answer he gives.” Her voice is never pointed but rather suggests what the men have done wrong, which makes them feel even more guilty. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, we see the difference between the Japanese Nurse who has tiny bird bones, and is portrayed as feminine and motherly and Nurse Ratched, who tries to hide her only feminine feature.

Patients

Harding

A.   “You’re safe as long as you keep control. As long as you don’t lose your temper and giver her actual reason to request the restriction of the Disturbed Ward, or the therapeutic benefits of Electro Shock, you are safe.” (Kesey, 73)

                        -Harding is explaining to McMurphy that to overpower the nurse,                             he can’t directly challenge her. He has to take pokes that frustrate her, but don’t give her enough of a reason to send him to shock therapy.

B.   “She doesn’t accuse. She merely needs to insinuate, insinuate anything….And he’ll feel like he’s lying to her, whatever answer he gives.” (Kesey, 63)

                        -Harding explains that the nurse will never pin blame on anyone,                             but rather suggest it. Her voice is what makes her so powerful; it is what controls the men on the ward.

C.   “They’ve still got their problems, just like all of us. They’re still sick men in a lot of ways. But at least there’s that: they are sick men now. No more rabbits, Mack. Maybe they can be well men someday. I can’t say.” (Kesey, 307)

                        -The men on the ward are getting better. They may not be society’s                           definition of normal, but they have the courage to stand up and be                                     different, thanks to McMurphy.

                         

Cheswick

A.   “ ‘I ain’t no little kid to have cigarettes kept from me like cookies! We want something done about it, ain’t that right, Mack?’ and waited for McMurphy to back him up, all he got was silence.” (Kesey, 172)

                        -Cheswick is the first of the patients to stand up to Nurse Ratched                                and when his role model won’t stand with him, he doesn’t                                             understand. McMurphy had been working so hard to ‘break’ the nurse and suddenly he wouldn’t help his friend out. It is because of this that Cheswick kills himself in the pool.

Billy Bibbit

A.   “They m-m-made me! Please, M-Miss Ratched, they may-may-MAY—!” (Kesey, 316)

                        -After Nurse Ratched threatens to tell Billy Bibbit’s mother, he                                    blames everything on McMurphy. Though Billy defied the nurse, as soon as she brought up his weakness, he caved. He regrets this decision so much that he slits his throat while in the doctor’s office.

            Before McMurphy arrived, the patients at the ward were a bunch of rabbits, trying to please the wolf so she didn’t punish them. “They spy on us”. (Kesey, 15) Though each man was different, it was masked by the conformity Nurse Ratched enforced upon him. “All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees, hippity-hopping through our Walt Disney World.” (Kesey, 64) Billy Bibbit represented the nervous, jumpy one that tried his best to fit in, Harding was a homosexual, educated man who conformed to society unhappily, Colonel Matterson had memories and metaphors that didn’t make sense, and so on. With the help of McMurphy, each man began to accept himself.  The two characters to contrast would be Harding and Billy because one allowed McMurphy to help them and stood by him even when McMurphy was in trouble while Billy Bibbit have up McMurphy because he didn’t want his mother to find out he had slept with a prostitute.

                       

The Staff

The Doctor

A.   “He talks full steam for another five minutes. You can tell a lot of the ideas are ideas he’s already talked over with McMurphy.” (Kesey, 109)

                        -Nurse Ratched is used to have everything talked over with her, so                            having the doctor on McMurphy’s side makes her angry. The doctor suddenly is giving the patients new ideas, but the nurse wants the dull environment because it gives no inspiration for uprising. 

The Japanese nurse

      A.  “Yes. I’d like to keep men here sometimes instead of sending them back,           but she has seniority.”

                        -The Japanese Nurse is not only portrayed more femininely, but she                         also doesn’t like Nurse Ratched. She wants to keep the men away from the ‘single, army nurse’ because she feels that Nurse Ratched’s rules are too harsh.

The Black Boys

A.   “ ‘McMurphy, you forcing me to protect myself. Ain’t he forcing me, men?’ The other two nodded. He carefully laid down the tube on the bench beside George, came back up with his fist swinging all in the same motion and busting McMurphy across the cheek by surprise.” (Kesey, 274)

                        -The black boys are Nurse Ratched’s little minions. They follow out                            whatever task she wants done, but more because they are afraid of her.

The Catholic Nurse

A.   “Stay back! There are two aides on the ward with me!” (Kesey, 83)

                        -The nurse is so afraid of McMurphy, she looks to her cross to                             protect her, even though he is just giving her the pills that were dropped.  A job at the ward is not a suitable place for her because she is a nervous wreck around the patients.

Mr. Turkle

A.   “ ‘Oh, Lord God,’ Mr. Turkle said, clapping his hands on the top of his bald head, ‘it’s the soo-pervisor, come to fire my black ass.’ ” (Kesey, 299)

                        -Mr. Turkle, the aide that works that night shift doesn’t care about                            the rules. Most nights, he unties Bromden’s sheets from around him and on the night of the ‘last supper’, he participated in the drinking. 

            From the beginning of the book, we see the true identities of the staff, their personalities aren’t changed like the patients. Mr. Turkle is the kind, old man who works the 11—7 shift while the black boys are Nurse Ratched’s followers. During the “Last Supper” of McMurphy, Mr. Turkle not only allows the prostitutes and alcohol in, but he joins in with the patients. He is portrayed to be one of them, not on the side of Nurse Ratched. The black boys on the other hand, stand for the domination of the patients. They look for times to tease and/or torture the men like when they wash George with soap. Everyone knows he hates it, yet they want to get a rise out of him, so they do it for their own amusement.  

Motifs

The Fog

A.   “Before noontime, they’re at the fog machine again but they haven’t go it turned up full; it’s not so thick but what I can see if I strain real hard.” (Kesey, 42)

B.   “They haven’t really fogged the place full force all day today, not since McMurphy came in.” (Kesey, 78)

            The fog represents an escape from reality. Bromden has completely hidden himself from the world, and the fog is one of his disguises. Though he blames it on the nurse, it is actually how he imagines he is safe. Incidentally, as soon as McMurphy arrives, the fog becomes much less powerful. This symbolizes how McMurphy’s personality pulls the men out of the fog. He leads and protects them from Nurse Ratched, so Bromden no longer needs the fog to keep him sheltered. After McMurphy dies for the men, Bromden realizes that he doesn’t need anyone or anything to protect himself. He is strong enough to be his own person and stand out.

The Combine

A.     “She blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling to big a load.” (Kesey, 5)

B.     “The ward is a factory for the Combine. It’s for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhood and in the schools and in the churches, the hospital is.” (Kesey, 40)

            The Combine is how Bromden thinks of the world. Everyone is just a piece of machinery, that’s why everyone is the same. When a piece of machinery becomes different, it has to be sent away to be fixed. Bromden hears the machinery in the walls, sees it in people, and takes trips in the night when he doesn’t take his pill. He later learns that the Combine can be defied and beaten becaue McMurphy was a martyr to it. Its just society bearing down upon everyone like Nurse Ratched did to the men.

The Story of Christ

A.     “I wash my hands of the whole deal.” (Kesey, 276)

B.     “Anointest my head with conductant. Do I get a crown if thorns?” (Kesey, 283)

            McMurphy really is the savior of the ward’s patients. Everything he tries to do is geared around saving the men from Nurse Ratched. He even sacrifices himself by taking away the Nurse’s voice leading to his death, much like in the story of Jesus. Jesus died on the cross to save us from death. Nurse Ratched and the black boys are seen as the Pharisees who condemn McMurphy for speaking out and disobeying the rules. The patients have their Last Supper with the prostitutes, reveling in one night of freedom before the consequences catch up to them. The next morning, Billy blames everything on McMurphy and betrays him,, exactly like Judas did, and gives Nurse Ratched the final reason to send him to get a lobotomy. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is McMurphy’s bible written by Bromden.