Even though many of the characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are mentally ill in some fashion, they also reveal many truths about human nature and how we work. What are some of the universal truths that we see in the story?
Reader #1-In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey describes a fog that has us all wondering. Chief claims that the fog that surrounds chief constantly is “made” by nurse ratched. Chief is schizophrenic and see’s things that aren't really there, we recognize that the fog may be medically induced, and is a fog in the mind, other than literal fog. Personally i think that maybe the fog is to distract the patients so then they can't get more power than nurse ratched or “rise up in rebellion” against nurse ratched, but also keeps them satisfied with their lives and keeps them from thinking anything real. Chief explains “ the men hide behind the fog because it's comfortable.” Reader #2-Everyone in this world is diffrent, some face struggles harsher than others and require more help than others. These individuals have a greater struggle in the world even if it comes down to social, academic work and everyday basic needs. The book One flew over the cuckoo’s nest teaches us the struggle people face. We learn that these individuals are sometimes the saddest out there, but they are also the most kind in the world. Reader #3-Respect. That word resonates when you say it. Or at least it does if you’re in a box canyon, which you aren’t for 99 percent of your life. But everyone wants to be respected, and for others that comes in different ways. Conquerors want to be known and feared. Kings want to be praised and looked up to. Teachers want us to listen. Students want to be heard. We must give the respect to others, as it is given to us. We’re all here together for like 80 some years apiece. Don’t be a jerk while you’re here. Be nice and others will be nice to you. Reader #4-People want to be respected. It’s a basic desire. People can sometimes get shut down and ignored if they are treated right. This can lead to random outbursts and inappropriate actions. This could seriously impact the lives of daily people. They stop performing as well, don't participate, and neglect work if they don't feel listened to. People that feel unlistened to will or tend to work together and get along better than those who are heard. People that are respected and listened to are often able to vent and share ideas amongst themselves. This leads to more open minded people. People in the ward have a hard time being listened to and acknowledged since there are so many of them. A lot of them feel unlistened to. I think this will cause conflict later on. Reader #5- There are different kinds of people in ¨One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” that the author gives clear examples to his readers. everyone is pretty much put in their own groups depending on mental illness. The patients that can’t really function on their own stay at one side and are called the walkers and the ones that can move and are energetic are the acutes. everyone sees them the same but there really not. they all act differently and show their emotions differently. like when mcmurphy first came in the story he acted like he was all that but he still had a mental illness and also with Chief Bromden, he acted like he couldn't talk so no one would bother him or speak to him. everyone is different no matter what disability or illness they have. Reader #6-during the book many themes can be brought upon the story. one is that all humans ill or not, struggle, some struggle to stay sane, others academically and some with emotions, or keeping friendships. all humans are different but not a single on has it easy. and their struggles are what shape them into who they are, making them strong, smart, sad, a liar, and cheater, a jerk, or anyone. they fit their personalities to better cope with their problems. and that was is being shown alot in this novel. everyone being who they arent to cover up or make up for what they truly are. Reader #7-There are many different themes and people in the book.. Some people in the story don’t even talk and are scared of nurse ratched and some people are very outgoing and don’t take anything seriously like McMurphy. In the book McMurphy says ‘’ I tell ya, I can’t figure it out. Harding, what’s wrong with you, for crying out loud? You afraid if you raise your hand that old buzzard’ll cut it off’’ in the book some people are scared to do anything because their scared of what’s gonna happen, but McMurphy doesn’t care at all, he wants everything to be done his way. The actions that people do as a whole is that they mostly work things together and sometimes it doesn t go to well. The people in the ward see the world a little differently, they dont expect much more than what they have in the ward. Reader #8-In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, the theme of needing control over others is shown. McMurphy, being the one who needs to have power over Nurse Ratched, shows the universal truth about people. That being: humans need to feel that they’re in control to be content. The author illustrates this in the book, “McMurphy walks past the window where she’s glaring out at him and grins at her like he knows he’s got her whipped now. When he tips his head back and winks at her she gives that little sideways jerk of her head” (Kesey 142). McMurphy is happy that he has her bent out of shape over something he did. He wants her to know that he won’t back down without a fight. He’s not just fighting for truth, he's fighting for control, and that's just what he will get. Reader #9-A universal truth about human nature that represents what we have read in the novel so far is: everyone has a different mindset, and different perspectives on the way they see and think about things can determine who you are as a person. In the book, we have come face to face with many peculiar people, there is no doubt about that, but we see them differently because they think and act differently than we do. This concept goes to show the overall truth and concept in this book. We as human tend to judge people because they do not have the same thinking mentality of us, for example; McMurphy says, “..in the nurses’ station i can see the white hands of the big nurse float over the controls.” When he says this, he knows the nurse wants them to all act and be a certain way because she sees them as differently, but she only see this because they aren't like her, they don’t think and see things like her. Everyone has their own mindset, and this helps define who we are as humans.
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Betting on something isn’t always the greatest idea. Winning is great and all, but there’s also a pretty good chance that you will lose. McMurphy makes a bet that almost becomes a turning point in the story. Let’s explore the tension that this bet causes in the ward.
Reader #1-From the moment McMurphy got to the ward; Nurse Ratched did not like him. She knew there was something bad about him, and that he would turn the ward upside down. The bet made their relationship is going to worsen because he was determined to make her snap. As the novel progresses the Nurse Ratched tries to figure out what is wrong with McMurphy and how to get him out of the ward. “He isn’t extraordinary. He is simply a man and no more, and is subject to all the fears and all the cowardice and all the timidity that any other man is subject to”(Kesey 157). Nurse Ratched proves that she is not going to let McMurphy change and go to a different ward. She will not let him get to her, and is determined to get him to obey her. Later in the novel this is going to change the way people will think of the Nurse and the ward. The relationship between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched is going to test the wards strength. Reader #2- McMurphy discusses the ward with the other patients. He asks them why they act the way they do. when he realizes the only person in his way is nurse ratched he makes a bet with the other patients to be able to get under her skin. this is a turning point in the novel because nobody has ever dared to go against the nurse before. They all believe she is unbeatable and no-one can overthrow her schedule. "that is exactly what the new patient is planning: to take over. He is what we call a 'manipulator,' Miss Flinn, a man who will use everyone and everything to his own ends." This quote said by the nurse is ironic, because how she describes McMurphy is exactly how she actually how she acts toward the patient's.this might cause a war later on in the book between these two kingpins and im sure it will be a even match up. The Fog is an important symbol in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Not only that, but The Fog also has an important meaning to the Chief. Let’s explore why this Fog is so incredibly meaningful.
Reader #1-One of the major symbols in the novel is the “fog machine”. “I’m not cold anymore. I think i’ve about made it. I’m off to where the cold can’t reach me. I can stay here for good. I’m not scared anymore. They can’t reach me, just the words reach me, and those are fading.”(Kesey 138). This quote is a description of Chief Bromden, of what it feels like to be in the grasp of the fog. Bromden appears to be the only one in the ward who sees the fog. The first time he experienced the fog he said he felt lost inside it, and screamed out to be found. This continually landed him in for shock treatment, until he learned to surround himself in the fog. In the fog, time no longer exists, and reality is clouded over. The fog is the state of being that Nurse Ratched forces on the patients to subdue them, keep them in a mind numbing state, and make them more agreeable. The patients also seem to accept the fog as a means of escape, McMurphy seems immune to the fog, and has the ability to drag people out of it. In my opinion “the fog” is relatively a good thing for the patients because sometimes they may need to lose control of reality in order to get better in an odd way. Reader #2-Whenever Chief has mentioned the fog, there was no explanation as to the origins of it. But finally, Chief explains a little bit more about the fog as said from the text, “We had a whole platoon used to operate fog machines around airfields overseas. Whenever intelligence figured there might be a bombing attack, or if the generals had something secret they wanted to pull, they fogged the field.” (Page 130) So whenever Chief sees the fog come up into the ward, it’s usually when he wants to remain hidden and safe from the others. Chief feels that the fog is a safe area from the reality of life in the ward. Now when chief explains how some of the other patients, more towards chronics, seem to be in the fog with him, they are not really experiencing it as Chief is. So from this, it seems that the fog seems like a good thing, but it seems like it’s just making Chief loose more of himself and be nothing more but a mindless walking janitor. But the one thing that seems to be trying to pull Chief and the other patients out of the fog would be McMurphy. For when he goes and opposes the big nurse and asks the patients for a vote to watch a seasonal sports match on T.V., all the chronics and vegetables and such were the only ones who would not come out of the fog to help McMurphy, all except Chief who raised his hand in for the vote. Reader #3-The “fog” represents the safety blanket that everyone is under. Mcmurphy is trying to get the patients out of the fog that’s holding them back. Bromden is the one who observes him doing it all. he says “That's what Mcmurphy can’t understand, us wanting to be safe. He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get.” (kesey 128) FOr many of the patients, the fog is where they feel safe and protected. They don’t want anyone to disturb that fog because they know that removal from it could put them in danger. Chief is also scared about being taken out of the fog because he doesn’t want to blow his cover. ALthough he did have a breaking point when he raised his hand when Mcmurphy told him to. The fog can be both good and bad. It’s good because it’s useful when someone needs to hide away from something. But, it’s bad because it holds someone back from doing what they actually feel. The fog is the mask of their insecurities. And many of them have never stepped out of that fog because they’re scared of the consequences that might follow. Reader #4-The fog that Chief sees is a medically induced state that is a fog of the mind rather than an actual fog.The fog keeps the patients from acting out and makes them satisfied with their lives. As Chief says, “the men hide behind the fog because it is comfortable.” This means that the patients won’t rebel because of this mentally induced state. The fog represents the control and fear that Nurse Ratched has over the ward. Chief hallucinates the fog and he is the only one who sees it, but everyone experiences the effect of it. Chief used to be afraid of the fog because they used it in the war to reduce visibility and he use to scream when he saw, hoping to be found. Reader #5-what is the fog? the fog is all in chief's head. but he thinks the big nurse controls the fog, he says that everyone hides in the fog because it’s comforting chief says “you had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself” (kesey 131). to me this is showing what chief thinks about the fig and why it’s comforting. The drugs that the nurse gives the patients is what the fog is, and they think the feeling you get from taking them is comforting. Reader #6-The fog represents an escape from the real world. Chief Bromden sees it when he takes his medication and begins to hallucinate. Bromden likes the fog because he feels like it takes him away from everything so he doesn’t have to deal with anything, but he believes the staff works the fog machine through the vents of the ward. Chief Bromden states “ I know how they work it, the fog machine” (Kesey 130) Chief Bromden however, is not the only one who experiences the fog. Each patient sees it but Chief Bromden is the only one who refers to it in the story. In my opinion, the fog is a bad thing because it’s just a way for the patients to escape what is actually happening in the real world. Due to them escaping to the fog, the patients will never be able to get better because they will be living in the fog which is a safe place for them. Reader #7-The fog represents a get away, Chief Bromden sees it when it comes into the ward. He thinks that Nurse Ratched and other workers have them everywhere in the facility. Chief “uses” to escape from the atmosphere and everything going on around him. He is not the only patient who experiences it,but he is the only one that knows it’s going on. The other patients brains’ aren’t comprehensive enough to acknowledge it. To Chief Bromden, the fog seems like a good thing. He thinks he can use it to escape from reality. Although, from Nurse Ratched’s perspective, it’s just another way she can control the other patients without them knowing. If all the patients realized that, it would definitely be a bad thing in their minds. Reader #8-The fog represents an escape from reality. Chief sees the fog when he wants to go to a safe place and ignore reality. Other patients experience the fog, but they don’t call it the fog like chief does. McMurphy is “getting all the patients out” of the fog. He wants them less vulnerable. In chapter 13, the fog is talked about when it says, “ Nobody complains about the fog. I know why, now: as bad as it is, you can slip back in it and feel safe. That’s what McMurphy can’t understand, us wanting to be safe. He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get at.” (Kesey chapter 13) Reader #9-“The fog” Chief Bromden claimed was made by Nurse Ratched. The fog represents how the Nurse makes the ward and her attitude unclear. One can infer that the fog was not literally there in the ward. We can predict that it’s a symbol of rebellion against Nurse Ratched. The Chief says that the rest of the patient's hide behind the fog because it makes them uncomfortable. “I kept looking at anything that appeared out of the fog as long and hard as I could, to keep track of it, just like I used to do when they fogged the airfields in Europe” (Kesey 131). This shows how characters in the ward try their best to stay out of “the fog.” The question is, will they ever get out? Reader #10-Throughout the novel, the Fog has played a huge role in symbolizing a few different things. In real life, fog is something that clouds our vision of seeing the outside world. In the book, then fog represents an escape from reality. Chief usually sees the fog either due to his medication, out of fear, or when he is trying to escape what is truly happening around him. It is Chief's safeplace. He can hide here and ignore reality. Besides for Bromden, other patients are kind of lured into the fog by nurse Ratched's harsh ways and treatments. McMurphy helps by “dragging” patients out of that fog, back into reality. For Bromden, the fog is a good thing, (although sometimes frightening). He is able to escape everything and let go. The fog is what is covering up the real world from all of the patients. The truth is being hidden from the patients, using the fog. Reader #11-The fog is a common occurrence in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. This fog represents a time of comfort, satisfaction with life, and solitude. Chief often sees this fog when he is alone or content. Chief doesn't quite know how to feel about the fog. He doesn't hate it and doesn't like it, he just tolerates it. Although Chief thinks everyone can see this fog, for example when the fog rolled in on the first day that McMurphy arrived he thought he was just ignoring the fog. This fog is most likely a recurring hallucination from his schizophrenia. This fog is not necessarily a bad occurrence for Chief. It allows him to relax and have time to himself(which is hard to get on the ward). Chief even goes as far as wanting to stay in the fog(his comfort zone) when he says” He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out of the open where we’d be easy to get at”(Kesey 128) Reader #10-In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest the fog is very significant. Bromden says “even the spies on the base couldn’t see what went on- they fogged the field” (Kesey 130). I think they use the fog when something big is going to happen and they don’t want the patients to know what they’re doing. The hospital staff uses it to hide their secrets in the ward from the patients. Bromden tries to stay away from it as much as possible so he doesn’t get too deep in it and get lost. Based on that I think the fog is a bad thing because the patients can’t see and they deserve to know what’s happening around them. The fog is going to be a symbol of importance throughout the book. Reader #11-the significance of ‘The fog” in terms of Chief Bromden is that it keeps him or other patients living there lives like they want to. Chief Bromden is believed that “the Fog” is made by nurse Ratched. Chief says that men hide behind the fog because it’s “comfortable” but they are just scared to live there life. Chief sees the fog around every patient. It keeps all the patients satisfied and it doesn't let the know if certain things are real or not real. The Fog can be viewed as good and bad. But I see this as a benefit to the patients because they don't experience anything that could be harmful to them. Reader #12- Imagine a safe space where you’re comfortable, worry free, and taken care of. For the patients of the ward, this is essentially what the “fog” provides them with. Since we know Chief is schizophrenic, we can assume this fog isn’t literal but a metaphor. Chief describes it as something the staff controls and exists in the vents but it’s one of the few methods of control he’s comfortable with. What it probably is, literally at least, is a medicinal dosage Nurse Ratched uses to keep patients from turning against her and disguising some of the brutal behaviors that go on in the ward. “When the fog clears to where I can see, I’m sitting in the day room. They didn’t take me to the Shock Shop this time. I remember they took me out of the shaving room and locked me in Seclusion. I don’t remember if I got breakfast or not.” (1.2.1 Kesey) Here Chief shows a state of disorientation and uncertainty due to the “fog”. This fog is something that constantly surrounds them and if they think nothing is wrong, they won’t feel the need to fix anything. They’ve been content with it because it provides security even though Chief finds it a bit frightening sometimes. This isn’t exactly the best thing for the patients though they may feel like it. It represents the big nurse’s ability to humiliate and alter the minds of the patients. McMurphy’s plan to corrupt Nurse Ratched will essentially take the patients out of the fog. Everything that we encounter is not always as it seems. It could be a person that is nice to your face and then talks behind your back, a flower that looks pretty and colorful but is actually poisonous, or a fluffy, cute animal that is actually deadly. This is also true in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. While the ward is portrayed in one way to the world, there are a lot of things happening beneath the surface. Let’s see what some of those things are.
Reader #1-There are a lot of main events in part 1 of this book, the first one is the arrival of Mcmurphy. He changed the way the ward works, switched the way things are controlled and he brought laughter into the ward. Another one is Mcmurphy’s first meeting when Pete Bancini got angry in the meeting and threw on of the black boys against the wall. Also one more big event is when Mcmurphy makes a bet with the acutes that he can get inside Nurse Ratched’s head without being sent away he said “I can get the best of that woman---before the week’s up---without her getting the best of me(Kesey 73). Some important characters are Chief Bromden, Mcmurphy, Nurse Ratched, Harding, Bibbit, the Doctor. What is odd about the setting is how controlled it is, Big Nurse has every single aspect of it in the power of her hands. She needs everything to be flowing smoothly but it almost seems like she doesn't want anyone to get out. That she enjoys controlling them so much that she makes it almost impossible for them to improve. We know that the ward is like a train that goes the exact same route every day, never changing, until Mcmurphy comes. Everything is not as is seems, Chief sees the ward as a big lie. They lure patients in thinking it’s a democracy, but it is far from it. One of the big themes throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is control. There are a few people who have a lot of control over what happens and a lot of people who don’t. What does it mean to control others and why do we do it? Let’s find out!
Reader #1-People can feel threatened and find the need to control others to feel calm and in control. Control means that all power and choices lie in your hands. You have the power to make big decisions. People in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, tend to like being in control. Many people feel better taking lead and some people use this to their advantage. In the ward people try to pick arguments and make compromises to over power and seem in power at this ward. I experience control when I’m at work, or teaching anyone anything, or helping my sister in math. They rely on you and you must be there and in control. McMurphy tries to control the kids in the ward; the nurse as well. He likes arguing with her to seem more powerful and dominate. People who enjoy being dominate and who are extroverts tend to be in charge. Reader #2-Control is simply the power a person has over another individual or an object, and once someone has control, they are able to decide how a situation will play out. In Mcmurphy’s case, he controls people without them even realizing it. he uses a tactic that draws the attention away from himself onto another individual. for example, when Mcmurphy comes into contact with the nurse after him and the black boy were talking, the attention that was originally supposed to be on Mcmurphy quickly turned onto a staff member Mr. Washington. the big nurse yelled at him and said “Washington, why wasn’t this man issued a change of greens this morning? Couldn’t you see he had nothing on but a towel?”(Kesey 98) Mcmurphy had control in this situation because instead of him getting yelled at for not getting his own clothes, the blame was put onto someone else, leaving him in the clear. An example of a situation someone uses control would be in a group project, people usually fight for what the topic should be or how the project is going to be done. Whoever wins that argument has most of the power over the group, which isn’t fair but it’s just the way things work out sometimes. The types of people that try and control others are people who don’t feel like anything goes their way unless it’s their way. Mcmurphy refuses to let anybody on the ward control him. He always feels the need to be in control because he thinks he’s always right. Reader #3- A lot of people need to feel that their in control in every single situation. This is a lot like the character McMurphy, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He constantly is looking to be the man in charge. He pushes the Nurse to get on her nerves. He knows by annoying her, he in a sense is gaining control over her. Chief thinks of McMurphy, “One by one the patients are sneaking looks at her to see how she’s taking the way McMurphy is dominating the meeting…” (Kesey 113). Everyone is the group sessions knows that McMurphy is getting under the skin of the Nurse. This is exactly what McMurphy wants. Reader #5-Throughout the book so far, McMurphy has attempted to show that he has control in the ward, not only over the other boys, but Big Nurse as well. Control means that you have the upperhand in any situation. If you have control, you have authority and regulation over others. In the novel, nurse Ratched tries to control everyone by cruel punishments and pointless rules. Also, McMurphy tries to show control by acting as if he can do and say whatever he wants. He isn’t afraid of Big nurse, although the boys warn him. One situation that McMurphy tried to control was when they were all watching the baseball game tv and nurse Ratched turned it off, and then they all continued to pretend to watch the game on the blank screen. The type of people who are controlling, or want to be controlling, are the ones who have to always have their voice heard in every situation. Reader #6-Control is gained when someone is able to influence another person's behaviour. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the staff of the ward, mostly Nurse Ratched , has control over their patients. Just like how a prison has control over its inmates. Everything in the ward was under control until McMurphy arrives. McMurphy has the characteristics of someone who can easily take control of anything. He is assertive, a natural leader, and power driven. McMurphy makes a bet with other patients in the ward that he would be able to take control over the ward within the week. One of McMurphy’s first steps is to first gain control over the day room. During a group meeting it is McMurphy and the doctor that he had just met with suggested an “idea which might make things more pleasant for both age groups”(Kesey 110). Their idea was to add a new room connected to the day room that did not have the loud music. This plan was made by McMurphy with the help of someone in control, the doctor. McMurphy seem to be using the doctor's power to get what he wants, control over the day room. This is a small stepping stone on the path to control over the ward for McMurphy. Reader #7- Control means to have power over something or someone. Control is an important thing to have in life. In the book Cuckoo's Nest control is a big thing . Nurse Ratched has all the power in the story, anything she says has to be done. The two people who are fighting for control in the ward are nurse Ratched and McMurphy. McMurphy is gaining control over the patients in the ward because he is trying to rebel against the nurse in the ward. We as people try to gain control over things and other people because we like things to be done our way and I like in a way it makes us feel more secure. Reader #8-Mcmurphy and nurse Ratched are going to continue to have conflicts because they are both obsessed with power. To control means to be in power, to be the boss, to make all of the decisions and have everyone just go along with it. There are a few people in the novel that try to control the others and they are Nurse Ratched and Mcmurphy. Nurse Ratched has controlled every aspect of the ward since before Chief was even there. He even thinks she controls time by making it slower so they go crazier. Everyone fears her because they have seen what she can do to them “ She can't have you whipped. Shev can't burn you with hot irons. She can't tie you to the rack. They got laws about that sort of thing nowadays”(Kesey 68). She is so powerful and obsessed with order that she breaks the law, that is a little crazy. I experience control in many ways. For example, at home my parents control my siblings and I because they are our parents and they have authority over us. I control my own body which is what makes my decisions. Mcmurphy tries to control in a lot of situations, for example when he first arrived at the ward. He immediately asked who was in charge and took over within 10 minutes. People with trust issues typically try to control others because they want to be sure they know exactly what the other person is doing so they can feel secure. Everyone control’s their own body, whats sad is that nurse Ratched won't let them do that. When reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there is always that underlying question of whether or not he actually belongs in a mental institution. Does he belong, or is he just managing to cause trouble in the ward? Let’s see what the readers think.
Reader #1-No matter if we think McMurphy is actually a psychopath or not he is very smart and likeable. I don't think that McMurphy is taking advantage of the others in the ward. Honestly he’s starting to figure out that nurse ratched is very manipulative and she is stealing power from the people in the ward. McMurphy tries to provide service for the other patients, unlike the nurse who takes it away. McMurphy is behind many of the games in the ward and had suggested opening a second day room as a game room, the plan that nurse ratched recently shut down. McMurphy likes to challenge the nurse and asked to move their card game somewhere else because it was too loud where they were. McMurphy to me belongs in the ward still because he does seem a little different, even though he is very smart he still had past experiences that lead me to believe he belongs there. Reader #2-In a direct response to question three, yes, McMurphy is taking advantage of the other patients. Hs uses their fear and shyness to gain control over them, leading them into doing things and actions they normally wouldn’t. McMuprhy seems to be in complete control of himself, just over the top in what he does. His first impression was loud, booming, and seemed to frighten many of the acutes, and even stir the chronics. He notices everything, and has recognized the ‘threat’ of Nurse Ratchet. He sees how the black boys are her, in a way, enforcers, even though she doesn’t like them, and they don’t like her. McMurphy’s and Chief’s relationship is evolving, seemingly slowly, but it has begun to pick up. He is a leader, but he does not lead from far away and in the shadows. He charges headfirst into conflict, just rolling with the punches. Reader #3-In Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy is the one who seems to be in charge of all the games going on in the ward. I believe McMurphy is not using the other patients for his own benefit. He is indeed trying to help them fix the society around them in the ward. There wouldn’t be anything in it for himself. Yes, he would receive money for winning the bet, but he is earning money everyday with different bets. “Who wants to lay me a pore little dollar that I can’t put this dab of butter square in the center of the face of that clock up there, or at least on the face?”(Kesey 104). This quote shows that McMurphy is already getting money from the other patients. Therefore, winning the other bet would not make much of a difference to McMurphy’s current lifestyle in the ward. I believe that the real reason McMurphy is doing this bet is to help make the ward a better place for the other patients. The games and escapades are to teach the Big Nurse and the rest of the people in charge of the ward. That things need to change for the better, or the whole ward will be turned upside down by the patients and McMurphy. Reader #4-McMurphy is taking advantage of the other patients in the ward. He knows that he’s superior over the rest of the patients due to the lack of knowledge they have. McMurphy has the advantage to be more outgoing over the others. He doesn’t have certain disabilities like others in the ward, therefore, he shouldn’t be in there. “He stops laughing and whispers, ‘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). When McMurphy says this, you can tell he knows and realizes things others don’t. He serves as a service to others in the ward due to his ability that others don’t. With his service, he speaks the mind of the other patients, taking advantage of them. Reader #5-McMurphy takes advantage of the people easily, for example he asked Bromden if he could move a panel as a favor, he can move it about a half a foot. Later on he makes a bet with the other patients that someone could lift the panel. With already knowing Bromden can lift it, McMurphy wins the bet. Even though McMurphy is hustling other people this is McMurphy’s first time in a mental institution, he’s been in and out of prison but he doesn’t belong in the institution. Even though he has a gambling problem, gets in lots of fights, and got arrested for rape he does not deserve to be put in a mental hospital meant for other people with greater needs. McMurphy knows that he doesn’t belong because during one part he stood up and challenged the doctor by saying “ do I look like a sane man?” But McMurphy wants to use his powers to get at other people. He doesn’t have good history with Nurse Ratched he says “I’m not crazy I’m smart, two qualities that she won’t be expecting.” too surprise Nurse Ratched and get under her skin. Reader #6-I think mcmurphy is taking advantage of the other patients. He acts perfectly normal yet tells the doctor that he belongs there. As mcmurphy says “ah. no if that's the case. This is my first trip. But I am crazy doc, I swear I am.” (kesey 47) I believe that he is taking advantage of the doctor in that part of the book. if he can take advantage of a worker he can definitely take advantage of a patient. he gets into their heads and plays with them. he makes them think stuff that he wants them to to help benefit him. Reader #5-McMurphy has a lot of games involving the ward. Sometimes I think he shouldn’t belong in the ward, but then again I feel like he should because he sounds a little crazy sometime. Other times I feel like he’s completely fine and doesn’t belong in there. When McMurphy is trying to get new privileges he is mostly fighting with nurse ratched about getting his clothes that from the workers and trying to be able to get to use the toothpaste at a certain time. McMurphy isn’t really taking care of the patients because he’s not really doing anything that involves the patient’s, he’s mostly caring about himself at this point. Reader #6-McMurphy does not take advantage of the other patients in the ward. Instead he makes them aware of what he can do, while letting them feel like they have won. McMurphy is out of place in the ward, but him being there can help change things. He brings hope to the ward that the nurse isn't so unbeatable after all. He doesn't care who you are or what type of patient u are. “he left that hand in front of me, as big as a dinner plate.” I think while McMurphy places himself above other people, but he tries to help everybody out together as a whole. He knows the only way to beat the nurse is with teamwork. McMurphy tries to stretch the rules of the ward, in my opinion to feel the nurse out. Although I believe he is fighting more than the nurse and it's the whole system! Reader #7-In the book, we have learned what kind of person McMurphy really is. He is a patient in a ward, yet he seems like he could manage perfectly fine in the outside world. He knows this, and it seems like some of the other patients believe this too, but while he is in the ward, it seems almost as if McMurphy takes advantage of the other patients in the ward with him. As i brought up earlier, we all know McMurphy is very different from the others in the ward. We know this because earlier on in the book McMurphy says, “They don't bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets when i'm nearby because they think i'm deaf and dumb, everybody thinks so. I'm cagey enough to fool them that much.” which shows he knows he is smart but the staff does not think or know this. McMurphy also is known as the “main leader” and all the other patients follow by his example. Mcmurphy knows this and can get them to think or do things a certain way, so with that alone, he seems to have a gripe on the patients and takes advantage of them in this way as well. Reader #8-McMurphey is taking advantage of the other patients in the ward. McMurphy is taking advantage of the people in the ward by using the ways of gambling he used outside of the ward. For example he made a bet with patients in the ward that someone could lift the control panel, when he already knew that it is possible because Chief was able to do it. This is taking advantage of the other patients because they didn't know someone could lift it up, but McMurphey knew it was possible so he could pocket some money, off the people with an actual illness. I believe that he shouldn't be aloud in there because he doesn't actually have a mental illness. He has a gambling problem that can be fixed by just therapy, he doesn't need all the medicine to fix that problem. In a sense he is helping other patients but he is very well taking advantage of them. He takes their money without hesitation. Reader #9-McMurphy admittedly does not belong in the ward and says he’s there by choice to avoid the laborious tasks he was dealt in prison. The ward is specifically for mental patients who need help and McMurphy doesn’t fit that description. He’s a misfit by the standards of the outside world so he’s been placed with other misfits. Symbolically, he represents change in the strict order of the ward and hope for the patients who have longed to expose the big nurse for her manipulative ways. I think the patients fear his methods sometimes because if he ticks Nurse Ratched off too much, they could all be punished. Everyday he’s doing something new to challenge the big nurse and he stuns them with his behavior. “I hear McMurphy out there in the latrine as I come out of the covers. Hear him singing!...Everybody’s thunderstruck. They haven’t heard such a thing in years, not on this ward...How come the black boys haven’t hushed him up out there? They never let anybody raise that much racket before, did they? How come they treat this new guy different?” (Kesey, 91-92) McMurphy is constantly testing big nurse’s limitations and this, to the people of the ward, is like an act of war. He targets her because he knows she’s the one who holds the major power around there and if he corrupts her, he’s essentially tapped into the system of the combine. Overall, his intentions are in interest of all the patients but he doesn’t seem to be personally concerned with their well being. He just finds great entertainment in getting others out their comfort zone. Reader #10-mcmurpy is in the right position to take advantage of people, with the fact that he isnt severely ill, in the book he asks Bromden is he can move a panel as a favor, he can move it, but only for about a half a foot. later he makes a bet with the other patients that someone could lift the panel, knowing bromden could lift it already, mcmurphy wins the bet. mcmurphy is hustling over these people being his first time in an institution. Mcmurphy has only experienced a prison. Mcmurphys only problem is that he gambles alot, gets into fights, and does illegal activities doesnt put him in the right circumstances to enroll himself as a patients in a mental hospital. Mcmurphy admits to needing that type of medical help when he challenges the a doctor saying “ do i look like a sane man?” yet he has desire to use his power against everyone else. he then spooks the nurse telling her that he isnt crazy but smart. Good, evil. Fun, boring. Fire, ice. There are a lot of opposites and contrasting ideas out there, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is no different. Let’s take a look at two of the biggest opposites in this novel, McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, and how opposites in general affect each other.
Reader #1-Nurse Ratched and McMurphy both have very different characteristics in the story so far. McMurphy is a loud, sexual and confident person. Bromden says “nobody’s sure if this barrel chested man with the scar on his face and the wild grin is playacting of if he’s crazy enough to be just like he talks” (kesey 19) From this quote you can tell McMurphy is a loud and confident because he talks to everyone and always has a smile on his face, unlike everyone else in the ward. Unlike McMurphy, Nurse Ratched is very cold and sometimes rude. McMurphy during the first group session explains to the patients in the ward that he is going to “play her game” Nurse Ratched doesn’t like this because McMurphy is going to change how Nurse Ratched acts, and he does this by finding Nurse Ratched’s weak spots. They conflict with each other because McMurphy shouldn’t really be a patient in the ward, and because of this he knows that the Nurse is just attacking the men at their weakest parts because she knows that she’ll get a response that way. Due to this McMurphy decides to include all the patients in how he’s going to destroy the nurse by playing “her game” Reader #2-Nurse Ratched is very odd in this novel. She really doesn’t display a lot of emotion, but you know from reading each chapter, that she isn’t a good person. Nurse Ratched takes her authority and uses it to her wrong advantage. She mildly attacks the patients with small threats that force them to give her what she wants. The nurse likes to keep things in order or “adjustment” but it’s not the typical “order” you would think of. Her idea of it, is all the patients doing what she says and following rules that don’t even help them. McMurphy is the opposite of Nurse Ratched. He has a really big personality when he first enters the ward, and isn’t afraid to show it off. Unlike Nurse Ratched, he truly want the patients to be helped and benefited. You would think the nurse, being a nurse and all, would want to help the patients get better, but she doesn’t do anything to help them at all. McMurphy isn’t actually mentally ill like the rest of the patients, so he can see that Nurse Ratched doesn’t do her job correctly, and wants the patients to see that too. It’s clear the two aren’t fond of each other. McMurphy thinks Nurse Ratched shouldn’t hold her job, and Nurse Ratched will and wants to take any chance she can, to make sure McMurphy has an awful experience at the ward. The two are always butting heads when decisions need to be made. She doesn’t want to give McMurphy want he wants and McMurphy is always trying to expose Nurse Ratched’s true self, to the other patients. Reader #3-There is a lot of tension between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. That seems to be all their relationship is. They both are the kind of person who wants control and respect by everyone. They both want to win over everyone. They kind of battle for this in different scenes in the book. They never say it out loud, but everything just seems like a competition between them. For example, the text says “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) This was after the meeting where McMurphy essentially “won”. The conflict was involving the idea of a second day room. Reader #4-In Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, two characters are controlling in the power struggle over the hospital ward. These two characters are Nurse Ratched, who is in charge of the men in the facility, and Randle McMurphy, who is a patient in the ward. Throughout the novel each character tries to convey their power to show the ward who has more control. McMurphy wants everyone in the ward to be by his side, so he can disobey the rules of the ward and try to get out of there. Nurse Ratched wants to keep everything in complete control. She is very mean and an unpleasant person, so all the patients are afraid to do anything that will disobey the rules of the ward. That’s why McMurphy is having trouble competing with Nurse Ratched, because she has more control over the patient's. Since McMurphy and Nurse Ratched want two opposite kind of power in the ward, there is a lot of tension between the two. McMurphy doesn’t like to follow the rules and in one part of the novel he walks around in a towel and Nurse Ratched yelled at him. McMurphy says to nurse, “Towels against ward policy too? Well, I guess there's nothin to do except..” Nurse Ratched stops him from taking his towel off and says, “Stop don’t you dare! Get your clothes on this instant!”. They keep fighting back and forth at each other. Therefore, this shows that tension between two people can cause many problems in their relationship. That tension might cause someone to turn into a person they aren’t. Tension usually never works out in a relationship and can cause the two people to become a stressful and unhappy person. Reader #5-McMurphy and Nurse Ratched are a lot alike which makes their relationship complicated. The book says “ she’s too big to be beaten.. we mustn’t let McMurphy get our hopes up any different, lure us into making some kind of dumb play” (Kesey 113). They both like to be in control and be the leader, because of that both characters seem to dislike each other and there’s a lot of tension between them. Since they both like being in charge they can’t get along because they are so similar. McMurphy doesn’t want another leader he wants to be the only leader and that’s why he wants to take down Nurse Ratched. McMurphy has been getting all the patients on his side instead of the nurses which is affecting the relationships between the nurse and the other patients. Overall McMurphy and Nurse Ratched are very similar people which causes a lot of problems between relationships. We’ve already established that Chief Bromden, because of his mental disability, sees the world differently. Let’s look a little more at how his mind works by examining his hallucination of the ward coming alive at night.
Reader #1-Chief Bromden is a patient that has schizophrenia and has constant and very strange hallucinations within the ward. One of these hallucinations happens when it’s night time in the ward and suddenly the bedroom became sorta like the inside of a dam with machines and faceless workers everywhere. Plus there were also many furnaces around the room as well as hooks that look like they’re in a butcher's warehouse. This scenario then moves along to the sleeping patients beginning to get strapped to a hook by the foot, starting with Blastic, and old vegetable in the ward. Blastic was flapping out his arms and free leg to get free but then he gets supposedly gutted from one of the workers with a scalpel and appears to be dead right after. Then Chief gets pulled out of the hallucination by an old negro man named Mr. Turkle who takes a late shift and begins to very carefully and gently “lift old Blastic onto the stretcher and carry him out, covered with a sheet-handle him more careful than anybody ever handled him before in all his life.” (Page 90) So the irony behind Chief’s hallucination is that Blastic was gutted dead, and he awakens to find doctors on the late shift carry Blastic’s corpse out of the ward. Reader #2-Chief Bromden hallucinates because of his medication they give him because of his medical problems. every time he takes his medication he sees fog drifting into the wards, the medication makes him hallucinate hard and makes him feel like he's in a different world or out of reality. He believes that the staff have hidden fog machines in the vents that make the patients hallucinate. Some reason the chief feels like it's a safe place for him because he can escape reality and feel himself. there's a character in the story that chief bromden sees but dies, but at the end of his hallucination he seen old blastic right in front of him alive. It had chief speechless and confused over what he seen and does during his hallucinations. Reader #3-In his hallucination Chief sees the vegetable Blastic being grabbed by the heels and being hung by his the tendon in his heels. The workers then proceed to cut him open, but there is no blood just rust and ash, and the occasional piece of wire and glass. The ironic part of this hallucination is that Blastic died that very night. Chief’s hallucination are a distortion of reality; like how he visualizes Nurse Ratched as a monster because of how powerful she is. This hallucination is significant because he visualizes the ward as a combine and the patients as machines, he sees the workers killing Blastic because of how they don't help the patients at all, they are just mean and abusive towards them. For a lot of people, there is a time in our lives when we don’t quite let others know who we really are. Sometimes, we just don’t really want people to know who we really are. Using One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, let’s explore a little bit why a person might pretend to be not quite as able as they actually are.
Reader #1-In the Book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest” by Ken Kesey McMurphy finds out that Bromden isn't actually who he says he is. One night Chief thinks that McMurphy had fallen asleep, his breathing got slower and slower, till he thinks he's been out for awhile. Then Chief hears McMurphy start laughing and he whispers “Why you sure did give a jump when i told you the coon was coming, chief i thought you was deef”. McMurphy is starting to imply that Bromden is lying about him being deaf. Chief may be acting like he's deaf to get information out of people because they’ll think they can talk about certain things in front of him because he can't hear them. The downside to acting deaf is because you can't speak at all or well enough for people to interpret what your saying. It's quite weird that Chief would be faking something like this, as i would think it would be a hassle for him. Reader #2-In reality people tend to act like they’re not capable of doing something to get out of it or to get special treatment from others. Chief Bramden has been pretending to be someone who he isn’t is. He’s pretending to be deaf so people would give him special treatment. Overall I think chief Bramden is pretending to be deaf so people won’t talk to him and also to spy on others. McMurphy soon catches Bramden on the act and I wonder if McMurphy will let out Bramden’s secret later in the book. Overall pretending to be someone you’re not is a waste of time. Reader #3-Chief has a conversation with McMurphy and he indicates that Bromden is faking his inabilities to speak and hear. People might pretend they are less able than they are to avoid being apart of something. In the text Chief says, “You had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself.”(Kesey 131). Chief might pretend to be deaf and have an inability to speak as a way to distance himself from “the combine”. Bromden’s theory of the world is that it is this machine called the combine and people get involved to put people like him in those asylum institutions. Bromden doesn’t want any part of this machine. He just wants to keep to himself away from the rest of the world. Pretending to be less than someone already is could be their way to prevent stress and anything worse happening to them. Reader #5-In “One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest” Chief gave a hint towards McMurphy that he’s faking his deafness and inability to speak when Chief quickly hurried to bed when McMurphy said one of the black boys were coming over to their beds. This is proven when McMurphy says, “Why, you sure did give a jump when I told you that coon was coming, Chief. I thought someone told me you was deef.” (Page 84) Now for the benefits of pretending to be deaf is that you could not be targeted as easily for certain reasons. But the drawback on this is that people would probably think that you’re crazy, and you won’t be able to talk to other people. So Chief’s maybe thinking that life on the ward seems to be like a prison where you can get abused easily. So why would anyone pretend they’re less able than they are? It’s probably out of fear of getting attention drawn to you, weather it would be good or bad. Reader #6- In the book Chief Bromden reveals to Mcmurphy that he can speak and listen by actually talking to him. He tells him that he hasn't spoken in years and Mcmurphy believes him. he tells him how his whole life he was ignored and not really payed attention to. he just acted to being death and not able to speak so he can just listen. Chief bromden doesn't really like the way the ward hadels thing with the patients, he thinks the zapping and other so called treatments are horrible. the good thing about people thinking he's death is no one bothers him as much and he's just himself and doesn't have to bother with people's problems. i sometimes pretend i don't know how to do something at work so i won't have to do it and it works or just anthing in general like something at home. Reader #7-A person might pretend they are less able than they are in order to gain power. At the end of chapter 6, Chief Bromden and Mcmurphy are getting into bed and Mcmurphy tells Bromden that someone may be coming. Later in the night Mcmurphy started to laugh and said “Why, you sure did give a jump when I told you that coon was coming, Chief. I thought you was deef.” (Kesey 84) Mcmurphy is finally catching onto Bromden’s act, and he’s figuring out that Bromden may be smarter than her seems. Chief Bromden has been on the ward for years, and he’s adjusted to an everyday schedule. He goes through the motions and hopes that no one will ever realize he fake act he has to put on. The benefits of Bromden keeping his secret would be that he gets to listen in on every conversation and have information that others don’t. But a drawback would be that if anyone found out, he could be severely punished for it, which could lead him straight for the shock shop. For example, some people pretend they’re not good at things so that when they need to use the skill at a crucial point in their life, no one would be expecting it and they would have the advantage. Reader #8-Chief Bromden fakes his deafness, intelligence and his inability to talk. He does this because he just wants to slip through the cracks. He doesn’t want to participate in group discussions, so by pretending he's not able to partake in these activities, he's almost forgotten about. Not completely forgotten about however, McMurphy seems to have notice Chief, and he’s not letting him get away easy. McMurphy says this to Chief, “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 says this because he wants Chief to know that he's paying attention to him, that he notices him. This is unlike anyone else, because no one seemed to ever care whether Chief was faking it or not. Reader #9-Chief and McMurphy have a conversation where McMurphy indicates that he thinks Chief is faking his inability to to hear and speak. Someone may pretend they are less able than they actually are, to fit in. Chief has been in the institute so long that he may not want to change his ways. Chief has become accustomed to the day to day life on the ward and does not want to be treated differently if he showed he was able to speak and hear. A of the positive of Chief making people think he is unable to speak and hear are that he is mostly left alone(which he enjoys). There is a drawback to Chief faking this. He may be getting medicine and treatment meant for people who can’t actually hear or speak. This could possibly be making his schizophrenia flare up even more. This can easily be compared to pretending to be good at something that you actually aren't. Reader #10- A person can pretend to be less able than they really are for many different reasons. Chief Bromden has been pretending to be someone who he really isn’t throughout the whole book. He could be pretending to be deaf because he doesn’t want to talk to anyone and just likes to be alone and keep to himself. McMurphy soon catches on to chief pretending when Mcmurphy says “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). I wonder how Chief is going to react to what McMurphy said to him and if McMurphy is going to tell anyone. In conclusion pretending to be someone you're not can eventually cause an impact on you and others. Reader #11-people are always gonna act like someone they arent, or say they are in a situation they really arent in, either to fit in, have more friends, or to get treated differently. chief Bromden has been pretending to be someone he isnt. He wants to be treated specially so he makes people believe he is in a situation where he is disabled in some aspects. Chief bromden is pretending to be to be deaf so people wont talk to him and also to make others feel like they dont have to worry about talking on subjects in front of him. Mcmurphy finds out bromden is just acting. deciding what he will do with that evidential information will be tough for Mcmurphy decide. in the end being yourself and playing fair is well worth it. Groups can be defined as a number of people or objects that are located together or share something in common. Aware of it or not, everyone is classified in some sort of group. For example, in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, all of the patients are groups together as ones with a mental illness. Based on the group you are in, it can cause you to act in certain ways. What causes this and why does this happen? Let’s see how we can use the novel as an example.
Reader #1-The group therapy sessions aren't helping anyone cope with their problems. The acutes stay quiet for the most part and nobody opens up because there are so many people around. Everyone is uncomfortable with the environment and they are afraid of the big nurse. The group focuses on the log book, which is where the patient's pretty much rat out the others, they write down what they say or do. They are pretty much doing all of the dirty work for the nurses. The meetings are the same every time, the nurse asks what the patients have done and never admitted to, nobody answers at first because they're scared, she stares at the acutes and puts them in a “trance” and then they spill. “That triggered something, some acoustic device in the walls, rugged to turn on just at the sound of those words coming from her mouth. The acutes stiffened. Their mouths opened in unison” (Kesey 50). One thing they do is only point out the flaws or stuff that they did wrong, so it’s not a therapy session it’s a forced confession. These sessions are not helpful to the patient's’ mental health at all, it makes them feel worse about themselves. It helps the nurse because they are admitting to things they have done, but they don't come out of these meetings anymore mentally stable or happy then they were before. in some cases they come out worse. The patients are too afraid to stand up for themselves, the big nurse isn’t welcoming or accepting so they just let her walk all over them. She intimidates them so they can’t get better. Reader #2-The group sessions have a sort of passive aggressive cycle, with very little being accomplished. I feel as though it is not helping Chief or McMurphy. People behave rather strangely at times, and this is one of them. As the group continues to erode and deteriorate each other, Chief is beginning to notice more, and in a way, evolve, improving himself and his attitude. Others in the group are helped a little bit, albeit in a non acceptable way. We may not see that right away, but I predict as the story goes on, We will continue to see improvements in both Chief and McMurphy, or at the very least, we will see them beginning to change Reader #3-Various things cause certain people to act out and behave differently. Given on the situation, one might feel threatened or attacked, causing them to lash out or cause a scene. In ¨One Flew Over the Cuckoo´s Nest¨, they gather everyone and have a therapy session. During this session, some people attending were affected and made fun of. Knowing facts about mental illness, teasing and making fun of is a way of coping with your problems. The group was formed so that everyone had a chance to share and talk about their problems. When you attend these groups, you begin to notice a pattern based on the individuals talking. Some like to talk the whole time, some say a few things, and others say nothing. McMurphy was an individual who enjoys talking while Chief was an example of one who doesn't say much. Many times during these sessions someone is made fun of and are made helpless because they cannot defend themselves. These meetings are not always the most helpful. Reader #4-During the group sessions the Big Nurse tries to get the patients to talk by asking them questions continuously until someone answers. During this group session, Pete was a topic of discussion because he wouldn’t stop causing commotion. The text says “Pete never tried anything like that again, and he never will. Now when he starts acting up during a meeting and they try to hush him, he always hushes.” (Kesey 55) Due to Pete acting out the whole group put their effort into getting Pete to be quiet. After a while, the Big Nurse got frustrated and made the black boys take Pete out of the meeting and back to the day room. During the sessions, The Big Nurse has the role of asking the questions, the black boys are their to help out the big nurse, and the patients are their to answer the questions the Big Nurse asks so she can record their progress. However, most of the patients stay quiet during these sessions until one speaks up then they all chime in. These sessions are not helpful because whenever the nurse asks a questions the patients are scared to answer because they feel like they will be judged. Also the nurse asks questions that the patients already know about themselves, so admitting them to her isn’t going to do much to help them. The patients are afraid to stand up for themselves because they fear being moved to a different part of the ward. They believe if they act out against the nurse they will be put into the Disturbed ward, and they might have to endure shock therapy or even an operation. Sessions in the ward, do not help any patients in the ward because they are afraid to be themselves due to the fear of being judge or moved to a worse part of the ward. Reader #5-One day in the ward, the Big Nurse got all the patients together for their group therapy session and it was the first one in the book so far. Big Nurse says to the patients “Now. Who will start? Let out those old secrets.”They all just sat there in silence and didn’t say a word. Since no one decided to speak up, the nurse decided to bring up “past history” from that one book that everyone writes in about each other. That made everyone uneasy and sparked something in their brains to make them want to speak up all of the sudden. They all started yelling out confessions, saying things like “I tried to take my little sister to bed.” and “I killed my cat when I was six…”. It was very chaotic and odd because it seemed like they were all trying to out-do each other with what they have done. One patient, Pete, was sick of hearing everyone yell out all these things to please the nurse and he belted out saying, “I’m tired!” He kept saying it over and over again. The Big Nurse got aggravated and called the black boys to take him away since he was causing unnecessary commotion. I don’t think there’s roles in the group therapy sessions because it depends on their emotions that day. Obviously, there will always be one patient to talk first but, I don’t think it will always be the same. The sessions seem pointless to me because the patients don’t get to talk about their feelings and Big Nurse doesn’t give them advice on how to cope or encourage them to do good. The whole time they were confessing she repeatedly said yes and it was creepy. She made it seem like she was satisfied with it. All of the patients are honestly helpless because if they do decide to stick up for themselves, Big Nurse will just call in the black boys and they will do something to torture the patients and then nothing is solved. They’re all terrified and stay quiet because they don’t want to have to interact with the black boys. Reader #6-Chief bromden’s experience in the therapy sessions is weird. The group sessions are basically them talking about what they have done or tried to do in their life for them to get into the mental institution. The group focuses on them trying to deal with them being in there and overcoming the things that they had done. The patient’s don’t stand up for themselves because their scared too. They think that standing up for themselves is going to cause something bad. When the patients are talking about what they did to get in there as said in the quote ‘’ I tried to take my little sister to bed’’ there all talking about what they have done and overcoming what they did so can atleast get some grief about it. Reader #7-the group therapy sessions seem to be kind of awkward. i don’t think anyone really talks. they seem afraid. in the past, pete tried to tell them something about himself for once, but he just got punished for it. so now him and the others are probably just afraid to open up. nurse ratched is always the one to start criticizing or “picking on” someone. In the text, it says “Mr. McMurphy… my friend… i’m not a chicken, Im a rabbit. The doctor is a rabbit. .... All of us here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees… we need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place.” (Kesey 64) Nurse racthed is the wolf and the patients are rabbits. those are the roles people take during these sessions. Reader #8-People act in certain ways when they are in groups for a variety of different reasons. Like in the therapy group they all were silent for a very long time. In the text it states “ And, she’d put all the acutes in a trance by sitting there in the silence for twenty minutes after the question, quiet as an electric alarm about to go off.” The group is probably acting this way because it is hard to talk about your feeling in front of people you’re are not familiar with. Especially when you have a mental illness like the people in the group. When the group finally cracked they all started talking about doing insane and illegal things. for example “I tried taking my sister to bed.”. That is something that you don’t normally tell people. But this probably helps them because the can get the bad things they did off their chest without getting in trouble. Reader #9-I think that the group sessions are very awkward. None of the patients enjoy participating, and no one is willing to even make eye contact with Nurse Ratched except for McMurphy. He is the only one who who will talk and share his opinion. Patients are taken back by this. The group focuses on the big nurse and McMurphy because they are interested that he is actually standing up to Big Nurse. Everyone is always silent, but Pete always complains about being tired. No one ever stands up for themselves because they don’t want to get in trouble and be sent for a lobotomy. Although, McMurphy is determined to get under Ratched’s skin without being sent to the disturbed ward. Reader #10-In the book so far, we learn a lot about how the patients can be and act, especially during their group therapy sessions. These sessions usually consist of silence but at the most recent therapy session, they started to complain and ask tons of questions such as "Why does the dorms have to be locked on the weekends?". For some odd reason the staff seems to just let them do so instead of stopping and controlling the patient's. This is a very significant part of the book because it is showing how the staff tries to keep them contin so they have no say in anything. That is why McMurphy finds this very strange considering the staff and nurse Ratched normally would have dealt with this situation by now. |
AuthorWelcome to Miss Hardie's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Blog! Here we will be posting our thoughts and discussing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Please join in on the discussion! ArchivesCategories
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