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.
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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. Truth. What is it? Why is it important? Why do we value the truth so much? Our society hates liars, however everyone lies once in awhile right? What is our motivation to do that? In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, telling the truth has great value to Chief Bromden. Why is truth so important to Chief Bromden and society, especially when one is not in a position of power? Let’s take it to the readers!
Reader #1-Truth is important in all areas of life. Not telling or sharing the truth hurts people and could affect the outcome and possibly hurt you in the end as well. The importance of truth is all around us. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Chief Bromden mentions “But it’s the truth, even if it’s not real” (Kesey 8). He pretends to be deaf to avoid contact and conflict, but people treat him differently because he's ‘deaf’. This is a good example of how not telling the truth can affect him. He should learn soon that lying can and could affect him negatively. After dealing with this problem for awhile, he’ll learn that you can't always assume lying will get you through life. Reader #2-When there is imbalance of power, victimised groups must be spoken up for as they can’t do so for themselves. Chief has been fooling the people of the asylum into thinking he’s deaf and dumb. They believe the act and in turn treat him poorly. He’s waiting for his perfect chance to expose Nurse Ratched, the orderlies, McMurphy etc. He describes how liberating it will feel when he finally does but admits he doesn’t have a crystal clear memory of the events that took place. Fear is probably what has held Chief Bromden back in the past from telling the truth (possibly an effect of his schizophrenia). “...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 8) Although he may not remember clearly things that’ve happened, he feels whatever he says will still be accurate as far as how brutal they’ve been to him. His intents are most likely to improve treatment of patients in the asylum. Reader #3- it is important for the truth to told in a circumstance where a person doesn’t hold a lot of power because telling the truth is how one gains power. The truth that needs to be told is that McMurphy is not actually deff like everyone thinks. When everyone talks about things in the hospital and they talk about it in front of McMurphy, they don’t know he actually hears everything they are talking about. When chief Bromden says “but it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen”? i think it means even if you say something that isn’t true there is still a little bit of truth in the lie. McMurphy hasnt told the truth yet because he probably feels no one will listen or care. Thats how i would feel about the situation. He feels like he has t tell the truth now because now he feels everyone is looking at him differently in the hospital. While we have made some drastic leaps and bounds in the field of the human mind in recent times, there is still much that is unknown. One thing that is certain though is that everyone thinks in different ways. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, we encounter a lot of different perspectives on how the world is viewed. Chief Bromden, the narrator of the story, believes that the world is a “Combine” that we are all parts of. What is “The Combine” and how might biases towards mental illness in the 1960s help develop his thoughts about it? Let’s find out!
Reader #1-In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Chief describes the asylum system as “the combine”. Chief believes the asylum is a huge over controlled atmosphere which he believes is being run by the combine. He uses “combine” to describe the authority figures and the society around him. “The ward is a factory for the Combine. It’s for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhoods and in the schools and in the churches, the hospitals. When a completed product goes back out into the society, all fixed up good, as new, better than new sometimes….”(Kesey 40). This is explaining the point that the society wants the patients to be controlled under lock and key. Being watched and told what to do. Just as in the 1960s, the society wanted nothing to do with the mental and they would stop at nothing to try to “fix” them. They would try to come up with new solutions such as using shock therapy and other brutal techniques. Similar to what the “Big Nurse and the black boys” do in Cuckoo’s Nest to deal with the patients that are still unacceptable. In the 1960s being “mental” was something that needed to be fixed. It wasn’t normal and needed to get out of the way for the rest of society. Similar to how the society looks at the people in Cuckoo’s Nest. Reader #2-In the novel Chief Bromden uses the term “the combine” to describe one of his beliefs in the first part of the novel. In the book Bromden says, “when you got something under your belt you’re stronger and the bastards who work for the combine aren’t so apt to slip one of their machines in on you in place of an electric shaver.”(Kesey 6). The combine to bromden symbolizes the forces of authority and society that place the mentally ill inside the asylum he currently is in. The combine represents people that want mental ill patients to be kept under control and locked up. In class we have learned about the 1960s and the way people would deal with the mentally ill. Doctors and all of society would think of patients as crazy/psychotic people that needed to be locked away somewhere and this is why institutions like asylums were created. the combine are those people that do not respect people with a mental illness. These people that are apart of “the combine” are just there to keep these patients locked up in the asylum. Reader #3-what is the combine? chief Bromden describes it as a “ huge organization that aims to adjust the outside as well as she had in the outside” (Kesey 28). This connects to what we learned about mental illness because it shows that people need to be controlling of their surroundings and what is going on. People with a mental illness want to be controlling of what they think is going on; even if what they think isn't really happening. The combine actually controls things by tricking the patients into doing what they want. this does not describe the truth they are altering what reality is. Reader #4-In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Chief uses ,The Combine, to represent the asylums machine like character. This “machine” has control over how the asylum runs in it’s day to day operations. Chief describes The Combine as a machine that either makes or destroys a man when he says” Across the room from the Acutes are the culls of the Combine’s product, the Chronics.”(Kesey 15). Since mental illness had no set treatments in the 1960’s, many new treatments failed and would damage the patient physically or mentally. Chiefs delusion of this machine could possibly represent protocols for treating patients or even society's little experience in treating mental illness. Although The Combine is a figment of Chiefs imagination, it is describing the truth about mental institutions. These institutions followed the same cookie cutter treatment plan for everyone, those who were broken in the process just rot in the institution until they suffer the same fate as Chief or Ellis, life in a institution. |
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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