One of the main topics throughout the novel deals with how different perspectives affect your opinions and ideas. Now that we are mostly through the novel, who are really the “ill” patients in the ward?
Reader #1- My definition of illness can be broken down into physical illness and mental illnesses. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, i don't think many patients are actually physically sick, but not a lot of them are mentally sick either. It almost seems that McMurphy is not mentally ill, but nurse ratched is. She keeps her power by manipulating them. She has a hard time getting McMurphy to be submissive, so she looks for her other staff to help her and turn against McMurphy. “The Nurse’s eyes swelled out white as he got close. This was supposed to be her final victory over him, supposed to establish her rule once and for all”(Kesey, 201). I think she’s addicted to her own power and McMurphy threatens that. Reader #2-The ill ones in the ward aren’t the patients. well in a standard point of view that is true, but in a deeper point of view, it’s the nurse and doctors, because unlike the patients, they can’t do anything about how they act, but the staff chooses how they act and how they treat those patients. Most of the time they treat them like they’re less than a human being. My views of mental illness changed because at the beginning of the book, mental wards were always just a place where the insane went. But, I’ve learned that some people are there because they’re afraid of themselves. they have insecurities just like any other person. Illness affects your quality of life because in someone's eyes, you’ll always be different, or not good enough. that kind of stereotyping is how people feel uncomfortable living in their own skin. I personally think the Nurse needs the most help, because a normal person doesn’t think that treating another human being like that is the right way to handle situations. The rest of the staff seems just as uncomfortable with her as the patients do, and it’s clear that the ward shouldn’t be under control of someone who doesn’t know how to help those patients. Reader #3-I think everyone is starting to realize that McMurphy actually might be “crazy” o r”ill”. Recently, he got put through his first treatment of shock therapy and I feel like that doesn’t really happen unless you’re actually sick. In my opinion, it’s awful and no one should ever have to go through that. Does it actually even work? Being ill can mean a few things. It can mean the typical being sick with the flu or having cancer. Another ill, is being mentally ill (like the patients). Being ill is extremely unfortunate because you don’t have any control over your mind. You’ve been traumatized by something in the past or your brain has a chemical problem. My view on mental illnesses hasn’t changed from reading this book. Having a mental illness obviously changes your life completely. Every day being affected by something you can’t really fix on your own makes life unenjoyable. It’s hard to tell who needs the most help in the ward because everyone has their own bursts and all have problems on different levels. Reader #4-Illness is a time of sickness affecting the body or mind. Before reading the book I thought mental illness was something that caused people to not be normal and not be able to do things correctly. However, while reading this book, I have come to find that mental illnesses can just cause people to be in a different state of mind or cause them to be in some kind of “funk”. Not all mental illnesses causes people to not be normal, and I have come to that conclusion from reading this book. Illnesses can cause the quality of life to not reach its full potential, and that is important because if life can not reach its full potential, people with illnesses should live everyday like it’s their last. Surprisingly, I don’t believe one of the patient needs the most help. I believe the one who needs the most help is Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched does not how to treat people and only cares about power. She tries to make the ward bad for the patients and that is not right. If she did a better job of doing her job the patients in the ward could be doing better. Reader #5- My definition of an illness is someone who is suffering from a disorder or anything in the body and can’t take care of themselves. I believe that McMurphy has changed a lot throughout the story he has become more powerful and more controlling, even with nurse ratched, the ways McMurphy had been acting makes me think that he is becoming even crazy the longer he’s in there. McMurphy got into a fight and the big nurse talked to him a day later and it says that ‘’ The big nurse talks to McMurphy, soft and patient, about the irresponsible thing he did, the childish thing, throwing a tantrum like a little boy- aren’t you ashamed?’’(280) The more McMurphy is in the ward, the more crazier he will get, because he’s surrounded by a bunch of other crazy people. Reader #6-The patients are not the only ones who are ill on the ward. Illness, in my eyes, is someone who is or acts different without trying to. Over time when reading the book my eyes have opened and became aware that the staff could also be ill. The staff, especially the black boys, appear to have developed abusive and violent tendencies. The patients have started to fear the Nurse and Black Boys because of this. After learning about the Stanford Prison Experiment(an experiment where normal people volunteered to become inmates and guards for a few weeks in a test environment) I learned that after only 5 days of normal students had also developed abusive and violent tendencies towards the inmates. It is highly possible that some of the staff are more dangerous than some patients, and may even need to be admitted to the ward themselves. Reader #7-In part 5 of Cuckoo’s Nest there's an interesting point that maybe the staff in the mental ward isn’t quite as “healthy” as they seem. An illness can be anything wrong with you mentally and physically. Illnesses can harm your quality of life because they keep you from doing things you used to normally do. In the novel, McMurphy fakes insanity to be put into the ward to have an easier time of things. McMurphy says to himself, “When i get out of here the first woman that takes on ol’ Red McMurphy the ten thousand-watt psychopath, she’s gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars! No, i ain’t scared of their little battery-charger.” McMurphy for one, isn’t even supposed to be in the ward. Throughout the entire novel McMurphy acts fearless he acts as if he can do anything, and anything he wants. In my opinion McMurphy is the most ill in the novel because of the actions he makes and the things he has said and done. He thinks he’s invincible and because he is faking his insanity it has began to make him actually mentally insane. Reader #8-A Illness is a disease that causes someone to not properly think right or properly function correctly. my own view on mental illness hasn’t really changed, everything i thought i knew was right. i believe that mental illness is a serious disease and that some people do belong in the hospital for the best. the most people who need help are the walkers or the chronics. they need the most help because they can't really do anything but sit or stand. everyone on the hospital have their own disability and they all act differently. even though McMurphy might not me sane or if he is he still smarter than all the other patients by far. Reader #9-Illness can be defined in many different ways. The definition of illness in the case of the book, the definition is, A disease that affects the body or mental state of someone. Illness is sh0wn throughout part four. One place where illness is shown when they are trying to get the “crabs” off of him. On page (273 Kesey) George says “No-none of that stoof.” As a grown man you don’t usually talk like a little kid unless you are messing around. As a grown man i imagine you want to take care of yourself. But George didn’t understand that The crabs were not good for him until someone informed him. The view of mental illness to me due to this quote changed how i look at it because i don’t see that in my everyday life.
6 Comments
Danielle Morrissey
12/10/2015 09:12:37 pm
I agree with reader #2, the doctors and nurses are seriously sick. To torture innocent people, to lie about the democray and everything else that they do. I dont know how they arent in a ward for all of the things they do.
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Paige
12/14/2015 10:31:25 am
Reader number #2 brings up a good point that the real sick ones are the doctors and nurses.
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jenna ross
12/15/2015 10:35:57 am
I agree with reader #1 because McMurphy and The Nurse keep antagonizing each other, but McMurphy doesn't seem to be the sick one Nurse Ratched is. She is sick in the way she tries to control everyone and have all the power.
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Megan
12/11/2015 10:10:14 am
I agree with reader 1. I think most of them just have mental illnesses not physical. I also agree that Nurse Ratchet is the one who has some an illness
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Kiara Jones
12/11/2015 12:14:33 pm
(Reader #2) The book really does show how mental patients have personal insecurities just like everyone else. The real issues lie within the administration of the ward. They have control issues and take it out on the patients.
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Christian Pishotta
12/12/2015 09:58:02 pm
Before I read this book i always thought mental institutes were where the insane went to, but just like reader #2 that changed when i saw the POV of one of the patients. It seemed to be that the patients were the ones who are being treated badly and were not getting any better and were being taken advantage of by the big nurse herself. So i think that it should be the staff, mostly miss ratched, that should get help with how to properly treat the patients and help them get better.
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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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