Cuckoo's
Victoria Peters
Monday, November 21st
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
(Part One)
Pg.81 Bromden hopes that McMurphy will no better then to fight the “fog” or authority
Pg.77 immediately after arriving, McMurphy sees through Bromden’s “deaf” security when later, it is Bromden who sees through McMurphy into another world he seems to have forgotten.
The Hospital (40) Factory
Hallucinations of it (79)
McMurphy fights Big Nurse’s calm stature and precise method of control with his singing, attempting to arise laughter out of all the patients, gambling, the scandalous incident of being exposed in merely a towel and the World Series baseball vote.
(Page 128 end)
Fog intensives (117) Electro Shock
(118) Just when the fog would disappear person helped would start losing it again
(123) McMurphy pulling people out of the fog
Incident with moving the control panel, shows that McMurphy will continue to try
(124) Change
Big Nurse - authority
McMurphy - Change “real world”
Bromden- observer book within his perspective of one admitted to their
Confusion - what’s hallucination what’s real?
Fog- appears real, then means just this lifestyle of being them physically but mentally hidden
Bromden, the narrator, and McMurphy, the protagonist, both tend to describe the suffering of the mental patients as a matter of emasculation or castration at the hands of Nurse Ratched and the hospital supervisor, who is also a woman. The fear of women is one of the novel’s most central features. The male characters seem to agree with Harding, who complains, “We are victims of a matriarchy here.”
Ellis, Ruckly, and Taber-Acutes whose lives were destroyed by electroshock therapy-serve as public examples of what happens to those who rebel against the ruling powers. Ellis makes the reference explicit: he is actually nailed to the wall. This foreshadows that McMurphy, who is associated with Christ images, will be sacrifice
For McMurphy, laughter is a potent defense against society’s insanity, and anyone who cannot laugh properly has no chance of surviving
The Fog Machine
Fog is a phenomenon that clouds our vision of the world. In this novel, fogs symbolize a lack of insight and an escape from reality. When Bromden starts to slip away from reality, because of his medication or out of fear, he hallucinates fog drifting into the ward. He imagines that there are hidden fog machines in the vents and that they are controlled by the staff. Although it can be frightening at times, Bromden considers the fog to be a safe place; he can hide in it and ignore reality. Beyond what it means for Bromden, the fog represents the state of mind that Ratched imposes on the patients with her strict, mind-numbing routines and humiliating treatment. When McMurphy arrives, he drags all the patients out of the fog.
Bromden sees modern society as a huge, oppressive conglomeration that he calls the Combine and the hospital as a place meant to fix people who do not conform. Bromden chronicles the story of the mental ward while developing his perceptual abilities and regaining a sense of himself as an individual. He suffers from paranoia and hallucinations, has received multiple electroshock treatments,
The novel’s protagonist. Randle McMurphy is a big, redheaded gambler, a con man, and a backroom boxer. His body is heavily scarred and tattooed, and he has a fresh scar across the bridge of his nose. He was sentenced to six months at a prison work farm, and when he was diagnosed as a psychopath-for “too much fighting and fucking”-he did not protest because he thought the hospital would be more comfortable than the work farm
Nurse Ratched - The head of the hospital ward. Nurse Ratched, the novel’s antagonist, is a middle-aged former army nurse. She rules her ward with an iron hand and masks her humanity and femininity behind a stiff, patronizing facade. She selects her staff for their submissiveness, and she weakens her patients through a psychologically manipulative program designed to destroy their self-esteem. Ratched’s emasculating, mechanical ways slowly drain all traces of humanity from her patients
Victoria Peters
Monday, November 21
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
(Part One)
Chief Bromden suffers from hallucinations and paranoia. From this man’s point of view we witness the on goings and the dismantlement of men within the Oregon psychiatric hospital. “When a completed product goes back out into society all fixed up good as new, better sometimes, it brings joy to the Big Nurse’s heart. Something that came in all twisted different is now a functioning, adjusted component, a credit to the whole outfit and a marvel to behold.” (pg.40) Bromden sees modern society as a huge, oppressive conglomeration that he calls the Combine and the hospital as a place meant to fix people who do not conform.
Nurse Ratched or “Big Nurse” is the antagonist of the novel. She rules the ward with an iron fist and, masks her emotions and behind a stiff, patronizing front. She represents authority and with her methods of control she slowly weakens her patients and drains them of all races of humanity through destroying their self-esteem. One of the main focuses is the disturbance of the ward and the Big Nurses shaken rule. This is where McMurphy’s character comes into play. The novel offers a vivid description of his character as a large scarred and tattooed redheaded gambler, a conman. He is the novel’s protagonist.
McMurphy fights Big Nurse’s calm stature and precise method of control with his singing, attempting to arise laughter out of all the patients and gambling. Not to mention the scandalous incident of being exposed in merely a towel and the World Series baseball vote. The last paragraph of part one I think represents McMurphy’s impression on the ward and the change that it will and has inevitably brought about. “If somebody’d of come in and took a look, men watching a blank TV, a fifty-year-old woman hollering and squealing at the back of their heads about discipline and order and recriminations, they’d of though the whole bunch was crazy as loons.” (pg.128). Not only are there evident changes among the patients as a whole, learning to stand up for themselves through voting. There are changes mentally as well within Bromden. As the “fog” thins around him he seems to be developing his perceptual abilities and with hopefully regain once again a sense of himself as an individual.
Monday, November 21st
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
(Part One)
Pg.81 Bromden hopes that McMurphy will no better then to fight the “fog” or authority
Pg.77 immediately after arriving, McMurphy sees through Bromden’s “deaf” security when later, it is Bromden who sees through McMurphy into another world he seems to have forgotten.
The Hospital (40) Factory
Hallucinations of it (79)
McMurphy fights Big Nurse’s calm stature and precise method of control with his singing, attempting to arise laughter out of all the patients, gambling, the scandalous incident of being exposed in merely a towel and the World Series baseball vote.
(Page 128 end)
Fog intensives (117) Electro Shock
(118) Just when the fog would disappear person helped would start losing it again
(123) McMurphy pulling people out of the fog
Incident with moving the control panel, shows that McMurphy will continue to try
(124) Change
Big Nurse - authority
McMurphy - Change “real world”
Bromden- observer book within his perspective of one admitted to their
Confusion - what’s hallucination what’s real?
Fog- appears real, then means just this lifestyle of being them physically but mentally hidden
Bromden, the narrator, and McMurphy, the protagonist, both tend to describe the suffering of the mental patients as a matter of emasculation or castration at the hands of Nurse Ratched and the hospital supervisor, who is also a woman. The fear of women is one of the novel’s most central features. The male characters seem to agree with Harding, who complains, “We are victims of a matriarchy here.”
Ellis, Ruckly, and Taber-Acutes whose lives were destroyed by electroshock therapy-serve as public examples of what happens to those who rebel against the ruling powers. Ellis makes the reference explicit: he is actually nailed to the wall. This foreshadows that McMurphy, who is associated with Christ images, will be sacrifice
For McMurphy, laughter is a potent defense against society’s insanity, and anyone who cannot laugh properly has no chance of surviving
The Fog Machine
Fog is a phenomenon that clouds our vision of the world. In this novel, fogs symbolize a lack of insight and an escape from reality. When Bromden starts to slip away from reality, because of his medication or out of fear, he hallucinates fog drifting into the ward. He imagines that there are hidden fog machines in the vents and that they are controlled by the staff. Although it can be frightening at times, Bromden considers the fog to be a safe place; he can hide in it and ignore reality. Beyond what it means for Bromden, the fog represents the state of mind that Ratched imposes on the patients with her strict, mind-numbing routines and humiliating treatment. When McMurphy arrives, he drags all the patients out of the fog.
Bromden sees modern society as a huge, oppressive conglomeration that he calls the Combine and the hospital as a place meant to fix people who do not conform. Bromden chronicles the story of the mental ward while developing his perceptual abilities and regaining a sense of himself as an individual. He suffers from paranoia and hallucinations, has received multiple electroshock treatments,
The novel’s protagonist. Randle McMurphy is a big, redheaded gambler, a con man, and a backroom boxer. His body is heavily scarred and tattooed, and he has a fresh scar across the bridge of his nose. He was sentenced to six months at a prison work farm, and when he was diagnosed as a psychopath-for “too much fighting and fucking”-he did not protest because he thought the hospital would be more comfortable than the work farm
Nurse Ratched - The head of the hospital ward. Nurse Ratched, the novel’s antagonist, is a middle-aged former army nurse. She rules her ward with an iron hand and masks her humanity and femininity behind a stiff, patronizing facade. She selects her staff for their submissiveness, and she weakens her patients through a psychologically manipulative program designed to destroy their self-esteem. Ratched’s emasculating, mechanical ways slowly drain all traces of humanity from her patients
Victoria Peters
Monday, November 21
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
(Part One)
Chief Bromden suffers from hallucinations and paranoia. From this man’s point of view we witness the on goings and the dismantlement of men within the Oregon psychiatric hospital. “When a completed product goes back out into society all fixed up good as new, better sometimes, it brings joy to the Big Nurse’s heart. Something that came in all twisted different is now a functioning, adjusted component, a credit to the whole outfit and a marvel to behold.” (pg.40) Bromden sees modern society as a huge, oppressive conglomeration that he calls the Combine and the hospital as a place meant to fix people who do not conform.
Nurse Ratched or “Big Nurse” is the antagonist of the novel. She rules the ward with an iron fist and, masks her emotions and behind a stiff, patronizing front. She represents authority and with her methods of control she slowly weakens her patients and drains them of all races of humanity through destroying their self-esteem. One of the main focuses is the disturbance of the ward and the Big Nurses shaken rule. This is where McMurphy’s character comes into play. The novel offers a vivid description of his character as a large scarred and tattooed redheaded gambler, a conman. He is the novel’s protagonist.
McMurphy fights Big Nurse’s calm stature and precise method of control with his singing, attempting to arise laughter out of all the patients and gambling. Not to mention the scandalous incident of being exposed in merely a towel and the World Series baseball vote. The last paragraph of part one I think represents McMurphy’s impression on the ward and the change that it will and has inevitably brought about. “If somebody’d of come in and took a look, men watching a blank TV, a fifty-year-old woman hollering and squealing at the back of their heads about discipline and order and recriminations, they’d of though the whole bunch was crazy as loons.” (pg.128). Not only are there evident changes among the patients as a whole, learning to stand up for themselves through voting. There are changes mentally as well within Bromden. As the “fog” thins around him he seems to be developing his perceptual abilities and with hopefully regain once again a sense of himself as an individual.