1. "They're still out there." So says Chief Bromden, a member of the asylum under the tyrannical rule of Nurse Ratched. The Combine, the Illuminati, everyone. But above all else, Nurse Ratched. She who rules with an iron fist. She who beats and humiliates every patient into submission until they're nothing more than dogs asking for permission. Chief, Billy, Harding, Cheswick, Martini, everyone. But that all changes when Randle P. McMurphy (otherwise known as R.P.) comes in. Here's a man with "swag". Here's a man who won't take sh*t from anyone. Right off the bat, R.P and Nurse Ratched don't get along. R.P refuses to succumb to Ratched, and Ratched refuses to give up power. However, what Ratched doesn't count on is the influence that R.P. has over the patients. The patients look up to Randle. They see a man who is willing to go against the grain, a man who wants them to act as they would and not as Ratched would. With R.P. handling events like protesting against Ratched not showing the World Series, organizing basketball games, gambling with cigarettes, and having the patients fishing, Ratched can feel control slipping from her grasp. However that's not the only problem in the asylum. R.P. McMurphy is a slacker, first and foremost. The only reason he is in the asylum is because he believed he would live in a life of relative comfort compared to prison. Couple that with a relatively small sentence, and you have a man who faked insanity so as to avoid the dirty work. However, in the asylum Nurse Ratched determines when he can leave. As this realization dawns upon McMurphy, he starts to succumb to her will. However, this also coincides with him taking an unofficial role as the leader of the patients and as an inspiration for rebellion. This leads the patients to become confused, as a man who was once rebellious is now passive. Cheswick attempts to rebel against Ratched, but because McMurphy didn't stand up for him, he drowns himself in the pool. McMurphy, under pressure from both Ratched and the patients, starts losing his will, sanity and strength. However, he is still able to organize Billy to lose his virginity with the prostitute Candy while also simultaneously escaping the asylum. As luck would have it, McMurphy becomes too wasted to escape and collapses. Nurse Ratched, in a fit of rage over Billy sleeping with a prostitute, threatens to tell him off to his mother. Billy becomes hysterical and slits his own throat with glass. McMurphy, enraged over Ratched's refusal to own up to her mistakes, strangles her and rips open her dress,. However, he is knocked unconscious before he can kill her. Ratched has him lobotomized but the damage is done. No longer able to maintain control of the ward, the patients are either transferred or checked out. The only ones left are Chief, Martini and Scanlon. McMurphy returns, but is a shell of his former self. Lobotomized into a vegetative state, Ratched hoped to use him as a symbol for what happens when you f*ck with Nurse Ratched. Wishing to have McMurphy die with dignity, Chief suffocates McMurphy with a pillow. He then picks up a shower room control panel and throws it out the window, allowing him to escape.
2.The main theme for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is individualism vs. conformity. With Nurse Ratched, and the asylum as a whole, we have a society demanding conformity. Anyone who asks questions or is in any way a nuisance is immediately perceived as a threat and must be exterminated immediately. With R.P. McMurphy, we have a man who promotes individualism and non-conformity. Anything that conforms to society is inherently weak. As such, there is a power struggle between individualism and conformity. And while the catalyst for individualism may have died, that spirit lived on in the rest of the patients, so much so that Ratched was powerless to stop them.
3. The best I could describe Kesey's tone is sympathetic and critical. Considering that Kesey himself was a volunteer for Project MKUltra, it would make sense that he would have sympathy for the patients in the asylum. As such, the patients, despite their flaws/disabilities, are shown into a positive light while the nurses and aides in the asylum are shown as control freaks who will do anything to have order. R.P. McMurphy, despite the fact that he is a petty criminal who is accused of statutory rape, is portrayed as the hero of the story. This also leads to Kesey's critical tone. He is critical of the asylums, he is critical of the working conditions, and he is critical of society as a whole. He is critical of their suppression of sex (as evidenced by Billy) and he is critical of their suppression of the people.
4. Setting - By setting this story in an asylum, Kesey is able to explore his critique of society in a much more creative manner than he normally could. By setting it in an asylum, Kesey is able to create an effective allegory about the concepts of individualism vs. conformity using characters who are not your every-day heroes.
Symbolism - Throughout the novel, Chief continually comments on how there is always green seepage wherever the staff have a meeting. While there isn't any physical seepage to be found, it symbolizes the poison and harm that the staff are causing the patients as opposed to aiding and healing.
Metaphor - Harding, when describing the patients and their relationship, alludes them as rabbits versus a wolf. The patients are rabbits because they are afraid of the wolf, Nurse Ratched. And the reason they won't oppose her is because they are rabbits internally because they don't want to show it externally.
Play on words - Ratched is a play-on-words of the word "ratchet", which is a device that only allows motion in one direction. Fittingly, Nurse Ratched will only allow the patients to go into one direction (submission) and try to stop any attempts of individualism.
1. Direct characterization: "...other than me, the Chronics don't move around much, and the Acutes just say they'd just as leave stay over on their side, give reasons like the Chronic side smells worse than a dirty diaper." (pg. 18) or "She sounded like a teacher bawling out a student." (pg. 96).
Indirect: "You gripe, you bitch for weeks on end about how you can't stand this place, can't stand the nurse or anything about her, and all the time you ain't committed." (pg. 195) "But they can't do that look. There's nothin' in the face. Just one of those store dummies, ain't that right, Scanlon?"
2. When Kesey focuses on Chief and Chief alone, the thinking becomes much more... schizophrenic. While Chief himself isn't what we would call clinically insane, it definitely seems he's either on some drugs or has some social disorder. He becomes obsessed with the idea that the world is controlled by the Combine, and that most people are nothing more than machines. To many people, he is insane. To others, he simply thinks things in a different perspective.
3. Chief is a dynamic, round character. At the beginning, he is a man who is afraid to stand up for himself. His whole goal is simply to be unnoticed. He refuses to talk, and believes that the strength in him is gone. However, as the story progresses Chief becomes more confident in himself. Eventually, he discovers the strength inside him and leaves the asylum forever.
4. Concerning Chief, I feel like I met a character. Since he took on a more passive role as a main character, I couldn't really connect to him as I could with R.P. McMurphy. Chief just came across as a passive, observant fellow, much like Nick Carraway in the Great Gatsby.
