In the Cuckoo’s Nest

The scene that this image was drawn to represent takes place on pages 57-60 of One Flew Out of the Cuckoo’s Nest, where McMurphy talks to Harding about Ms. Ratched and the happenings in the Ward. Eventually, responding to McMurphy calling them chickens in the discussion, Harding describes himself and the other patients as rabbits instead, “… All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees, hippity-hopping through our Walt Disney world.” (57) Due to how close to the beginning of the book this scene was, the reader has not come to an understanding of what the characters in the ward are truly thinking and feeling, and how differently they think has not truly been demonstrated. This is one of the first scenes that gives the reader insight to what is going on within the ward patient’s minds, and as the reader it was a little unsettling to me. That scene made me feel unsure about my initial thoughts that maybe patients at the ward didn’t have much of a difference mentally.

He continues the previous quote with explaining how their rabbitness relates to them being stuck in the world and their craziness, “Oh don’t misunderstand me, we are not here because we are rabbits - we’d be rabbits wherever we were - we’re all in here because we can’t adjust to our rabbithood,” (57-58). The animalistic comparison really stood out to me, and when I read this moment in the book I had an image in my mind of a giant wolf with sharp teeth making little rabbits tremble in fear and stay stuck in place. I was inspired by both the unsettling feeling this scene left me with, as well as this imagery that was left in my mind of the wolf and rabbit, to try drawing this scene. I tried to demonstrate that through my drawing; the wolf’s jaws and teeth are depicted around a rabbit - which is what Harding describes as the relationship between Nurse Ratched and the ward patients.

The drawing was designed to look similar in a few ways to some of the art styles that are shown in the book. Some of the style similarities can be seen when comparing this image to the image at the very beginning of the book, before the title page. This image (used for inspiration) shows a man curled into himself, sitting in a room with a chair and a door in the background, and his two hands are curled around his face. The drawing is black and white, and appears to be drawn in graphite or something similar. The shapes and lines used in the drawing are very sharp and angular. There is also a dynamic between lightly and darkly shaded parts of the art piece. I tried to use these three stylistic choices in my own artwork to create a similar unsettling feeling that leaves the reader a bit confused and shocked, because that is the impact this scene had on me.