Trap of Provocation

Throughout the story, the author Ken Kessy, through Bromden’s extraordinary detailed narrative descriptions, emphasizes the communicative power of the character McMurphy. For instance, the identity of McMurphy’s speech is presented and analyzed under absolute and aggressive values. By doing so, it’s clear that with the way he’s communicating, he’s able to describe his ideas so fundamentally that his ideology is portrayed clearly for anyone that wishes to understand and follow him. Saying something bizarre in the beginning, almost comically, then changing the dynamic swiftly into a moment of explanation, guiding the reader to view him positively. This way of expressing himself expands further from McMurphy himself, and onto the political leaders of today.

First, it is important to identify the sections of the story that emphasize this type of communication by McMurphy. One such section, a memorable one at that, occurs during McMurphy and Harding’s feud between their views of the Big Nurse, happening after the group therapy ‘pecking party.’ (51) on Chapter 5 where McMurphy would describe the Big Nurse as a ‘ball-cutter.’ (53) This was an incredibly odd response, puzzling both the readers and Harding. It seemed to be irrelevant to the argument at hand, but then McMurphy would go on to explain it: “…people who try to make you weak… And the best way to do this, to get you to knuckle under, is to weaken you by gettin’ you where it hurts the worst.” (54) This explanation transitions that irrelevancy to relevance, allowing the readers, me included, to view the original bizarre statement as a comical solution to Harding’s inability to express how he really felt about the Big Nurse. And, considering that this is a ward with a majority, if not primarily, men, it makes his message that much clearer to the people of the ward.

Furthermore, by Chapter 6, as McMurphy’s character becomes more known to the narrator Bromden, Bromden would then characterize McMurphy to a ‘bull’ when it comes to his unwillingness to succumb to the Big Nurses measures of control, especially with the idea of fog: “(They haven’t really fogged the place full force all day today, not since McMurphy came in. I bet he’d yell like a bull if they fogged it.)” (69) This bull-like way of confronting problems, never falling back on his words, makes characters like Cheswick fall head over heels for him. Following his every idea whether it be to use the space of the therapeutic discussion area for a different purpose or to add baseball to the TV channel. And, it’s not only Cheswick, his clear following would be clear during the voting results of whether or not the ward should add baseball to the TV channel.

During Chapter 15, McMurphy was able to bring over twenty votes out of forty patients to plead his case of baseball. And, apparently, there happened to be a rule stating that to change a ward policy, you need a majority vote. Since, it wasn’t necessarily a majority, but a half and half, it would be Bromden who would go on to shift the scale in McMurphy’s favor. At first, Bromden was convinced that McMurphy made him raise his hand for a vote forcefully, but soon, he would push aside that thought, claiming the following: “No. That’s not the truth. I lifted it myself.” (123) With all that being said, even though McMurphy expresses his thoughts in a, at first glance, seemingly provocative and negative way, he is still able to bring so many people together, and to his side, much like our politicians today.

A primary example of such a politician is Donald Trump, our 45th president. Our 45th president has an extensive list of quotes that are outrageous, but it’s also true to mention that these quotes may have raised awareness for the individuals included in such outrageous claims. For instance, when it comes to instances of racism, he said the following on a telephone interview with Fox and Friends: “…I am the least racist,…” [1] Sure, he may be the least racist, racist person. Since when it comes to racism nowadays, those who hide their intentions through a false mask. Those who hide their racism through innocence and act as if they are not what they are, are in fact more racist. In addition to that, when it comes to the issue of the border, and trying to ‘build a wall,’ it provided awareness for people who were illegal immigrants. I managed to hear a lot of stories during the event of such a controversial message. So, when it comes to Trump’s relation with McMurphy, they’re both very strict in their messages, talking with absolute and aggressive terms. One more agreeable than the other, of course, but they are able to garner support through such provocative language.

However, there is a reason all of this works so well. People use such provocative language to set a trap. It’s to get a reaction they know you’ll have, and then they take you on a journey to tell you that the reaction you had was wrong, and you should have a different reaction. That’s how I felt as I read the whole book. I originally thought that McMurphy would come out as an enormously unagreeable character who had nothing but evil in his every action, but that was not true. And, it was also true that I fell in the trap of thinking that, so that once that was not true, my immediate reaction was to view him positively. So, in that regard, by reading this book, although it may be a bit overthinking on my part, I’ve learned to be more aware of those intentions, especially when it comes to putting my hands into future political atmosphere’s as I come of age.

[1] - Gass, Nick. “The 15 Most Offensive Things That Have Come out of Trump’s Mouth.” POLITICO, POLITICO, 9 Dec. 2015, www.politico.eu/article/15-most-offensive-things-trump-campaign-feminism-migration-racism/.

McMurphy The Con Man

Let me tell you a story about my first con. Yessir, it was a real doozy. It all started in high school when I played the game “King of Mao.” Whoo-me when I tell ya this was one for the books. I even put money on the line, “If you win, you can have my lunch money, but if I win, I get your lunch money.” It was a deal! Chi’chingg, the sound of money in my head. I knew I was going to win this game. I handed them all six cards; there were four of us. I was the dealer of the game, of course, so that meant that I made the rules as we went along. These bozos had no idea that I was about to con them. The rest of the deck was put in the middle of the table, and one card was put face up on the table. I started. The first card that was on the table was 8 of hearts, so I slapped my damn 8 of hearts right on top. Next was Bobbie’s turn; he fiddled with his cards. Come’on, damnn, he taking forever; this must mean his ass don’t have anything. He has the worst goddamn poker face. He yells goddamit, I pull a card from the stack on the table and hand it to him. You’re not supposed to speak during the game. I say to myself, I got one fool so far! Then Max was next. I let him place his 8 of diamonds, and I didn’t give him an extra card; I decided to let him slide this time. Now it’s time for Daniel to go, and he puts down a raggedy 3 of diamonds. I could tell he was excited that he had a card. So I decided to ruin that excitement by waiting until he put down his card. I looked at him with an expression that suggested that he forgot to say something, and he didn’t say it, so I gave him an extra card. He thought he was off the hook because he had a card! You thought wrong, buddy. “Hey, why are you giving me this?” he says. Because you didn’t say have a good day to me. What, since when was that a rule, he said? But I didn’t answer him, and he’s a fool, I said in the back of my head with a smirk on my face. Now it’s my turn again, and I slammed down my 5 of diamonds. Then, there’s a pause in the game. We are all waiting for Bobbie to go, so I give him another card; the hell with that; he tak’in all day like we got that type of time. “I’m not taking that card,” he said; ohh, you sure as hell will. You took too damn long to go when it was your turn. “Okay, I see how this game will play out,” Bobbie says. Thirty minutes had passed, and only one card was left on the table from the extra card pile. Now it’s Daniel’s turn. As he goes to put down his card, my hand is up, holding that last card on the table. With a devious smile on my face, I gave him the last card. He didn’t even question why he just accepted the fact that he just lost. I told them to count their cards, and Max had the most, so I told him that he lost the game. Time for ya to pay up, Booyah. I took all his money. The true con always wins, and that’s just the way it is. Well, well, well, this was my first con, and when I tell ya, it felt Goddamn good, it felt Godddamn good!

Artist Statement: When choosing to write from the point of view of McMurphy, I wanted to show all his Greed, manipulative ways, and competitiveness. These attributes stuck out to me and intrigued me to explore more closely. Throughout the book, he speaks very passionately, uses a lot of profanity, thinks that everything is a competition and needs a vote, is cocky, playful, and wants to win at everything. What better way to show all of his traits than him being a mastered con man? This also further adds a significant part of the book: characterization and how different characters appear to the readers. His specific talking style and background appeal to readers and help create a dynamic tone to his story. The specific moment from the book I wanted to build on was on page 72 when McMurphy states, “The secret of being a top-notch con man is being able to know what the mark wants, and how to make him think he’s getting it.” Furthermore, I wanted to use this as an opportunity to explore his character further and find ways to extend that outside the book. Being a dynamic character includes many aspects of culture and language, which I wanted to utilize in writing this scene.

Breaking Down Anxiety

It’s been about a year or two now since I’ve felt as though I have had little to no control over my personality. It’s hard to describe because it’s hard to notice it myself until I sit down and think about it and realize I’m nothing like I was the other day. But every week or so, or sometimes randomly halfway throughout the day it feels like I’m given a random “amount” of introversion/extroversion. There were days when it first started at Beeber where I wanted to talk to everyone in my class and then other days where I didn’t want to talk to anybody. And other than that, basically all of my personality traits are never consistent with every now and then they have a drastic change. We don’t really see a character (at least yet) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that has a sort of “multiple personality disorder” (even if I wouldn’t really define myself to have it) but the closest I could think of is every characters shift in extroversion/introversion when affected by Mcmurphy.

Mcmurphy over a couple of weeks, made almost the entirety of the ward more extroverted and made the community more involved with each other from day 1. And then later one when he hears that he might not be able to leave when promised, his entire personality shifts to being quiet and collected, not wanting to break any rules. Cheswick was being rowdy and asked McMurphy for backup; instead of jumping in (or leading the charge) like he would usually do, Bromden described that “all he got was silence.” (Kesey 133). Even though McMurphy’s came from a direct cause, the sudden shift of personality is something that connected with me. His personality shift from loud to quiet felt uncontrolled and sudden. But when this did happen, it made me wonder more about if my different “personalities” come from some cause. Because prior to reading this (and seeing other similar examples) I was fairly certain that it was random on how I was feeling. When looking into it I found a lot of extreme answers like Alzheimer’s or brain tumors that I’m fairly certain I don’t have but what stuck out to me was anxiety. I’ve had anxiety problems ever since I was little and it’s been a while since I’ve really been affected by it. But connecting it to the book, Bromden is very fitting of the description (plus more) of having anxiety. Even though we’re not supposed to be diagnosing the characters, I think Bromden is more fit for paranoid schizophrenia, but they’re similar as they both are almost a form of panic attack. We “concluded” in our group discussion that the fog in the ward could be Bromden’s schizophrenia taking over whenever he is worried. We assumed this because as soon as Nurse Ratched lost control of the patients, it’s said that “There’s no more fog any place” and it was removed when “we let McMurphy lure us out of the fog.” (Kesey 115). And although it may be a weird connection, if I put myself in Bromden’s shoes, basing it off of my life, McMurphy would be like my mother. When I was younger I had 2 main sources of my anxiety: being left alone and getting on airplanes. My experiences and Bromden’s were both put at bay by what is called exposure therapy; which is basically a technique to get rid of a fear by being exposed to it. For me, my mother would take me on planes more often and purposefully make stops at stores so that I could beat my anxiety over time. With Bromden, Mcmurphy would “pull him out of the fog” to stand up against Nurse Ratched. Granted anxiety always comes back, as we see the fog returning when McMurphy stops standing against Big Nurse, but there’s no preventing that.

Reading about Bromden’s mental illness really made me grateful for my mother and how she would be willing to help me, no matter how difficult it would be. Bromden didn’t really have an outlet and when he finally got one, it only lasted a few days. It also gave me a realistic comparison for a representation of my anxiety, that being the fog. Of course it would be different for me because I wasn’t in a mental institution but the way the book looks at it is very accurate. I think if my anxiety ever does come back in a major way, Bromdens’ situation reminded me of a proper way to look at it and a proper solution.

McMurphy and Me

The staff at the ward depicted in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, especially Nurse Ratched, have a great deal of power over the patients, controlling everything they do. The narrator, Bromden, constantly mentions the extreme power that Nurse Ratched, AKA the Big Nurse, wields over the entire ward. “The Big Nurse tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision-made machine.” (25) Although I’ve never experienced anything like the Combine, I definitely have felt overly restricted at times in my life, particularly in school environments (having to ask someone if you’re allowed to go to the bathroom feels really wrong if you think about it, especially if they say no). In many situations that are restrictive over some people, there are always others who don’t even notice. This idea is represented well in the book.

Although “they’ve made life look very pleasant with paint and decorations and chrome bathroom fixtures,” the Combine is not as pleasant for patients as it seems to outsiders. (111) I thought it was ironic that the public relations man followed this up by saying, “A man that would want to run away from a place as nice as this, why, there’d be something wrong with him,” because it’s a mental institution, and each one of the men there has “something wrong with him.” Naturally, when an able-bodied and strong-willed patient arrived at the ward named McMurphy, he made it his mission to rebel against the staff and rally the other patients to join him. The way McMurphy acts in the face of a controlled environment is how I’d like to think I’d act, but I’m more of a non-confrontational person and I wouldn’t stand up to the authority figures in the ward anywhere near as much as he does.

The first instance of McMurphy’s plans to rebel took the form of a bet with the other Acutes. “‘Any of you sharpies here willing to take my five bucks that says that I can get the best of that woman- before the week’s up- without her getting the best of me? One week, and if I don’t have her to where she don’t know whether to shit or go blind, the bet is yours.’” (66) I’ve certainly tried to get under someone’s skin before, but never someone who had that level of power over me. I thought his bet was a little crazy at first, but after all, McMurphy is a gambler, and he didn’t have anything better to do with his time. As it turned out, he succeeded in ruffling the nurse’s feathers so much that some of the other patients joined him once they saw how much fun he was having upsetting her. When they tried to watch the World Series game on TV and the nurse shut it off, they all watched a blank TV screen just to push her buttons. “‘You men- Stop this. Stop!’” (125) This reminds me of something my sister and I would have done when we were little to make our mom mad if she’d done something we deemed unfair.

The men never would’ve been trying to watch that World Series game in the first place if it wasn’t for McMurphy’s passion and his demand for not one but two votes to move TV hours to the time the games would be on. It hadn’t been easy, but he’d “inspired” enough people to vote his way that he finally got a majority vote. “‘One of you guys, for cryin’ out loud! This is where you get the edge, don’t you see that? We have to do this- or we’re whipped!’” (123) The edge McMurphy spoke of means the upper hand on the staff, especially the big nurse. He’d already caused a scene bringing the matter to a vote once, nevermind twice, and his failure to get a majority vote either time wouldn’t bode well for his future in the ward. Luckily for him, Bromden’s vote made 21 votes and he got his adjusted TV time. Unfortunately, the nurse was angry at him and turned the TV off, so it was all for nothing. This voting scene, especially the first one, reminded me of all the times I’ve been in the minority vote for something I wanted. I usually just go along with it and don’t make a big deal out of not getting my way, but this makes me think that I should push harder for something if I feel really passionate about it.

Finally, one area where I do see a similarity between me and McMurphy is our stubbornness. When asked by Frederickson, a fellow patient, how he’d bust out of the ward, McMurphy replied “Well, I guess I could knock the mesh outa one of these windows with a chair when and if I took a notion…” (107) and when told a chair wouldn’t do the job, he attempted to pick up an impossibly heavy control panel. He tried so hard to lift it that “There’s blood on the levers where he tore his hands.” (110) I’m guilty of committing way too hard to stay true to my word or make myself look good. I don’t think I’ve physically injured myself because of it, but I’ll go pretty far out of my way in hopes of proving a point.

McMurphy's Clothing Debacle

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey wrestles with authority and how humans choose to respond to it. The reader is introduced to Randle McMurphy, a diagnosed “psychopath” who changes the dynamic in the psych ward of the hospital. The ward is led by Big Nurse Ratched, a controlling authority figure for the patients. She asserts her dominance by manipulating the patients with fear, and controlling everything in the ward to her liking. The narrator, Bromden, feels that she “is able to set the wall clock at whatever speed she wants…” (68). Another patient says that Big Nurse is one of those “people who try to make you weak so they can get you to toe the line, to follow their rules, to live like they want you to. And the best way to do this … is to weaken you by gettin’ you where it hurts the worst” (54). Big Nurse clearly has a hold on her patients. Until McMurphy comes into the picture.

McMurphy knows her game, or at least he thinks he does. He is determined to defeat her at her own manipulation game. He first tries this by trying to just voice his annoyance, specifically about how loud the radio plays when they are in the day room. He complains multiple times throughout the evening, but eventually gets to bed.

The next morning, he is up and about before 6:45, which is strictly against ward rules, and he is singing, loud enough to wake up Bromden at least. He surprises Big Nurse with his partial nudity, and she is completely caught off-guard by his singing. He has her so worked up that she starts yelling at her employees, a rare occurrence. McMurphy has taken his anger with the constant radio noise, and flipped it on its head to use as leverage. He is taking what Big Nurse has told him and using it against her to get ahead.

I chose this moment from the text because I have used a very similar tactic to get what I wanted. In 4th grade at Greene Street Friends School, gym class was the best class. Unlike middle school P.E, gym class was another word for fun games and challenges with your class. We played kickball, jumped off of springboards, did relay races, and much more. In 4th grade, one of our units was yoga. In comparison, yoga sucked. Many of my classmates agreed.

Greene Street, being a quaker school, taught us about peaceful protesting, and encouraged us to do so if we felt something was unjust. Memorably, we learned about the many sit-ins that happened during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. My classmates and I decided to apply this knowledge to our yoga unit.

We organized a protest and originally got almost half the class behind it. When it came time, we, instead of following our instructor’s directions and movements, sat silently on our mats, criss-cross applesauce. Granted, this protest was completely unsuccessful, and we actually got in pretty big trouble for doing it. And, of course, protesting against yoga is never something I would do now, in fact I quite enjoy a relaxing yoga session. But I stand by our actions, and I would 100% do it again if we were protesting something else. We were exercising our constitutional rights as Americans to peacefully protest, and we were using what the school had taught us to our advantage.

I relate to McMurphy in many ways, and I don’t think that makes me crazy. Although our circumstances were different, we both used disobedience as a way to try to get what we wanted. He truly gave them a taste of their own medicine (no pun intended). And maybe this tactic doesn’t always work in all circumstances. Maybe it ultimately won’t work for McMurphy just as it didn’t work for my classmates and me. But whoever is the target of the “protest” cannot deny that it’s at least a very clever strategy.

Aside from the clever-ness of our 4th grade scheme, there was also a certain innocence that McMurphy lacks. McMurphy’s final goal is to get under Big Nurse’s skin, he doesn’t necessarily care about the bonuses that might come with that. My classmates and I just hated doing yoga when we could be playing games. We weren’t consciously using our newfound knowledge of peaceful protest against the gym teacher, we simply wanted a little more say in what we were learning. And that’s what McMurphy and I have in common, when put in a controlled environment, all we really want is a bit of that control.

Turning Their Backs

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My artwork focuses on multiple quotes from the same scene of when all of the ward patients rise up against Big Nurse by watching TV instead of doing their chores. This scene was such an obviously pivotal moment for the entire group so it made sense to emphasize this moment. I also chose to focus on the perspective of my artwork because of the importance of Bromden’s perspective throughout the book. I drew the scene from the point of view of Bromden’s thoughts, “If somebody’d of come in and took a look…they’d of thought the whole bunch was crazy as loons.” (126) Therefore, the artwork is looking at the scene from behind, looking on as a spectator would. To achieve the proper representation of this quote I drew every person in the ward, including Big Nurse, wearing their “greens” (89), which were given only to the patients at the hospital. This represents the onlooker seeing everyone in the room as crazy, not just the patients.

The next element of my drawing focuses on the fog and how it reacts to Bromden’s and the ward mates’ new-found defiance of the system. I did this by taking some artistic liberties, I drew a pair of brooms sweeping up, sweeping the fog away from the ward patients. As you can see the brooms are being operated by two pairs of red hands, which are a reference to Bromden and his fellow patients awakening, which was brought about by McMurphy’s “red hand” (121). Along with the theme of the defiance of the system, I drew all of the characters in the book with their backs facing Big Nurse, representing the bottom of page 125, “we’re all sitting there lined up in front of that blanked out TV set…and she’s ranting and screaming behind us.” I represented the insurgence by also making the TV the focal point of the drawing, not the huge screaming Big Nurse. I think it perfectly describes their rejection of leadership and Big Nurse.

The third and final theme of my artwork is power in numbers. As you look at the artwork, Big Nurse seems to be the biggest scariest subject. However, I drew her so that even as she is so much bigger than an average person, she takes up the same amount, if not less, of space as the ward patients. This highlights moments in the book like the failure to achieve a majority for vote for the TV, “ ‘Forty patients, and only twenty voted. You must have a majority to change the ward policy. I’m afraid the vote is closed.’ ”(123) and the subsequent achievement of the majority “ ‘The Chief’s vote makes it twenty-one! And by God if that ain’t a majority I’ll eat my hat!’ ”(124). This emphasizes that Big Nurse can be defeated by the power of the people in the ward. Also pertaining to this quote I drew all of the people who are watching Tv raising their hands to represent the final vote that spurred their defiance.

Forgotten Dream

My artwork depicts Bromden’s hallucination/dream when he did not take the medication they gave him from pages 76 to 79. In this scene, Bromden sees one of the staff bring the dorm room down to an underground, dam-like structure beneath the ward. Bromden describes this world below the ward as being very industrial, like a factory or a “tremendous dam”(77). As the floor moves, Bromden sees many things, specifically workers, identical each other, running around, and furnaces. As the floor comes to a stop, one of the chronics, named Blastic, who was pointed out by the men in charge, is taken by a worker and “…with the other hand the worker drives the hook through the tendon back of the heel, and the old guy’s hanging there upside down…his pajama top falls around his head. The worker grabs the top and bunches and twists it like a burlap sack…” (78). This detail can be seen in the piece.

In this part, Bromden says “…there’s no blood or innards falling out like I was looking to see–just a shower of rust and ashes, and now and again a piece of wire or glass. Worker’s standing there to his knees in what looks like clinkers.” (79). He also says “One of the guys takes a scalpel from a holster at his belt. There’s a chain welded to the scalpel. The guy lowers it to the worker, loops the other end of the chain around the railing so the worker can’t run off with a weapon.” (78 - 79). These details are captured in the machinery spilling out of the hole in Blastic’s torso and the hook caught on his heel.

The main scene is placed in the background while the beds are in the foreground, showing the perspective of Bromden, being a witness to a horrible act but not able to interfere or do anything due to fear. The focal point has the most color as it was a scene so vivid for Bromden. Everything else fades into the background as Blastic’s death was the only thing Bromden could focus on. The hallucination is intentionally disconnected from the beds as it is unclear whether this moment was Bromden’s fantasy or reality. This is also represented by the hazy, blurred nature of the drawing. The disconnect also conveys how his death is not acknowledged. They can’t reach him, not even Bromden who is the only one to witness this.

The horrific nature of this scene is captured by the grotesque visual of the hole, stark when compared to the rest of the dark, dimmed scene. The only face you can see is ignorant of his actions and disinterested to the acts he commits. The worker’s face looks “handsome and brutal and waxy like a mask”, shown in the detachment of his features from the rest of his face. I decided to have the machinery falling out candidly to express how sudden the scene was. In place of blood, there are wires and glass, rust and ash. As suddenly as he died, the in-progress nature of the art expresses it.

This artwork portrays how Bromden’s mind alters how characters are perceived. Blastic is depicted as a character that was so far gone, he has no organs or things of human nature left, being reduced to wires like a robot, puppet, or doll. This scene is so significant because it was the first described death in the book. On the ward, the Chronics have no say in what happens to them. They live through the motions set out for them by the staff. Even what happens to them in the night and after death is out of their control. Blastic was forgotten, not mentioned again after this scene, as there are no real treatments for the Chronics, just drawn-out existence and inevitable death. As Bromden would say, they are taken back into the fold by the Combine when their time runs out.

Forgotten Dream
Forgotten Dream

A Real-Life Rebellion- Q2 Lit Log #1

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, the ward represents a creation of society, with Nurse Ratched symbolizing the oppressive authority and control. McMurphy, A main character in this ward, is seen as the protagonist, challenging the authority and arguing with the patients to rebel against the structures forced upon them. In our lives, authority figures and mandatory structures can make us feel restricted or oppressed. In my own life, there have been moments where I have broken free from these constraints, which have led to personal growth.

In this novel, McMurphy’s character is defined by encouraging patients to rebel against the ward’s rules. McMurphy is often seen challenging the control of Nurse Rached and inspiring patients in this ward to follow his lead in asserting their independence. When McMurphy arrives at the ward, he challenges the rules and authority, questioning the strict routine and rules of the ward that could be seen as dehumanizing.

McMurphy shows a significant moment of rebellion when the patients vote to change the TV schedule to watch the World Series, while Nurse Ratched opposes this idea. A quote reads, “All twenty of them, raising not just for watching TV, but against the big nurse, against trying to send McMurphy to disturbed, against the way she’s acted and beat them down for years”(140). The narrator, Chief Bromden, describes this act of rebellion by McMurphy as one that makes Nurse Ratched question her power. The majority of men who voted on this can be inferred as an immense act of rebellion waiting to occur.

McMurphy foreshadows a personal rebellion evolving into a collective rebellion in which he is the “leader.” He often encourages other patients to join him in this battle against the authority. The actions that he creates inspire the people to stand up against the oppressive environment of the ward.

In my own life, I can relate to moments when I have felt the need to rebel against authority. There have been negative moments with significant people that I found myself around on a daily basis. I was in this rebellious state at a young age with my teachers, parents, and even coaches. I often thought they wouldn’t know better than me, so I would do what I wanted and often paid the price. Challenging simple rules like “Don’t talk while the teacher is talking” or “Stop playing video games and clean up your room” were moments where I felt the need to challenge rules because they were unjust. While I may not have faced the same extreme circumstances as the characters in the novel, these instances led me to question the oppression I faced from then until now.

This novel portrays the ward as a nature of society, with Nurse Ratched symbolizing oppressive authority and control and the character McMurphy, seen as a protagonist in this situation, challenging this authority. This theme of rebellion is seen to have resonated with real life as many people have experienced moments of trying to break free from constraints explicitly placed on them, which often leads to personal growth. The novel’s exploration of rebellion reflects humanity, highlighting the desire for freedom.

Lit Log #1: Stepping Out of The Fog

In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey creates a rule-abiding and caged atmosphere in the psych ward. The narrator, Chief Bromden, tells the story through visions and hallucinations that help the reader understand characters at a deeper level. One major delusion that is relevant to understanding the power dynamics in the ward is the fog machine. Bromden claims that there is a fog machine that is controlled by Big Nurse and the staff. “Before noontime they’re at the fog machine again but they haven’t got it turned up full; it’s not so thick but what I can see if I strain real hard. One of these days I’ll quit straining and let myself go completely, lose myself in the fog the way some of the other Chronics have […]” (37) I think the fog symbolizes Big Nurse’s authoritative manipulation and getting lost in the fog means losing sight of reality and individuality. We can see that Bromden is a Chronic but he still fights through the fog and doesn’t want to lose himself in it. But even though he doesn’t want to give in to the fog, he also doesn’t want to escape the fog. Bromden considers the fog a safe place where he can hide from reality. “That’s what McMurphy can’t understand, us wanting to be safe. He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get at.” (112) The patients are aware that they are being manipulated by Big Nurse, but they stay in the fog because it’s safer than trying to make sense of everything on their own and rebelling against Big Nurse.

I find myself relating to Bromden and the patients. Growing up, I always obeyed my parents and I never questioned their authority. To me, everything they said went and they knew what was best for me. I think that in a way, this contributed to my people-pleasing tendencies because I was always rewarded for following their rules. As I grow older, my view points don’t align with theirs as much and I start to want different things in life. But because I grew up constraining myself to follow their rules, speaking my mind and rebelling against my parents was something I avoided. I decided to stay in the fog of obedience of my parents and in result, never had to deal with the consequences of rebellion.

I would like to think that my compliance is something I choose for myself, but the hard truth is I’m scared of facing the disappointments of the real world. The actions I make will always have consequences but if I make them on my own, I won’t have the safety net of my parents to fall back on. This is something the patients in the ward also experience. They rely on Big Nurse and view her as a mother figure. They remain loyal to her during the first half of the book when they are in the fog because they see her as someone who is selfless and gave up her life to care of their “insane” selves. “Our dear Miss Ratched? Our sweet, smiling, tender angel of mercy, Mother Ratched, a ball-cutter? Why, friend, that’s most unlikely.” (54) In this quote, Harding defends Big Nurse as McMurphy tries to pull the patients out of the fog. McMurphy shows them the many signs of her manipulation, but the patients refuse to agree with them or take action against her power because of the safety they feel under her fog of authority. It’s Big Nurse’s job to make them feel less crazy, even if that means being caged and controlled. It is only when they see McMurphy succeed to rebel without getting sent to the Disturbed ward that they feel propelled to speak out and step out of the fog.

McMurphy inspires the patients to act on their initial desires to rebel against Big Nurse. Even though he is also a manipulative person, it’s justified because he strives to unite the patients to fight against mistreatment that he also personally experiences. Big Nurse is manipulative in a way that divides the patients so she can have more control over them. From McMurphy I learned that rebellion is extremely important for stopping unhealthy patterns of authoritarians. “The residents, the black boys, all the little nurses, they’re watching her too, waiting for her to go down the hall where it’s time for the meeting she herself called, and waiting to see how she’ll act now that it’s known she can be made to lose control […] There’s no more fog any place.” (129) Big Nurse’s perfect facade that she has been putting up has finally cracked. The fog, and fear that lingers with it, disappears once the patients realize that Miss Ratched can lose control, just like them. We tend to view authority figures as superior and fail to notice they are human as well. Once we take them off a pedestal, we will find the courage to express our individuality and the strength to face the consequences of doing so.

Defiance

This art piece represents the scene from page 125. McMurphy makes himself comfortable in front of the TV, defying the nurses order to get back to work. The other patients see his actions and pull up a chair to join him. McMurphy had attempted to switch the cleaning schedule so that they could sit and watch the world series however his attempt was unsuccessful. He didn’t want to believe he lost so he stood up against Nurse Ratched and finally made her lose her cool. Nurse Ratched, furious, cuts the TV off but McMurphy isn’t bothered. Bromden notes “That eye doesn’t faze him a bit. To tell the truth, he doesn’t even let on he knows the picture is turned off…” (125) The artwork represents McMurphy’s act of defiance as well as the consequences that followed.

The top right portion of the piece represents the cleaning supplies that the patients dropped when deciding to join McMurphy. “Harding shuts off the buffer and leaves it in the hall.” (125) I chose to include this because it shows that the choice the patients made was spur of the moment. I felt it was most important to emphasize McMurphys character in this piece so he got the most detail. McMurphy leans back, “puts his cigarette between his teeth and pushes his cap forward in his red hair till he has to lean back to see out from under the brim.” (125) I drew McMurphy just as described, leaned back, hands crossed behind his head, cigarette in his mouth and hat brim on his head. His relaxed nature while Nurse Ratched yells from behind is really important to notice. He intentionally acts like this because he knows that it will annoy the Nurse and his goal is to make her lose her temper.

In my artwork, I included the other Acutes sitting in front of the gray TV screen to show that they were supportive of the effect it would have on the nurse Ratched and not so much actually wanting to watch the world series. The patients are “sitting there lined up in front of that blanked out TV set, watching the gray screen just like we could see the baseball game clear as day, and she’s ranting and screaming behind us.” (125) McMurphy continuing to watch the TV as if it were still on shows that he doesn’t want to let the Nurse know that she has won. For him, this front that he has put up must stay intact even if that means he has to act in this manner. By doing this he won the bet that he could make the nurse lose her temper.

The nurse’s appearance is simple, she is drawn to have infuriating facial expressions towards the men by the TV. The artwork shows the important moment when she loses her temper with the patients. Throughout this moment her anger grows more intense, “Mr. McMurphy, I’m warning you!” then she pulled out her fist and “all those red - orange fingernails burning into her palm.” (125) In the piece, Nurse Ratched’s Facial expressions, red cheeks and orange fingernails were done intentionally to replicate this moment from the book.

This scene is significant to the story because it’s the first moment where McMurphy makes Nurse Ratched lose her temper on the patients. Each moment before this, she has calmed herself down before things escalated but this scene shows how McMurphy tipped the scales. This scene could lead McMurphy to have many more moments where he defies the rules and causes Nurse Ratched to be furious with him. It leaves the reader wondering about the amount of control the patients truly have within the hospital.

Beyond The Cuckoo’s Nest: Analyzing Authoritarian Dynamics in Ken Kesey’s Book “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and The Contemporary World Of Managers By Amjed Washaha

Beyond The Cuckoo’s Nest: Analyzing Authoritarian Dynamics in Ken Kesey’s Book “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and The Contemporary World Of Managers

In the maze that is the modern workplace, where the echoes of the proverbial “rat race” reverberate through the corridors of a corporatized society, the compliance demanded by authority finds its counterpart in the soulful yet automatic refrain, “Good Morning, Miss. Rat-ched” as aptly stated by McMurphy on page 86 of Ken Kesey’s book One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. This adjustment in address where “Ratched” is innocuously muddled down to “Rat-ched,” echos a rebellious but subtle confrontation that binds the autocratic nature McMurphy is portrayed to inhabit in this novel. It also echoes what modern workers have been calling the “Rat race” which is a term used in reference to the relentless, competitive, exhausting, and oftentimes monotonous pursuit of inevitable self-defeat encapsulated within the corporate ladder. In response to McMurphy’s greeting and question, “How’s things on the outside?’ Miss Ratched responds “You can’t run around here in a towel!” A response that serves as an immediate reminder of the power structures previously established. The life of Miss Ratched outside the hospital is no business to McMurphy not because it is simply irrelevant but because McMurphy simply has no place in society. Apparently to Miss Ratched’s account that is plainly evident in the fact McMurphy parades himself around the commons in a towel. Such a man in Nurse Ratched’s eye is incapable of understanding what it is like to be normal that is why she feels compelled to get these men to conform. It is her job after all.

Ironically McMurphy’s elegantly poised derogatory remix of Nurse Ratched’s name was supposed to signify Nurse Ratched, much like the patients and staff of this ward painted in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is indeed a rat. If we are to believe it is the nurse’s managerial duty to help the hospital better remold these men back into society we must be open to the idea that the nurse and other staff members alike are to effectively be the only representatives of the “outside” and the values and structures the “outside” would have reflected to the average reader at the time. But through Nurse Ratched’s actions and the sacrifice of oneself, (being everyone else in the ward) we see how the guiding autocratic structures of the outside world creep their way into the hospital.

Autocratic structures have been in place within our society for quite some time now even during the 50s when this book takes place. Parallels can be drawn from the examples of condensation, passive aggressiveness, and conformity throughout the novel. “Don’t you think we’d better climb back into our nice toasty bed?” says Nurse Ratched to Chief Bromden pg. 143, a man perceived in the hospital to be deaf. What is particularly scary about this first example is the fact Nurse Ratched knows Chief is deaf yet she carries on with her language and the usage of words like “we”, “you”, and “our” which all insinuates the illusion of choice. It blunts the sharp edges of authoritarian demands making them look more collaborative and self-serving. The reality, as we see immediately after, is that Bromden chooses that he does not want to go to bed but still, the Nurse aggressively sets her staff on Bromden and they proceed to lock him down to his bed. Bromden is then left in his bed locked up forced to cope with the reality in front of him pg.144 “she figures it’s on account of working evenings among a whole ward full of people like me. It’s all our fault, and she’s going to get us for it if it’s the last thing she does. I wish McMurphy’d wake up and help me.”

Through Nurse Ratched and her managerial stylings comes forth an admission of guilt. Nurse Ratched has her sights set on strict conformity and submission, in Nurse Ratched’s eyes the correlation between a patient’s inability to adhere to her exact instructions and misbehavior and the subsequent punishments dealt out to the patients as a result of that are entirely justified. “You men are in this hospital because of your proven inability to adjust to society.” pg. 144 As a result of this thinking inspired by beliefs fostered within the outside world any opinion or right proposed by these patients is completely invalid as she is sure, using failure to adhere as a soul justifier that the patients are incapable of knowing what is truly best for not only the hospital and overall community but also themselves. That is why I felt it was imperative Ken Kesey introduce a personality like McMurphy to the ward.

McMurphy is a con man, con men don’t like to be conned, and because of that he is particularly good at seeing through the various masks the inhabitants of the ward seem to hide behind, from uncovering Bromden’s lie of deafness to cheating the patients out of their cigarettes. But a man with such an intuition is a dangerous thing for any structure grounded in conformity. He initially detests the adherence to the culture Nurse Ratched was trying to pose within the ward. Eventually, after time it has become overwhelmingly apparent to Nurse Ratched that McMurphy’s failure to adhere would become the ward’s greatest perceived threat. This only begins to affect McMurphy when he finally realizes Nurse Ratched has the ability to extend his sentence at the ward indefinitely if she so desires “You got to swallow your pride sometimes and keep an eye out for old Number One.” pg. 165 McMurphy vehemently exclaims after ditching his original plans of antagonizing Nurse Ratched as a result of this newly acquired piece of knowledge. This instance of submission is telling of the true pressures such a hierarchical framework can have on even the strongest of personalities. It is also the first instance in the book that I began to feel a sense of helplessness, that there is no escape for these men, and that ultimately the fate of these men’s lives will forever be in accordance with the merits of their “caretakers”.

In conclusion, the dichotomy between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy is stark, and that is for a great reason. Pitting these two characters together serves as a fantastic lens into the relationship between the managed and the managers within contemporary society. It puts on display in some of the most extreme of ways the authority we grant professionals and managers in our lives. Nurse Ratched and the significance of the “outside” and how McMurphy so innocently assumed that meant anything exposes the overlap between the scenes and attitudes depicted within this novel and how they may reflect the manifestations of our current reality. In doing this Ken Kesey demands the reader to reflect on the relationships they may have with authority and hierarchy in their day-to-day lives, just as he did when preparing this novel.

There Will Be No Change

Randle McMurphy is always trying to change something, if it’s the way we are or some rule he doesn’t like. This week during the meeting he decided that it’s unfair that he can’t watch the World Series on Friday because of the schedule we have for TV time. He had been wanting to do this for a while and even a few days before he tried to compromise with Nurse Ratched about the schedule so he could watch the World Series in the afternoon. This didn’t change her mind and in the end, she said no. This didn’t surprise him and he moved on to the others.

He moves on to us and asks what we think about this idea (103) “Nobody says a thing”. We don’t want to answer but he continues trying to get us to. We try to ignore it and (104) “Nobody acts like they’ve heard it ”, I want him to move on and leave me alone. But he continues and Scanlon responds with what he thinks and he thinks the schedule should stay the same because he likes watching the news at six o’clock. He continued to ask for a vote and the only ones to raise their hand was Cheswick. I sat there looking around if there was anyone else who raised their hand in support of Randle. No one else does and we sit there looking back and forth at each other.

Randle looks upset and says (104) “Come on now, what is this crap”. He looks towards the doctor to confirm that we can vote to change the rules of the ward and he nods in agreement. I know and everyone else knows they can vote but just don’t want to. We don’t want to know what happens when we vote against the ward. He asks again if we want to watch the series and Cheswick and Scanlon raise their hands. I don’t know why. They should know what happens when we go against the ward. But why doesn’t McMurphy get punished even after breaking all these rules? The meeting still hasn’t started and Nurse Ratched is asking if we could get back onto the meeting. I would also like to get back to the meeting since I’m annoyed with Randle trying to get the rules changed but I shouldn’t say anything now.

We get back to the meeting and Chewick gives us a hard look as he sits down next to McMurphy looking proud and the meeting starts. The meeting goes on and Randle says nothing to any of us because of how mad he is. But I finally have the opportunity to say what I want to him. I walk up to him and say “Some of us have b-been here for fi-fi-five years, Randle”. I’m twisting the magazine that’s in my hands back and forth as I’m talking to him. (104) “And some of us will b-be here maybe th-that muh-much longer, long after you’re g-g-gone, long after this Wo-world Series is over. And… don’t you see…”. As I’m talking to him I’m realizing he probably won’t listen to me or anyone else who says anything to him, he only thinks about himself and probably isn’t even listening to me. At this point, I don’t feel like talking to him anymore so I just throw down the magazine and walk away saying, “Oh what’s the use of it anyway”. I can’t tell him what he doesn’t know or what it is like to be here because he will never understand.

He continues to ask the other guys why they didn’t vote and argues with them but none of them talk to him and he gives up. They don’t want to get in trouble and stay quiet and let Randle do his own thing without dragging them into it. He got mad at us and called us out for being (103) “too cagey-too chicken-shit”. But I do not want to deal with him.

For this perspective, I decided to go with Billy in the scene where they have the meeting and McMurphy asks for the people to vote and have the TV time changed for the World Series. I chose Billy for the fact that he acts timid most of the time and doesn’t speak much and I thought it would be interesting to see what he was thinking. I called McMurphy in this perspective since it’s Bromden and the Nurse who calls him McMurphy I also felt like this scene impacted Billy the most since after the meeting he went on to talk to McMurphy head-on about how he feels. So to get his thoughts and already introduced dialogue would make this scene even more interesting.

The Big Manager

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has provided me with interesting insights about the importance and also the potential consequences of challenging authority. Throughout the book, McMurphy is seen as a rebellious con man, who is trying to disrupt the natural order of the ward for his own gain. While this might be true, McMurphy’s actions have also had a real positive effect on the ward. An example of this is when Bromden says, “In the group meetings there were gripes coming up that had been buried so long the thing being griped about had already changed. Now that McMurphy was around to back them up, the guys started letting fly at everything that had ever happened on the ward they didn’t like.” (144) While the patients’ sudden desire to address their issues with the ward could be interpreted as just annoying or a problem, I see it as a great thing. The ward is where the patients spend their lives and they have a right to make it as enjoyable a space as possible within reason. To me this shows the positive impact that one person’s challenges on authority can have for a group of people.

This idea of one person’s challenges on authority inspiring a group of people has a personal connection to me because of my job. The restaurant I work at has many issues, many of which are in some way affected by management. For example there are regularly too many people scheduled for each shift, and because the employees share tips, this means that no one makes as much money as they could and should. Whenever issues like this are brought up with our manager she often gets angry and tries to change the subject to things staff members should be doing differently or says that the way things are is how our owner wants them and is out of her control. Whether or not this is true, she clearly does not make any serious attempts to improve our situation. She is also generally disliked by the staff and yells at employees over minor things, disappears to her office while the restaurant is open and servers need her help and much like the big nurse, she acts as though any valid complaints from employees are personal attacks and gets angry. While some people are occasionally willing to bring up complaints to her, we generally feel forced to simply tolerate the issues with the restaurant. McMurphy’s actions in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” have made me think about what really standing up to her might do. If one person voiced their opinion it could inspire others to do the same and put pressure on our manager to make changes.

While One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest shows the potential positive impact of standing up to an authoritative figure, it also provides a warning about the potential consequences. After creating a stir in the ward, McMurphy seems to realize that the Big Nurse’s position of power allows her to do some serious harm to him. Bromden explains this to the reader and says, “They can understand as well as I can that the only way he’s (McMurphy’s) going to get the Big Nurse to lift his commitment is by acting like she wants.” (150) In the same way that the Big Nurse has the power to extend someone’s commitment, my manager at work has the power to fire people. Being fired from a restaurant may not be as serious as extended confinement in a mental hospital, but it is obviously something to consider, especially for those who are adults living off of the money they earn at my restaurant.

These similarities to the situation at my job have made me think more about our relationship with our manager. While I can’t say that One Flew Over the Cuckoos’ Nest will be the reason that I start arguing for change at my job, especially being the non confrontational person I am, I do think it is interesting to consider the potential outcomes of speaking up. The book also emphasizes for me just how little power those under the influence of an authoritative figure are. Like the patients in the ward, the degree to which some sort of real movement for change could succeed relies almost entirely on how far our manager would allow it to go. Just as the Big Nurse can send anyone to the Disturbed ward or extend someone’s commitment, our manager can fire as many people as she wants and still find replacements in the high turnover restaurant industry. The similarities between the situation at my restaurant and the ward in One Flew Over the Cukoos’ Nest have given me a new perspective on challenging authority in that sort of environment.

Trapped

In Part 1, page 7, Bromden reveals a flashback to the readers about a memory when his father (“Papa”) and he went hunting for birds. He then describes the movement of the prey they’re hunting for, “The bird [is] safe as long as he keeps still… Then the bird breaks, feathers springing, jumps out of the cedar into the birdshot from my Papa’s gun.)” In the end, the bird dies. In my drawing, I drew exactly what happened to that bird. But the only difference is that this bird is still alive; Bromden is the bird, and the one who shot him is the Big Nurse. I relate Bromden to the bird, because he said it himself, “The least black boy and one of the bigger ones catch me before I get ten steps out of the mop closet, and drag me back to the shaving room. I don’t fight or make any noise.” He did what a prey could’ve done in that situation. I relate to the individual who shot the bird, originally Papa, as the Big Nurse. In Part 1, page 25, Bromden states what he calls the “huge organization that aims to adjust the Outside,” as the “Combine”. So when it came to the “Inside” of the hospital and who was in charge, Bromden brought up how he thinks she’s “Working alongside others like her who I call the “Combine,”… to adjust the Outside as well as she has the Inside.” She is the only one who has the power to shoot Bromden and the others in the hospital.

I specifically drew the bird in a glass case display, because there is a moment where Bromden grows as a character, finally opening his eyes to his surroundings and others. He says, “For the first time in years I was seeing people with none of that black outline they used to have, and one night I was even able to see out the windows.” The bird is drawn to be looking in the distance like how Bromden did that one night. Not only did I draw to try and convey the way Bromden realized this eye-opening experience she has never felt, but to show how small the space he’s been in for the past years of his life. This man has been living in a confined space for most of his life, trapped in a building he can wander in for only so long. For the stylistic part of my drawing, I tried to give it a look of realism, yet smudgy. A combination of the drawing of Cheswick on page 12, the streakyness yet realism of it. And on page 46 of Pete, the charcoal look of that utilizes the smudgeness of it. The reasoning behind the lack of color within my drawing is not only to mimic the little color in materials Bromden had to create these drawings of the people in the hospital. But also to show the pain that Bromden had to go through, specifically for therapy (ECT), “I’ve heard that the Chief, years ago, received more than two hundred shock treatments when they were really the vogue.” (page 62).

Lit Log #1 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I have never liked being in highly controlled environments. When I was younger I went to this Christian school and I was constantly getting into trouble, I hated the uniforms, restrictive rules, and the physical abuse. While reading about the ward I was always thinking about the connection with that school. Although I was there for a short two years it was something that I remember vividly. The principal reminds me a lot of Nurse Ratched, she would have favorites and she would use physical forms of discipline when someone did something she didn’t like.

I have always been able to push back against systems I think are restrictive towards me. Not only at school but in the real world as well and as McMurphy helped me realize that the ward is an oppressive system I have made the similarities with what I’ve recently done. It has been a long time since I’ve spoken about systemically oppressive systems but I have found a voice speaking for the people of Palestine. In 2020 when the Black Lives Matter movement was in full effect my mother told me I wasn’t allowed to speak up because it was too dangerous. Recently, I went to a sit-in at UPenn to advocate for the people of Palestine although my activism may have been interpreted differently in the same way as how Bromden first saw McMurphy. As we, as a class looked deeper into McMurphy as a character I realized that I also have the same views and reactions when it comes to being dictated to. Like McMurphy, I also have a tendency to try and get people on board to do what’s right. The system that is happening in the book is oppressive and I think that’s why McMurphy is determined to make the other patients see that because as we discussed in class, people can be comfortable and complicit in their own oppression.

At first, I found McMurphy’s fallback suspicious because he was adamant about taking down Nure Ratched but I realize he’s trying to play the game of the ward. In class, we talked about the difference between influence and manipulation and now I think that McMurphy is trying to influence the other patients to break free from the oppressive systems Nurse Ratched has implemented on the ward. When McMurphy and Harding talk about Nurse Ratched, we can clearly see that in the beginning there’s a disagreement about her character McMurphy calls her a bitch and Harding refers to her as an angel. The way that Bromden describes the ward and Nure Ratched he talks about how the fate of the patients is solely up to her and the other doctors no matter how good or bad the outcome might be for the patients. When McMurphy stops trying to get a rise out of Ratched he establishes that he has to manipulate the system to his advantage in order to escape. McMurphy is strong about his feelings toward Nurse Ratched he doesn’t feel like he’s insane like the ward claims he is.

Lit Log #3 - Inside & Out For Bromden [Q2]

Screenshot 2023-12-03 at 6.58.25 PM
Screenshot 2023-12-03 at 6.58.25 PM

In the cuckoo’s nest, the mentioning of war and the implications it had on certain men intrigued my interest. For a man to come out of a war and be deemed “ok” as moments prompt us of the time period the book is set in. So the representation of fog makes for an abundance of visual material to work with as there is so much to be said about the fog. It could be the state of his mind being full from the pills & drugs. But I see so much that could be created from this scene as there is a calming bliss to it in my opinion. So the research I did on fog told me that fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air. ”Which I decided to go with a faded or not so drawn representation of the background because in his “fogged state of mind” everything he knows is suspended. But the things he sees in the fog as he tries getting past the pill’s effects makes for him to only end up in more fog which is why I put the machinery and control panels Bromden has seen through his times in the war and the ward which produce the combination in the art piece. We see as he doesn’t feel strong as he drifts in the fog that the ward has placed in the vents as the staff makes for reality to be shifted. Even as he wants to be above everything, he’s not there yet. That’s why I added his mind falling in the fog because of the ward’s readiness for him. “The numbers Murphy, THE NUMBERS ” this was something I acknowledged very early in the book as his involvement in the military was major. His mind is still there like it’s a switch, you can go there and be in the fog or be in reality as if you’re still lost in the world. So I added the split of activity in his brain, one side being in World war 2 still and then there is the careless nothingness of the ward. Two different worlds but they seem so far apart as there is no stopping his mind from wandering. More precisely as he’s stuck in the tradition of receiving the medicine and being gone he’s still the key to change. I included change in the visual piece because Mcmurphy is the one thing throwing the course of normalcy off as everything changed when he did. But Bromden picks this observation up as he doesn’t know what the staff may do with him and that’s why I included a blurry aspect that differs from the fog because you can see through fog, but you can’t see if your vision is just blurry.

The sounds of hysteria come full fledged that open up to an unknown kind of tension as everything isn’t meant to be ok. As the quote mentions this moment reading, “ The trouble was I’d been finding myself because I got scared of being lost for so long and went hollering so they could track me.” The combine has made him morph even as must get out. He looks at the option of fooling around, he looks to welcome the trouble bound to him. But things you try to figure out you can’t because you’re back to where you originated which is the fog. All that Bromden wants is to wake up fine but even as he doesn’t know how he survives he still doesn’t get to rock bottom even as he takes over his mind.

McMurphy's Strength - lit log #1

Josie Barsky
Lit Log #1 McMurphy’s Strength

The Chronics won’t let me get my way. I know I have my power over all these Acutes, they’ll follow me in a second, but the Chronics? They must have something against me, listening to Miss Rat-Shed way too long they don’t know any other way. That nurse has gotten us locked down like we are in a real prison and these idiots won’t do anything about it. If I want to survive here I need to change something, starting with this TV rule. I bring it up during the group meeting. We need to switch the time so I can watch the World Series, I haven’t missed one in years. Scanlon blabbering about how switching the TV time will mess with his schedule and that the doctor is agreeing with him. He won’t change a thing unless Rat-Shed gives him her approval. Doesn’t anyone see my point? Why do we only have to listen to her? Why don’t they want to watch the games? All of them disgust me. A little change doesn’t hurt and these idiots haven’t been sticking up for themselves the whole time they’ve been here. Why does it take me to come in for some real fun to happen around here? I don’t know how these guys survived without me. Now they are all lying around the day room pointlessly, I need them to start listening to me. Maybe if I show them my strength they’ll be so scared they’re gonna have to. I’m an intimidating guy, I know Miss Rat-Shed is scared of me and the rest of them should be too. I bring it up and Harding won’t keep his mouth shut talking about “A baseball game isn’t worth the risk”(107) and the only one I can get to listen to me is Cheswick. That dummy, he will listen to anything I say. Then Fredrickson opens his big mouth saying, “…are you going to kick down that door and show us how tough you are?”(107) And I think that is exactly what I will do. Maybe not the door, seems too hard and I can’t embarrass myself in front of these weak old Chronics and Acutes. I could probably lift the table or maybe a bed. Not too heavy. Harding then brings up the control panel and I tell him, “Hell are you birds telling me I can’t lift that dinky little gizmo?”(109) Everyone looks over, including Old Chief Bromden who doesn’t have a clue what’s about to happen. I examine the dials and levers, it’s a big old cement block, but it’s nothing I’m not used to. I used to lift hay bales for a living, this thing doesn’t have a shot against me. I jump off the table, take off my shirt, and start hyping myself up. I can do this, I can lift it no problem. These guys don’t know my strength. I tell them, “…who’s willing to lay five bucks? Nobody’s going to convince me I can’t do something till I try it…”(109) I walk near the control panel and tell everyone to take a step back. Hardings still talking, calling me a fool. I’m so angry it’s like I’m taking all the air out of the room. I shift my feet, put my hands under the cement, and start lifting. It’s heavier than I thought, but I can’t let them know that. I might be turning red, it’s like my veins are about to pop out of my arms and like my hands are gonna fall off. I was lying, I can’t do this, I know it. If I keep trying my hands will fall off and no one will ever listen to me again. I used all my strength, I showed them my strength, who cares I couldn’t lift it. I turn to them all and say, “But I tried though… God damn it, I sure as hell did that much, now, didn’t I?” I’m not embarrassed. How could I be?

stylistic choices: Writing from McMurphy’s point of view I wanted his arrogance to show. Throughout the ward, he believes he is the top dog and above everyone, including Miss Ratched who he refers to as Rat-Shed. In this particular scene, McMurphy’s arrogance comes through. He almost rips off his hands trying to show everyone how strong he is so that way they’ll vote to change the T.V. time. Like McMurphy’s character, I wanted to start off the passage calmer, as he is in the beginning. He’s never thoughtful but he tends to blow up as situations evolve. I wanted to show the evolution of his character moving from verbal conversations to him then becoming physical and a bit scary.

Lit Log #1 - Maya Phan

Throughout the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest our narrator is a guy named Chief Bromden. Though we do not know why he is there and what might have happened, we know that he feels a certain way about the people there in the ward with him. When Mr.McMurphy gets committed to the ward the power dynamic between the Nurses, Chronics, and Acutes shifts. McMurphy often is known to have started arguing back and forth with the nurses, especially Big Nurse. He is really one of the only people who have begun protesting what Big Nurse has said. When Bromden and most of the other patients are really scared of Big Nurse and what she can do to them. She has great power over all of that but McMurphy does not seem to be afraid of this.

The way that McMurphy has protested is something that I have been trying to understand throughout this entire book. He doesn’t get nervous like Bromden or Billy Bibbit, he instead faces the problem he wants solved head first. When McMurphy knew the World Series was coming on TV he knew that he needed to be able to watch it in the ward. A number of people told him that it wasn’t worth the risk, “It’s still a risk, my friend. She always has the capacity to make things worse for us. A baseball game isn’t worth the risk.” (107) McMurphy completely disregarded this comment and went on asking people to vote with him, but he made it seem like they were getting something out of this as well when it was something he wanted himself really badly. When the vote came to a close it was 20-20 which meant that he wouldn’t get the World Series on the TV. But what no one told him was that the chronics were involved in this vote and they were the 20 who couldn’t vote yes so they would vote no. This made Mcmurphy extremely mad at Big Nurse and anyone else in charge. When the vote closed Bromden raised his hand, discrediting him being deaf and voted yes. Which changed how people now see Bromden. In that moment I’m not sure whether he cared about what he was doing or knew what he was doing. I just knew that it was something that would completely change how McMurphy see’s Bromden. McMurphy was so happy but Big Nurse kept saying the vote was closed when the meeting ended, which made Mcmurphy extremely mad again.

To me, as a reader and personally, I do not understand how McMurphy has the guts to keep standing up and pushing for what he wants against authority when no one else can or wants to. Like Bromden, I would be scared of Big Nurse as well, “Watching him sitting there frowning all to himself, I remembered what the Big Nurse had said in the meeting, and I began to feel afraid.” (148) I understand where Bromden is coming from. Knowing that both of these people are manipulators is something to keep in mind, something that will stay in your mind forever. Something that will alter the way you think about all authority figures in your life. When I look at the people of authority in my life I notice how scared I am to talk to certain people of power. Teachers, mentors, bosses, and even friends’ parents. In my life I have never really been able to stand up for myself the way McMurphy can. I usually just choose to deal with whatever I’m going through alone or with my friends, which is fine because I usually come out of anything with a better understanding of myself or I come out stronger than I was before. I think there are certain benefits and disadvantages to being like McMurphy when standing up for what you believe in and what you want.

I’ve never really been the one to go against what someone says or wants. I usually follow the rules to a T. When I was younger I always did what everyone told me to do. Which can be good but then sometimes can’t be good at all. Whenever I would do my homework when younger I would always tell my mom how I would have to follow exactly what the teacher told me or else I would get in trouble. Now knowing I can use my own strategies is something helpful. Knowing what’s best for you is something I think is so important to growing as a person. I think understanding a character as important as McMurphy is crucial. Understanding why he wants what he wants and will do anything to get what he wants. I think first finding out why he is committed there and if he acts like this normally in life. Being a true leader for people in the real world is what I mean. The way he gets everyone to follow him and listen to him. McMurphy has yet to be afraid or step back from addressing authority but rather run towards it. I think that is something that I am still figuring out how to do till now. Knowing how to ask for what I want and stand up for what I believe in.