"What do you think you are, for Chrisssake, Crazy or somethin'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around the streets and that's it."
1. This story takes place in a mental hospital in the Pacific Northwest in the 1950's. One of the main characters, Chief Bromden, is also the narrator of the entire book. The story starts with an introduction to a few characters such as the "black boys", they work with the Antagonist, Nurse Ratched, by taking any given opportunity to torture the hospitals patients. Chief Bromden describes how both the Chronic and Acute patients stay their separate ways due to the fact that most of the acute patients fear of one day becoming chronic patients. The story then breaks into the introduction of the protagonist, R.P. McMurphy, a violent, "gambling fool" who has full intention on taking over the mental ward. It is clear from the beginning that he will be creating a lot of ruckus later on in the story. Nurse Ratched exclaims that McMurphy is an manipulator, it soon become apparent of her fear of losing the wards pristine structure. The story continues with a constant battle between Ratched and McMurphy, they clash consistently until McMurphy realizes that the nurse is the key to his freedom. He becomes less aggressive and plays the passive role in hopes for his freedom. After his new passive lifestyle leads to the death of a patient, McMurphy begins to question his sanity and strength. He devises a plan to help Billy, a fellow patient lose his virginity to a prostitute and escape without the help of Ratched. Billy loses his virginity successfully but McMurphy fails to escape after becoming to wasted to carry out his plan. Nurse Ratched finds Billy in bed with the prostitute and loses her temper. This results in yet another patients suicide. McMurphy becomes enraged and confronts Ratched for her outburst. He attempts to murder her by ripping her dress open and trying to strangle her, but he is knocked unconscious before successfully murdering her.Miss Ratched chooses to have McMurphy lobotomized and he becomes a chronic vegetable. A majority of the patients are soon transferred out of the mental ward due to the hospitals unstable state. When McMurphy returns, Chief Bromden suffocates him so that McMurphy can die with dignity, he then breaks a window with the shower room control panel and escapes.
2. I think the theme has something to do with standing tall as an individual and staying true to you are. The character McMurphy battles himself a lot in this story. He has to decide whether to himself and stay where he's at or to become someone he's not for his freedom. During that battle between himself, he loses two friends on both ends. By being himself, he lost a friend out of poor choices and by being someone he was not, he lost a friend out by "following the rules." Mcmurphy was driven into insanity and rage which was his downfall in the end. Not only did he lose himself completely, he lost the ability to change himself. It make's me wonder if things would have changed if he never bothered changing. It's good to stay true to ourselves but is who we are always who we should be?
3. Kesey's tone is somewhat difficult to determine considering it was told in Bromdens voice. It appeared to be sympathetic. He seemed to care a lot about the patients and felt pity on them for the brutalities they had to endure before being switched out of the ward. The staff was royalty and their patients were dirt underneath their feet. When McMurphy was lobotomized, Kesey decided to have him killed instead of letting him suffer. I feel like this shows compassion on Keseys part.
4. Diction: "I guess it would b-b-be you. You're the p-president of Pay-Pay-Patient's Council. This m-man wants to talk to you."
Setting: Corrupt Mental Hospital
Flashback: When the black boys we're trying to shave Chief, he hides and ha a flashback of back when he was with his dad at the banks of the Columbia River.
Assumption: Many of the patients and workers assume Chief is unintelligent because he doesn't speak.
Conflict: The entire novel was based on the conflict between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched.
Foil: In a sense, McMurphy made Chief appear as a better man, and in the end, he completely turned him into a more confident man.
Implication: (can't find the exact quote) In the first or second chapter, Nurse Ratched covers up her chest implying that she is insecure about her sexuality.
Point of View: This story is told in Chief's (story character) first point of view.
Speaker: The speaker is Chief, I feel like Kesey did this so that the story had a better effect on the readers compared to if the story had been in Keseys voice.
Exposition: The beginning of the novel was very descriptive on each character, this made the novel easy to understand.
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1. Direct: "What the chronics are- or most of us -are machines with flaws inside that can't be repaired, flaws born in, or flaws beat in over so many years..."
The chronic patients were born mental, or made to believe that they are mental to the point beyond repair. Kesey is saying that there is no way these patients could go about living day to day life.
"...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 like a dirty diaper."
The acute patients try to avoid the chronic patients due to their fear of becoming one of them, they even go as far as to making excuses on why they don't talk to the chronic patients.
Indirect:
2. Keseys Syntax and Diction change depending on the character whose voice he is speaking in, an example would be Billy. He has a stutter so Kesey changes the diction of the novel when he speaks; "I guess it would b-b-be you. You're the p-president of Pay-Pay-Patient's Council. This m-man wants to talk to you."
3. McMurphy is somewhat static and dynamic. In the beginning of the book, it seems like McMurphy will never change who he is for anything or anybody, but once he becomes aware that good behavior can result in an early release from the mental ward, he becomes passive and appears to have changed, he soon lashes back into his normal self and becomes the aggressive McMurphy we all know and (kind of sort of) love. I suppose in the end, he's a pretty static character. His first change was staged and his second change was caused by a surgery. Chief on the other hand, appears to be very dynamic. He starts off quiet and kept to himself but gains confidence as the novel progresses. Once he gains full confidence in himself, he realizes his potential and forever leaves the asylum both confident and proud.
4. I somewhat felt like I met Chief. He reminds me of my old self. I liked to go unnoticed and hide under the radar. I used to always get marked absent in class because I was so quiet but over time, just like Chief, I met someone (well actually a few people.) who changed that side of me. I gained my confidence and stood taller than before and I broke out of my own mental asylum (but I occasionally seemed to get readmitted sometimes) and walked away a better person.
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