In addition to setting, McMurphy did what wanted, when he wanted, always being loud and disruptive (“One Flew Over The Cukoo’s Nest” 3). He admits himself into the ward only to get out of working on the work farm. Because McMurphy is not actually insane, he’s not fond of the rules of that are set in place on a daily basis; He doesn’t follow the “god damned policy” (Kesey 89). By acting the way he does, he gets under the skin of the Big Nurse, who is in charge of keeping a set routine Acutes and Chronics, such as “Six-forty-five the shavers buzz and the Acutes line up in alphabetical order at the mirrors, A, B, C, D….” (Kesey 26).
To society, he is a broken piece of machinery that is to be discarded as if it were trash. McMurphy, like a mechanic, is able to “fix” Bromden. The words that Bromden speaks fit perfectly into McMurphy’s brain. As another
Mr. Caulfield walked in like he did not have any idea what was going on. He was tired looking, as if he hasn’t gotten sleep in 72 hours. But, he was aware about where he was. When he was admitted, Mr. Caulfield was abandoned by both his parents and his little sister. The patient started to call everyone a “phony” or called everything “lousy”.
Everyone in the hospital believes that he is deaf and dumb. When McMurphy begins to pull him out of the fog, he realizes the source of his charade: “it wasn’t me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all.” As Bromden himself is demystified, so too is the truth behind what has oppressed him and hindered his
As Bromden grew as person, McMurphy has now been stripped of his rights as a person, which is evident by Bromden’s actions. Ken Kesey
His scars also inform us, you guessed it, that McMurphy is different from the other patients in the ward in a sense that the damages of life have toughened him up as opposed to other the patients who are very weak minded and subservient. This is shown to us throughout the book by the fact that McMurphy is the one who opposes Nurse Ratched's tyrannical rule while the other patients just follow his
Once McMurphy helped him realize that, he became a new, confident, man. Bromden no longer had to hide because he thought he was insignificant. He could now be anyone
In response, McMurphy strangles her, however, she sends him away and he received a lobotomy. While McMurphy is on a different ward, the men stand up for themselves and some even find the courage to sign out of the hospital. McMurphy’s lobotomy is equivalent to Jesus’s crucifixion because afterwards McMurphy is presented as a martyr. This shows that McMurphy choose to rebel, which proves that he chose to sacrifice
This madness in Mcmurphy gives the men hope throughout the novel. The irrational behavior can be judge as reasonable in many cases. Mcmurphy is a big, loud and confident man. He’s different from many other patients in the ward. When he first entered the ward he was laughing and telling jokes.
In the novel, McMurphy attacks the nurse brutally and attempts to kill her, “doctors and supervisors and nurses prying those heavy red fingers out of the white flesh of her throat as if they were her neck bones, jerking him backward” (Kesey 319). Also, the narrator shows mercy towards McMurphy by smothering him in his sleep, “and scissor the kicking legs with mine while I mashed the pillow into the face. I lay there on top of the body for what seemed days. Until the thrashing stopped” (323).
Freeman was running into the end of the road for his procedures, so he researched and found a new treatment for mental issues. Freeman cut the nerves between the frontal lobes to the thalamus. A few months after the first lobotomies, the patients relapsed. The patients experienced many side effects from the lobotomies.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, considers the qualities in which society determines sanity. The label of insanity is given when someone is different from the perceived norm. Conversely, a person is perceived as sane when their behavior is consistent with the beliefs of the majority. Although the characters of this novel are patients of a mental institution, they all show qualities of sanity. The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb.
His rebellious and free mind makes the patients open their eyes and see how the have been suppressed. His appearance is a breath of fresh air and a look into the outside world for the patients. This clearly weakens Nurse Ratched’s powers, and she sees him as a large threat. One way or another, McMurphy tends to instigate changes of scenery. He manages to move everyone away from her music and watchful eye into the old tube room.
Another point to note was that McMurphy seems abnormal among the patients. Especially with his laugh, I kept thinking that he might be mentally ill and not fake it (Kesey). But if you just imagine his behavior outside of the asylum, then it seems normal. This phenomenon is well known in psychology. It says that person once convicted of mental illness have an uphill battle to prove that he is not.
During the twentieth- century, lobotomy became a popular procedure performed on patients with neurosis such as schizophrenia, bi-polar mood disorder, personality disorder, etc. Many scientists, especially at the time, argued that poking holes through parts of the brain and swishing parts around helps make patients more calm and cooperative. I predict that lobotomy had no benefits for the patient but rather in a dissociative state to appear calm. By understanding the history of lobotomy, patients' experience and stories, and alternatives we can grasp a better view in how lobotomy was unethical and ineffective. Lobotomy has evolved from various techniques, patients, countries, and psychosurgeons.
