Second World Series Vote In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The second World Series vote and the fishing trip both demonstrate how people need leaders to lead them while the latter shows how the men can succeed because of their independent choices without Randle Paul McMurphy’s intervention. In the middle of Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, McMurphy is single-handedly responsible for the successful World Series vote. With the ward still largely under Nurse Ratched’s influence, the acutes not named McMurphy and Cheswick were reluctant to do or say anything that Nurse Ratched would not support. After an unsuccessful first vote to adjust the daily schedule to allow them all to view sports’ most popular event at the time, McMurphy convinces the acutes before the second vote that together

When the patients were talking after the first vote and before the second World Series vote, McMurphy asked why none of the acutes other than Cheswick ended up voting for something they clearly wanted. After learning that the others are terrified of what might happen if they defy Nurse Ratched, McMurphy tells the acutes that if they all vote together for what they want to see, they can win with what he expected to be a unanimous vote of 20/20. Through his reasoning, he convinces the acutes to follow his lead and vote for change in the next meeting, and they do. On the fishing trip, McMurphy leads them out from the ward to the trip, leads them at the gas station, and once more leads them out to the sea. When leading the group out to the sea, he tells the group to hop in the boat and depart immediately so that they may not be stopped for not having proper clearance. Again, he uses smart thinking to lead the group. In both scenes, McMurphy helps the acutes and Chief Bromden come further out of the sphere of Nurse Ratched’s influence and become more self-reliant. In the voting scene, this is the first time that together all of the acutes defy Nurse Ratched. After winning the vote and realizing the power of many together, they are pulled closer to McMurphy’s ways and further away from the Nurse’s ways of making them more like rabbits. When out fishing, there are many scenes depicting joy and laughter, which would have never happened in Nurse Ratched’s ideal world. For example, when George fails to pay attention to where they are going and crashes the boat into a log, the whole group just laughs. The trip makes them into more “normal” human beings, as when they return to shore Dr. Spivey steps up and defends the group