Why is McMurphy so important in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Part One Summary & Analysis. McMurphy is learning the ropes of the hospital from Harding. McMurphy fascinates Bromden because he treats all of the patients like real men, and he does so with a laugh—which shows that he is still free and not under the control of the institution.
What happened to McMurphy after he was lobotomized?
That night, Bromden suffocates McMurphy with a pillow and remarks that he looks the same in death as he did after the lobotomy. McMurphy was lobotomized, and the men can’t recognize him because this isn’t McMurphy— this is the shell of a person.
Does McMurphy ever lose control in the hospital?
McMurphy does lose control once at the other patients for acting “too chicken-shit,” when none of them would stand up for an amendment to allow them to watch the World Series on television (something for which McMurphy had been taking bets).
What inspired McMurphy to escape from Nurse Ratched?
The men are inspired by McMurphy's bravery, but after Cheswick commits suicide because McMurphy doesn't support him in standing up to Nurse Ratched, McMurphy sees that escape is his best option. He does eventually manage to escape from Nurse Ratched's clutches, but not in the way he imagines.
What treatment was McMurphy given at the end?
What is McMurphy's punishment for attacking Ratched? He is given a lobotomy and becomes a vegetable.
What does Chief do to McMurphy at the end?
At the film's end, Chief finds McMurphy in bed in the middle of the night, and he attempts to talk. Chief finds that McMurphy has been lobotomized. Chief smothers him with a pillow, and then finally rips that hydrotherapy fountain out of the floor and throws it through the window.
How is McMurphy impacted by the shock treatment?
McMurphy approaches shock therapy like a martyr, and acts unafraid because he cannot allow himself to be afraid because of his leadership position with the men. If he breaks, they break, and he knows it.
How many times does McMurphy get electroshock therapy?
McMurphy gets three more shock treatments that week.
Did McMurphy get lobotomy?
McMurphy is given a lobotomy for his attack on Nurse Ratched. When he is returned to the ward after the operation, he is a vegetable. That same night, Bromden suffocates McMurphy with a pillow.
Why does McMurphy get electroshock therapy?
McMurphy apologizes to Chief for getting him involved in the fight as the two are led to electroshock therapy. Alluding to his stay in a Chinese prison camp in the Korean War, McMurphy refuses to cooperate with Ratched to prevent the electroshock.
How does McMurphy respond to the EST treatments?
Nurse Ratched tells McMurphy that he can avoid electroshock therapy by admitting he was wrong. He refuses, telling her “those Chinese Commies could have learned a few things from you, lady.” He and Bromden are sent for the treatment, but McMurphy does not seem afraid at all.
How does McMurphy change throughout the novel?
McMurphy's trajectory through the novel is the opposite of Bromden's: he starts out sane and powerful but ends up a helpless vegetable, having sacrificed himself for the benefit of all the patients.
How does McMurphy defy Nurse Ratched at the end of the novel?
McMurphy manages to expose Nurse Ratched as a sexual being when he tore off her clothes. The other inmates then failed to recognise her power personified and see her for the sexual, flawed being that she is.
What is Nurse Ratched's one weakness?
When McMurphy attacks her and tears her shirt open in front of the men, he reveals her weakness—she's a woman after all. Big breasts don't lie.
What is McMurphy diagnosed with?
Each film takes up specific gendered mental illnesses – Susanna is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, seven times more likely in women than men, and McMurphy with Anti-Social Personality Disorder, three times more likely in men than women.
Why is George refusing to take a shower?
While they're in the shower, the black aides attack George, trying to get him to put on salve. George refuses, because of his neatness obsession and pathological fear of germs. McMurphy steps in to defend him, and he gets in a fight with the aides.
When did One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest come out?
By Xandra Harbet / Sept. 18, 2020 10:21 am EDT / Updated: Sept. 18, 2020 11:26 am EDT. In the decades since One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest debuted in 1975, it's become widely accepted as one of the greatest movies of all time. Also one of the most well-regarded book-to-film adaptations in cinematic history, the screenplay honors Ken Kesey's ...
Who invented the leucotomy?
alone either dead or virtually comatose, with very few "successes.'" Egas Moniz held that honor in 1949 when he modified earlier attempts at brain alteration procedures to create the leucotomy. One year later, Walter Freeman took the surgery to the States, renaming it the "lobotomy" and using what was essentially an ice pick to go through the eye instead of drilling through the head. While it looked a lot less messy, the results were the same. Often touted as a "miracle cure," the horrific procedure forced on McMurphy at the end of the film was supposed to help patients control their emotions. Spoiler alert: It mostly took them away entirely.
What does Chief do after a goodbye hug?
After a goodbye hug, Chief makes the choice he believes McMurphy would make for himself by suffocating him with a pillow. The scene is hard to watch, as Mac's body involuntarily fights back. But Chief succeeds, and he finally feels like he's done all he can do on the ward, later escaping Ratched's reach.
What is the significance of Ratched's victory in the ward?
Ratched's victory in the ward highlights the stigma that surrounds mental health patients. A larger problem in the mental health industry, even today, is the failure to listen to and respect psychiatric patients, who deserve to have a say in their care.
What would Chief do without the con man?
Without the con man giving him the confidence to talk and break free from the ward's toxic environment , Chief would still be silently sweeping the hospital floors at the movie's close. Chief knows that someone like McMurphy — who is so full of life — would never want to live after being lobotomized.
What does Mac's existence in the ward represent?
Mac's entire existence in the ward represents freedom and self-empowerment. While his presence in the film version of the story doesn't have the long-term impact on most patients than he would have liked, his refusal to give up and his quest for freedom fuels the plot.
What is Billy's punishment?
In Billy's case, his punishment is death when he loses his virginity to Candy. This is an outdated TV and film trope that is especially prevalent during periods when society frowns hardest upon expressions of sexuality.
What happened to McMurphy and Bromden?
McMurphy loses his temper and gets into a fistfight with the aides, and Bromden joins in on the fight. At the fight’s end, all of the patients are congratulating McMurphy on a good fight, but Nurse Ratched has both McMurphy and Bromden sent to Disturbed.
What does McMurphy do to George Sorenson?
McMurphy finally snaps at the inhumane treatment of George Sorenson and starts a fight with the aides. McMurphy's action dismisses any of Bromden's concerns about being deceived, because McMurphy wouldn’t step in for George if he didn’t really care about the men.
Why does McMurphy compare her to the Communists?
He compares her to the Communists in China because she is so inhumane, but also because he knows she was an army nurse and that it will anger her. McMurphy approaches shock therapy like a martyr, and acts unafraid because he cannot allow himself to be afraid because of his leadership position with the men.
Why can't Billy Bibbit leave Candy Starr?
McMurphy responds, though, that tonight is the night of Billy Bibbit’s date with Candy Starr and he can’t leave yet because it would disappoint Billy. In a group meeting that day, Nurse Ratched suggests that McMurphy consider an operation, saying that there’s “no cutting” involved.
What does Nurse Ratched mean by "a cautionary cleansing"?
Nurse Ratched ensures that everyone who went on the fishing trip has to get a mandatory shower, “a cautionary cleansing” in light of the company they’d kept, and in hopes nothing would spread throughout the hospital. George Sorenson has a phobia of cleanliness and he begs them not to spray him with their putrid salve.
Why did Billy and Candy go to the Seclusion Room?
Sefelt takes his medicine at the party, something he previously refused to do, because he feels a new kind of freedom where he knows that he can live in the outside world, experience these seizures, and use the medicine to his benefit.
Who attacked Nurse Ratched?
In the week after McMurphy attacked Nurse Ratched, while Ratched is on medical leave, Sefelt and Fredrickson signed out of the hospital Against Medical Advice, and then three more Acutes left while six transferred to a different ward. Dr. Spivey is asked to resign but refuses.
What does Cheswick complain about?
When Cheswick begins to complain about the cigarettes at one of the Group Therapy sessions, McMurphy does not join the argument. Cheswick becomes so upset by this that he is removed and taken to the Disturbed Ward. When he returns, he seems to still resent McMurphy's refusal to join him in the cigarette fracas. Cheswick remarks on McMurphy's betrayal, and then he dives into the pool and commits suicide. Cheswick's suicide demonstrates to McMurphy that the stakes in this game are higher than he had imagined. As the following Group Therapy session ends, McMurphy decides to antagonize Nurse Ratched further.
Who is the ward's silent sentinel in the movie?
In fact, it's McMurphy's laugh that first captures the attention of Chief Bromden, the ward's silent sentinel and narrator of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.
Does Chief Bromden escape Nurse Ratched?
He does eventually manage to escape from Nurse Ratched's clutches, but not in the way he imagines. After he is given a lobotomy, Chief Bromden smothers him so that he can be free from the cruel nurse. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Create your account.
Does McMurphy want Nurse Ratched?
McMurphy eventually realizes that the men view him as some kind of savior, a position McMurphy does not want. McMurphy is also intelligent enough to know that he cannot win this game with Nurse Ratched. He decides to abandon the rebellion and escape from the ward.
Does Nurse Ratched keep McMurphy on the Disturbed Ward?
Nurse Ratched has kept McMurphy on the Disturbed ward and treated him with electric shock therapy in hopes of diminishing him, but to her dismay, and as explained here by Bromden, McMurphy only grows into more of a legend for the men on the ward. In his absence, his stature continues to increase in size and strength.
Does Bromden recognize McMurphy?
Devoid of his essence and lacking his lively, irreverent personality, Bromden and his friends can hardly recognize McMurphy. The McMurphy they once knew vanished even if Nurse Ratched has left him in the ward as a cautionary tale. Previous section Chief Bromden Next section Nurse Ratched.
Who is given a bed next to Bromden?
McMurphy is given a bed next to Bromden, and as they are preparing for sleep he talks to Bromden. Bromden doesn’t take his nightly medication for the first time in years. McMurphy says that one of the aides is coming and Bromden better get into bed. Geever comes in and ties Bromden down to the bed with a sheet.
What does Bromden think when she notices the aides gossiping in the hallway from the nurse's
Bromden thinks that when she notices the aides gossiping in the hallway from the nurse’s station she’ll rip them to pieces. She doesn’t hold back, Bromden says she “blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside,” because no one pays any mind to deaf and dumb Bromden.
What is the theme of Nurse Ratched?
Active Themes. Nurse Ratched is calling for McMurphy (initially as McMurphy, her error) about his refusal to follow protocol. She discusses him with a nurse in the station, and compares him to a former patient, Maxwell Taber, who she says was a manipulator (which is how she sees McMurphy).
Why does Spivey say the music problem will work fine?
Spivey says this will work fine because the Chronics don’t require much supervision.
What is the purpose of the psych ward?
It’s purpose is to correct the mistakes that the neighborhoods, schools, and churches made so that the person, the “product,” can go back into society “better than new.”.
Where does Chief Bromden wake up?
Analysis. The book begins with the narrator, Chief Bromden, waking up early within the psychiatric ward in Oregon where he has spent the past ten years of his life. He tries to be quiet as he passes the aides who he believes have been committing illicit sexual activities in the night, but they sense him and because he pretends to be deaf and dumb, ...
Does McMurphy refuse the aides?
McMurphy continues to refuse the aides who want to administer the admission protocol shower, rectal thermometer, and injection. McMurphy goes around the room and shakes all of the Chronics’ hands, to everyone’s surprise. Bromden is the last one, and he feels that McMurphy can tell he’s not deaf and dumb.