ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
BY KEN KESEY
Synopsis
Patrick Randal McMurphy, a criminal who was sentence to prison for a very short time decides to be declared insane so he is then transferred to a mental institution. During his stay at this ward he builds some friendships with Billy Bobbit a man who ends up commiting suicide and Chief Bromden a 6’5 man who pretends to be “deaf and dumb” but is really not. Every morning the patients meds are passed out and all the patients and Nurse Ratched have a talk over each and every ones problems and how everyone else feels about it. One morning a conseling session erupted when Joe Chadwick brought up the topic of how Mrs. Ratched’s cigarette rationing. A fight breaks out and Chadwick, McMurphy, and Chief are sent to a detention area. While McMurphy and Chief were waiting on the bench McMurphy gives chief a piece of gum and Chief verbally says thanks. McMurphy is in shocked and realized Chief has been faking the whole time. McMurphy eventually gets fed up of Nurse Ratched so he sneaks into the nurse’s station and calls his girlfriend and tells her to bring booze and help with his escape. In the morning all the men are hung over and when Ratched comes in angry and notices a man named Billy missing then finds him in a room with McMurphy’s girlfriend Candy. After she finds out who allowed him to do this he is taken into a room and left in there for an instant and during that time he committed suicide. When McMurphy finds out what happened he strangled Nurse Ratched and then he his knocked unconscious. McMurphy had been lobotomized, when Chief Bromden finds him he suffocates him with a pillow and throws a hydrotherapy fountain through the window to escape to Canada.
Authors Purpose Quotes
- " You think I wuh-wuh-wuh-want to stay here? You think I wouldn't like con-con-virtable and a guh-guh-girl friend? But did you ever have people l-l-laughing? No, because you're so b-big and so tough. Well, I'm not big and tough." pg
SOME MAIN CHARACTERS
Chief Bromden
Nurse Ratched
Randle Patrick McMurphy
Authors Purpose
MORE QUOTES
-"The Big Nurse recognizes the fear and knows how to put it to use; she'll point out an acute, whenever he goes into sulk, that you boys be good boys and cooperate with the staff policy which is engineered for your cure, or you'll end up over on that side" page 18