Part Two- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

In the beginning of part two it is mentioned that Nurse Ratched called a staff meeting. Chief is reluctant to clean the staff room because he is afraid that the nurse will know that he can hear. He believes that she will hurt him if she found out that he can hear. Then he realizes that he has to keep up to his usual behavior and rituals, because if he doesn’t it will show that he can hear and it would give his secret away. Back to the meeting, Chief walks in the room to see that things aren’t normal. The nurse didn’t touch her coffee and everyone was quiet.

Nurse Ratched had to be thinking about how she would go about talking about McMurphy in the meeting. She was unusually quiet during the beginning of the meeting. So the doctor started the meeting while the others added their opinion of what to do with McMurphy. I believe that Nurse Ratched just wanted to show everyone that she still was in control. McMurphy had knocked her down a few pegs by constantly disobeying her. So she decides to show her staff who is in charge. The residents suggest that McMurphy be sent to the Disturbed ward. All of the residents believe that they are suggesting exactly what the Nurse is thinking. The residents believe that McMurphy is a psychopath, and that he should be removed from their ward because he is dangerous. The disturbed ward is usually where Nurse Ratched sends any of the patients that she doesn’t want to deal with. One resident starts to smoke his pipe because the nurse is quiet, he thinks its ok. It all stops when Nurse Ratched starts talking and tells the resident that he is completely wrong. She tells him that sending McMurphy to the Disturbed ward would be just taking the easy way out, by giving someone else their problem. She also says that by sending McMurphy away they would be doing exactly what the patients would expect.

I chose to talk about Nurse Ratched because I believe that Nurse Ratched has a special interest in McMurphy, because Chief says she would ship a person off to the Disturbed ward for it being " a chance that they would spit on someone." There has to be something about McMurphy that the nurse likes. It may be the fact that he is the only one on the ward that has directly defied her and that she can make an example of him.

Part I- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

In part one Patrick McMurphy is admitted into the facility. He is obnoxious and very outspoken. This is a very different personality that everyone has to get used to. The rest of the patients are reserved and tend to keep quiet. McMurphy is a different story because he likes to make noise and fuss, and just stand out. One thing that stood out to me in this section was when Chief had his flashback to when Old Pete said more than " I’m tired..." This flashback was brought on by McMurphy’s odd silence during group meeting one afternoon. Chief’s memory was that Old Pete did his usual fussing about being tired. But this time he decided to elaborate on why he was tired. He claimed he was born dead. The story is that the doctor that helped in his delivery, pulled him out using dulled ice tongs. They left dents in his head and affected his mental capacity. So he can’t remember much, and has to concentrate really hard to do task that a 6th grader can perform. Old Pete was ranting about how tired he was of trying. This caught my attention because Old Pete was said to have been a Chronic his whole life. The book states that the Chronic’s tend to be the quiet ones that sit and watch. For Old Pete to stand up and say that he was tired, and explain his complaint, I believe that was a cry for help. A cry for help that he wasn’t receiving. He wanted to warn the other patients that they have chances that he didn’t have. He was born a miscarriage and got tired of the insults. I believe that moment was Petes break through. But because he’s so old he tired himself out, physically and mentally. One thing I found interesting was that Pete was able to punch one of the attendants into the wall. That shows you that you can’t underestimate the strength of those who may not have the same mental ability as you.
Pete’s outburst was to quiet the other patients down. Nurse Ratchet had asked if anyone had done anything that they haven’t admitted to anyone. She wanted to get a discussion going so there wasn't alot of silence on the ward. Her question got all the patients to talking at the same time. They were shouting out all of their wrongs, and Pete just wanted them to know that they had a choice to do what they had done. But he didn't, he was born that way. I felt bad for Pete while reading this section. For him to say that he was born dead, was a very strong statement. He said that he has been dead for fifty-five years. Pete wasn't able to do half of the things that mentally stable people are able to do and that is sad. It makes you grateful for the things that you are able to do without much effort and tiring yourself out. I believe this is the reason that Pete decided to share his experience with the rest of the patients. After he said what he had to say he was tired and could no longer try. Pete was tired of trying, tired of fighting his mind, so he stopped fighting.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- Part III

I would like to talk about McMurphy's effect on the Chief. The chief doesn't talk. He likes to give off a certain mysteriousness to others so they can't get into his head. I believe that he just doesn't have anyone that he feels can relate to him. But then McMurphy comes into the picture and makes him feel as though he should break out of his shell. He is kind of attracted to McMuprhy but he denies the sexual attraction. He talks to McMurphy about things his father did, he talks foolishness, but McMurphy listens. He becomes the Chiefs confidant. With McMurphy around Chief was more influenced to laugh and had more incidents where he almost gave his secret away to the others.
Chief had struggled with the decision of signing himself up for the fishing trip. But by talking to McMurphy he was able to get him to sign him up. He wanted to go, but he knew that if he signed the sheet everyone would know that he can hear. There would have been no other reason or way around him knowing about the trip. McMurphy tells Chief that he is big enough to have everyone who treats him bad to be afraid. The Chief says that he was forced into silence because people wouldn’t listen to him. This says a lot about the way peoples thought process, and their ignorance. People wouldn’t talk to him because they thought that he didn’t speak English. They also wouldn’t listen to him because of his race. I think that it is a very special thing that Chief decided to share with McMurphy. He has been silent his entire time at the ward, and he just happens to talk to McMurphy, there has to be a reason. I want to know what it is about McMurphy that has this effect on Chief.