One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Reflection 4 Pg. 196–260

In the fourth section of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest McMurphy regains his willpower and desire to fight nurse Ratched. McMurphy begins to see that no matter how hard he tries to be well behaved conformist, he will most likely never be able to leave the mental hospital. He becomes absolute in his quest to shake the oppression within the hospital, especially when he discovers that most of the patients in the hospital are self admitted and are only in the hospital because of their own personal weaknesses, not because they ever hurt anyone or did anything super crazy. This shifts the view of the hospital completely, because all of the staff, especially nurse Ratched treat the men like they are hyper insane, psychopathic criminals who need strict order and discipline when in reality the only thing they need is some reassurance and confidence in their abilities to handle the “combine” outside the hospital. McMurphy becomes a full on, and clear, hero in the book. He seems to be more concerned with others than he possibly has been his entire life. He begins to install real therapeutic exercises and is clearly strengthen the willpower and confidence of every patient that will listen to him. Nurse Ratched takes the biggest hit to her authority and power in this section, and she almost seems to become an afterthought, and not a real threat. The new, bigger threat that emerges with her decline is the ever corrosive “combine” and its ability to weaken people. The patients are thinking about life outside the hospital, which is a completely new concept that many of them never could have imagined without McMurphy. Mcmurphy’s influence over the men is so strong that he is even able to influence a staff member (the male doctor) to come with him and his self assembled crew to go deep sea fishing with a prostitute. The doctor didn’t even seem to care when McMurphy stole the boat used for the fishing trip. If a similar action like that had been committed by McMurphy at the beginning of the book, severe consequences and punishments would have befallen him.

Chief Bromden becomes an actual, involved character within the book and is transitioning into more of a leader role with hints of him gaining muscle and potentially being able to lift the control panel. My guess is that something will happen to McMurphy and Chief Bromden who has taken what seems to be a apprenticeship with McMurphy will take McMurphy’s place. Bromden rate of recovery within this section is astounding and if he were to continue at this rate of growth in power and confidence he will be a force to be reckoned with later on in the book. Bromden seems to have the most temporary physiological imbalances however, and it is probable that Bromden would be able to revert to his depressed state as quickly as he came out of it. In my opinion he has the biggest risk and the biggest reward of any patients, including McMurphy.

Word count: 506