Part 3: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Part 2 of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest started out with the patients at an all time high, still reveling in the small victory of overthrowing Nurse Ratched’s power. Nurse Ratched also calls a staff meeting to discuss whether McMurphy should be moved to the Disturbed ward which is meant to house more severe and disruptive patients. Cheif is present at the meeting and thus is able to narrate the whole conversation. All the doctors and nurses agree that McMurphy would be better helped on the Disturbed ward since he is an agressive and reckless patient. However, Nurse Ratched is the only one to disagree with this decision. This shocks everyone in the room due to the clear resentment she has for McMurphy. She makes a point to say that the patients leave when “they” (meaning the doctors but really it is all up to Nurse Ratched) decide that they can leave. Here, it is clear to see that while the patients may think that they have the upper hand, Nurse Ratched has really always been in control. Kesey soon shifts the attitudes of the characters as McMurphy starts to comply more with the rules. He has come to realize that acting out is not worth some of the dire and painful consequences that Nurse Ratched has the power to bestow. McMurphy’s hesistance has the other patients on the ward worried and soon the patients begin to fall back into their previous rhythm and Nurse Ratched is back in control. There are some downfalls for the patients as they recieve a tounge lashing from McMurphy has he becomes angered that most of the men on the ward are not committed (meaning that they are under no obligation to stay in the hospital and may leave at their digression). He struggles to understand why the men stay despite having the power to leave. I think Kesey is trying to make a point that while these men are outcasts in regular society, they somehow all fit into ward life and have become adjusted to it, so much so that the thought of leaving and interacting with others is frightening, especially when the environment they are living in restricts them in almost all aspects. In a different turn of events, Cheswick, a somewhat derranged and outspoken Acute patient dies in an unfortunate drowning incident. However, Cheswick’s death seems to be almost trivial and I, as a reader, don’t really seem to miss him, as a character, at all. Maybe Kesey is trying to make a point that these men are so secluded and irrelevant that their death means almost nothing. Its as if they are already dead and just allowed to walk amoung the living. During Part 2, I was also introduced to Mr. Harding’s wife, who is descorbed as a attractive woman but also some what of a “witch” in Harding’s eyes. The section ends with McMurphy showing a resurgance of his conbative behavior has he ever so calmly breaks the glass at the nurse’s station to get a cigarette. Cheif seems rather please with this action, and it seems that the patients will rally against the Racted Nurse again soon.

During Part 2, Chief also continues his inner monologue and keeps with the techincal and mechanical descriptions. For instance, he refers to the ward as “The Combine” at times and describes emotions or actions as being manufactured. He also describes situations as going “haywire in the mechanicals” and seeing Nurse Ratched at the controls. Now it seems that Chief doesnt just see the ward as a machine, but he sees people as a machine too. He says that the black boys must cjeck the patients to see if everybody’s machinery is functioning up to par. He also mentions a sort of ringing in his head which could be symbolic of the wheels in his brain turning or that he is getting tired of his anaylization. Whatever the case, Kesey is still painting Chief as a somewhat unreliable narrator and that makes it hard to trust his perception of the narrative. At this point, Kesey is also still building up to the story’s climax, which upon rereading the book’s back cover I discovered hasn’t happened yet. It seems there is a lot more left in store for McMurphy and the rest of the patients and the real question is not what it will be, but how they will chose to handle it.