one flew over the cuckoos nest
Setting: Insane asylum, Oregon, late 1950s, day room, chiefs memory, fishing trip "Working alongside others like her [Ratched] who I call the "Combine," which is a huge organization that aims to adjust the Outside as well as she has the Inside, has made her a real veteran at adjusting things"
McMurphy: scars, spirit, anti-authoritarian, dishonourable discharge, disregards social structures, prison=distrust in authority, Christ: crucifixion in EST, “washing hands of whole affair” sacrificial, loss of free will, submits to power.
Ratched: “enters the ward with a gust of cold air” manipulative, villain, rodent qualities, just like a mother” tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision made machine. The slightest thing messy or out of her kilter or in the way ties her into a little white knot of tight smiled fury.”
Chief: narrator, nursery rhyme, hydroelectric dam = first defeat with machinery, schizophrenic, combine represents the chief paranoia. “Buzzing and whirring within the walls” delusions decrease with exposure to McMurphy, fog disappears. Strong man with doubt in his power. Let people believe he was mute and deaf because they never gave him a chance and he never corrected them
Harding: intelligent, educated, resisting his homosexuality, shame in never pleasing his wife, “victims of a matriarchy”, adopts McMurphy's ways and mannerisms, first to leave
Billy Bibbit: Virgin until 30= repressed. Mother kept an Oedipal attachment is a friend with miss Ratched. Childish at start, grows as novel continues, many suicide attempts, idolizes McMurphy, suicide (due to betrayal of McMurphy and to defy Ratched) = lobotomy = murder
Power through fear and force. Strength vs. status
“You are committed, you realise. You are… under the jurisdiction of me… under my jurisdiction and control…”
If Mr. McMurphy doesn't want to take his medication orally, I'm sure we can arrange that he can have it some other
McMurphy: scars, spirit, anti-authoritarian, dishonourable discharge, disregards social structures, prison=distrust in authority, Christ: crucifixion in EST, “washing hands of whole affair” sacrificial, loss of free will, submits to power.
Ratched: “enters the ward with a gust of cold air” manipulative, villain, rodent qualities, just like a mother” tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision made machine. The slightest thing messy or out of her kilter or in the way ties her into a little white knot of tight smiled fury.”
Chief: narrator, nursery rhyme, hydroelectric dam = first defeat with machinery, schizophrenic, combine represents the chief paranoia. “Buzzing and whirring within the walls” delusions decrease with exposure to McMurphy, fog disappears. Strong man with doubt in his power. Let people believe he was mute and deaf because they never gave him a chance and he never corrected them
Harding: intelligent, educated, resisting his homosexuality, shame in never pleasing his wife, “victims of a matriarchy”, adopts McMurphy's ways and mannerisms, first to leave
Billy Bibbit: Virgin until 30= repressed. Mother kept an Oedipal attachment is a friend with miss Ratched. Childish at start, grows as novel continues, many suicide attempts, idolizes McMurphy, suicide (due to betrayal of McMurphy and to defy Ratched) = lobotomy = murder
Power through fear and force. Strength vs. status
“You are committed, you realise. You are… under the jurisdiction of me… under my jurisdiction and control…”
If Mr. McMurphy doesn't want to take his medication orally, I'm sure we can arrange that he can have it some other