I guess I'll start off this one with a few questions:
It seems pretty well established that McMurphy is sexually open and promiscuous. He makes multiple comments and openly talks about his run-in with statutory rape. Why do you think Kesey tries to make this character so lovable? Do you think his ill-natured actions take away from his positive attitude and our positive opinion of him, or are they forgiven?
What is the value of fun and games at the institution? Why does it seem that McMurphy is the most interested?
Discuss McMurphy's breakout thoughts. Why does he want to do it?
Do you think the more updated hospital has actually proved to be better for the patients or is it just something to cover up the true conditions of it? Explain
What is the value of the shorter chapters? Are they stylistically effective or should they just be placed in their surrounding chapters?
Discuss the tension between Ratched and McMurphy. (Please)
So for some reason I can't reply to Carl's post so here we go:
ReplyDeleteI think that Kesey tries to make McMurphy's character so lovable because, honestly, the story would be quite boring without him. It also appeals to the side of the reader that likes to "play with fire" so to speak; we're quietly rooting on McMurphy because he's testing the system, something that I'm sure a lot of readers would enjoy doing. In this way, I believe that his ill-natured actions are forgiven by the readers. Actually forgiven isn't the word I would use...I would use "overlooked". The reader overlooks his actions because he's McMurphy. That's what he does, he tests the system and we cheer him on.
I am usually all for shorter chapters, but I was a little disappointed when they started becoming shorter. I DO believe that the chapter breaks were placed well, transitioning from one event to another, but I feel that this book is more stylistic with the longer chapters, such as the ones we experienced in our first reading. However, these short chapters could perhaps be suggesting a deterioration of the system, or maybe just a build-up to some sort of climax at the end of part one.
Miss Ratched and McMurphy are equals but opposites, to put it simply. The tension will continue to build until one of them snaps before the other. Personally, I think that the nurse will break before McMurphy. They just keep playing little mind games with one another. I believe that the book says somewhere that (paraphrasing) McMurphy had won the battle but Miss Ratched will always win the war. McMurphy will just keep testing her, and testing her, and testing her until she finally surrenders, after many lost battles.
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ReplyDeleteI also have a question about the night that our dear little narrator didn't take his nightly medication. Was the entire "scene" that played out before him just a metaphor for the Vegetable (I forget his name) dying and how that would have looked in a factory or was he merely just hallucinating? I believe it's the foremost idea since it turns out that the Vegetable was actually dead the next morning, but I thought that this chapter was very interesting. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Noah about McMurphy's character. Without him the story would be kind of boring, so the reader over looks his past. The games are there to give the patients something to do. What else do they have? McMurphy is the most interested because he wants to feel most like he's not in the hospital and playing games is the way out of that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my version of the book doesn't have the chapter labeled, so I didn't really think there were chapter at first. Looking closely I see its the blank space between some paragraphs. I feel the short chapters could be representing Bromden drifting in and out of the "fog", so I think they are stylistically effective.
126-172 Part II
ReplyDeleteMcMurphy continues to be the same in the beginning of part II until he has a conversation with the lifeguard out at the pool. Then he starts to behave good like everyone else because he doesn't want the Big Nurse to keep him there any longer. At the end of the section McMurphy doesn't act out of line at the meeting and doesn't object to the idea of something being taken away from them. He does break Miss Ratched's window by punching it. What do you think comes over him when he was trying to behave so well? Was it the reaction of Billy Bibbit? Does the tension between McMurphy and Miss Ratched change during this section of the book?
Electric Shock Therapy is mentioned in great detail by Harding. Do you think this is because it's to show what really happens in the hospital?
Cheswick gets stuck to a drain in the pool, is this an accident? Is it because of everyone not backing him up and he did it on purpose? Is there a reason to his death or just another death in the hospital?
I feel like once McMurphy has had his little chat with the lifeguard that he finally realizes how doomed he is. There's no escape from Nurse Ratched, let alone the mental ward. He had been trying so hard for a couple weeks to deteriorate the system, but by speaking to the lifeguard who has been in the ward for such a long time, McMurphy realizes that the doctors and nurses can keep him there as long as they please. The more trouble he causes the more likely he is to stay there longer. It finally hits him that all his attempts at mutiny are for nothing, there's no way to break down the Big Nurse, the system.
DeleteOnce he finally does get his fight back, though, he's as feisty as ever. I thought it was especially humorous when he continued to "accidentally" break the window, and even got some of the Acutes to break it once ("accidentally") instead of himself.
I almost feel like the tension is higher than it was at any other point in the book during this time, simply because nobody understands why McMurphy is suddenly so quiet. Perhaps he's plotting something? Perhaps the Big Nurse did something to him? We don't find out, we just have to assume. The fact that the Nurse is especially confused about his behavior heightens the tension even further in my opinion.
I thought that they talked about Electric Shock Therapy in such great detail because it was foreshadowing what might happen to one of our main characters. EST is also a way for Kesey to reveal what really happens behind the facade of the Day Room, it's not all just card games and small talk. There's really serious stuff going on in the mental hospital, and it could be Kesey's view on this kind of stuff in real life.
Cheswick commits suicide, it's not an accident. When even McMurphy doesn't stand up for Cheswick, he believes he has lost all hope and drowns himself. At this point, McMurphy realizes how much he really influences the men on the ward, and decides that he can't put the other men's lives at risk for the sake of acting nicely as an attempt to escape to freedom.