One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Essay

“I was only sure of one thing: … the Big Nurse
could use it [McMurphy’s postoperative state] as
an example of what can happen if you buck the
system…. I moved to pick up the pillow.
Structural or contents shift
Bromden realizes that the Big Nurse could use the
lobotomy of McMurphy as a warning to everyone
else who tries to rebel against her. Bromden then
decides to take out McMurphy with dignity before
anyone sees him in his “vegetable” state.
Characterization - Psychology Connection
In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Chief Bromden is the narrator who tells a
story about the psychiatric hospital he has been attending for years but also telling his story in
the process. He starts off as a person of no value, no future, and still

under the effects of the

ward,believing there’s a “fog machine” in which he can escape into while at the ward.

He is
large and strong but throughout his years in the ward and also even in his childhood, he is made
believe that he is small and weak. By the end of the book, he is a new man, encouraged, looking
forward to the things that lie ahead of him, and no longer believes that he is weak and useless.
The 12 Intellectual Indicators, according to the presentation on Prezi by Jennifer Keyes,
are persistence, decreasing impulsivity, listening with understanding and empathy, flexibility in
thinking, metacognition, checking for accuracy and precision, question and problem posing,
drawing on past knowledge and applying it to new situations, precision of language and thought,
uses all of the senses, “wonderment, inquisitiveness, curiosity”, and “ingenuity, originality,
insightfulness: creativity.”
Bromden, in the beginning of the book, lacks many of these qualities but was still very
intelligent. He felt that if he made himself seem deaf and dumb, he could use that to his favor.
Through all those years of not speaking, Bromden uses persistence to not make a ward and make
people believe he is actually deaf and dumb. He also draws on past knowledge and applies it

to
his new situation in the ward. In one of his flashback stories, he says how men came to his home
when he was young, when he tried to speak to them, they just walked right past him not
acknowledging his presence and ignored him as if he wasn’t there. He was treated as if he was
deaf and dumb, way before his placement in the ward therefore giving an answer as to why
Bromden chose to be that way in the ward. He also uses creativity because by acting deaf and
dumb, he was able to hear and see things that others would believe he didn’t even pay no heed
with. Bromden, by the end of the book, is changed by a new character who saw through the role
Bromden played. His name was Randle McMurphy, he wasn’t mentally ill but did not like his
old home where he had to work. He faked being mentally ill so he would be transferred into the

hospital. McMurphy wanted to escape by lifting this heavy object and sneaking through a hidden
exit on the other side, but the object was too heavy for McMurphy to lift so he turns to the
strength of Bromden, he just needed to remind him of that strength he still had, hidden, but there
still had his strength. By the end of the book, McMurphy has done his impact on Bromden and
the whole ward by rebelling against the main nurse, nurse Ratched, which Bromden prefers to
call the Big Nurse. I would infer that Bromden showed intellect throughout the book. Even when
he still considered himself less than a man, he still showed intelligence and cunningness. I don’t
believe Bromden could have done anything to change the outcome of the chain of events. The
Big Nurse planned to use the suicide of an inmate to return to the old control she had towards the
ward before McMurphy came, but he was not going to allow it. He stripped her from her dignity
and respect by tearing off her shirt and exposing the one thing she tries to conceal for she does
not like the amount of bosom she carries. She felt that she could use this to her favor, she has
him lobotomized and turns him into a vegetable. Bromden feels that if he lived, his act of
rebellion against the Big Nurse would be forgotten. But if he died, he would die as a legend to
keep the change on the ward permanent. The impact of the death of McMurphy the ward is
unknown for Bromden escapes after killing McMurphy, but I believe the outcome of the story
would have been different if he wouldn’t have done what he did. The ward have returned to it’s
previous state without a doubt if McMurphy would have been seen in the state he was in by the
rule of the Big Nurse. I chose this specific event because it was the one that most surprised me,
I didn’t think that Bromden would go to those measures to maintain the dignity of McMurphy and
to keep the newly found change in the ward. My rationale for my choosing is that this the “plot
twist” in the story. It was believed that McMurphy would escape the ward, but he stayed, in more
than one occasions did he have that opportunity to escape and be free from the ward, the Big
Nurse, and all the other things that tie him down from the man he wants to be, but above all, he

stayed. He could have left after making his impact on the ward but once he saw that the Big
nurse was going to use the suicide of his friend, he could not allow it. But when he chose to
defend the death of Billy Bibbit and the ward by not permitting the Big Nurse to use his death as
a warning, he practically dug out his own grave. McMurphy sacrificed himself for the was
consciously or unconsciously, but he did. Maybe he knew the outcome of his actions, maybe he
didn’t. But at that moment, he did not think of anything else but to protect the ward and respect
the memory of his friend. He might of done it out of impulse but he did something noble and did
not deserve what was given to him. Bromden knew this and knew that an honorable death
would be better than a disgraceful living.