Be sure to write your name on the first line of your response.
This week write down a quote from the book Cuckoo's Nest and the write about that quote.
What is its significance to the rest of the story?
What on-going theme does it help develop?
What type of on-going imagery does it represent?
Choose a quote different from others and make your entry creative and unique. Thank you.
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Gina Tuthill
ReplyDelete"Across the room from the Acutes are the cults of the Commbine's product, the Cronics(19)."
The on-going theme would be that maybe possibly they want all to most of the acutes to become Cronics. This may be because the more people they have in their facility, the more money they recieve from the state or government (whichever provides the funds). Than the nurse and the 3 black men abuse the use of the money they're supposed to use on the patients or even buy more pills to knock the patients out and maybe even make them hallucinate right before they're to be released. So that way that're made to stay longer than they actually should. This can lead into more medical abuse further in the story as well.
Garrett Johnson
ReplyDelete"You seem to forget, Miss Flinn, that this is an institution for the insane."(30)
Mr. Taber says this as Big Nurse is preparing to inject him with an unknown medication. This quote is significan because Taber touches on a point that Big Nurse and the others who work in the ward do not treat the patients like they should be treated. In the example given Big Nurse is treating Taber like a criminal while he has a serious mental illness. This goes into the issue of patient abuse and I am sure the book will deal much more it along the road. The images that came into my head when I read this part of the book were patients strapped to a table, patients getting drugs injected into them or getting shoved down their throat, and helpless people just sitting not able to do anything drugged out of their minds.
Breanna Taylor p. 3
ReplyDelete"I'm accustomed to being top man."
R.P. McMurphy
I think this is a really important quote because it seems like the big nurse is top (wo)man who has the authority to do what she wants while McMurphy doesn't. I believe this is a foreshadow of conflict arising between the head nurse and R. P. McMurphy. This helps to develope the theme of McMurphy challenging the person he ought not to be challenging. It represents the beginning of their battle for power.
Jenny Hergert
ReplyDelete"If Mr. Taber chooses to act like a child, he may have to be treated as such. We've tried to be kind and considerate with him. Obviously, that's not the answer. Hostility, hostility, that's the tahanks we get (35)." -Nurse Ratched
In this scene with Mr. Taber, Big Nurse gets a chance to show how she deals with anyone and everyone who questions her authority. She sees even the simplest questions as a threat to the control she has over the ward. She punishes the poor people like Taber so severely that no one would ever think to question her again; she dominates by terrorizing. We see that even her punishment system is as precise and orderly as she keeps the ward itself; it’s like the machine that Chief imagines it to be, and Nurse Ratched the mechanized dictator ruling over it all. In this scene, the debate about conformity and the cruelty shown to the patients both come out in the open at once. These two themes I’m sure will develop significantly as character development continues to happen. I can only imagine what’s in store for poor McMurphy...
Crystal Nybo
ReplyDelete"And he thinks he'll just wait a while to see what the story is in this new place before he makes any kind of play. That's a good rule for a smart gambler; look the game over awhile before you draw yourself a hand" (pg 48).
This is McMurphy and it shows his attitude toward things he faces in life. Many situations to him are just a game and he tries to over come his obstacles. This will give us a better idea of how he is going to handle situations farther on in the book and when he faces difficult trials he is going to face them with a cool and calm preparedness. This advances the theme of McMurphy causing trouble in the institute and going against the order that everyone in the institute likes to hold onto. The imagery that McMurphy displays is of a big strong guy who doesn't back down to anyone.
Lexy Kaftan
ReplyDeletefrom page 55 through 57 McMurphy describes the group therapy meeting as a pecking party. Mcmurphy described the pecking order as some "powerful" bird singling a weak chicken and start pecking a hole in it. Then by the end of it they are all dead. Through McMurphy's eyes Big nurse started attacking harding so much so he would falsely confess to things he never had done. This presents the theme of control and masculinity. The big nurse needs to have total control to be secure and calm. As to the masculinity she shows no emotion and always looks cold much like many men do.
Nik Toor
ReplyDelete“We are-the rabbits, one might say, of the rabbit world! (Kesey, 63)”
This quote is significant to the story because the men in the ward are obviously weaker than a person with a lot of power, or for this analogy a wolf, but this shows how the men are even below the average person, or average rabbit. This theme and type of imagery, about comparing the weak to the strong the challenged from the powerful will most likely continue throughout the book due to fact that these men are stuck in the ward and are subject to the big nurse’s controlling methods.
Tori Weisel
ReplyDelete“No, that nurse ain’t some kinda monster chicken, buddy, what she is is a ball-cutter (Kesey, 57).”
This quote is significant to the rest of the story because it shows that the nurse has total control over all the men in the ward. Most of the men in the ward fear the Big Nurse because of all the torture she could put them through to make them obey her every demand. This quote helps to develop the theme that the Big Nurse is the main authority figure throughout the book. The Big Nurse has control over the men which takes away their masculinity, which brings up the image of her being a “ball-cutter.”
Christine Nafziger
ReplyDelete“I’m afraid ….this is exactly what the new patient is planning: to take over. He is called a manipulator, Miss Flinn, a man who will use everything to his own end.” (pg. 29)
When McMurphy arrives, Miss Ratched (the Big Nurse) is aware of what McMurphy is planning to do while he is in the ward. This show the theme of power and control throughout the book. The Big Nurse is afraid as to what McMurphy is going to do to get into control because McMurphy is willing to do just about anything. She is well aware that he is a manipulator like that. Control is a major theme throughout the book between the Big Nurse and McMurphy. McMurphy wants to have the control over the Big Nurse because he always has control and the big nurse knows this. Having control is important part of life to him. When this quote was said it was at the beginning of having McMurphy in the ward and the Big Nurse knows she needs to prepare herself so she can still have control in the end because control is important to her as well.
Bridget Cook
ReplyDelete"I've heard that the Cheif, years ago, received more than two hundred shock treatments when they were really vogue. Imagine what this could do to a mind that was already slipping. Look at him: a giant janitor. There's your Vanishing American, a six-foot-eight sweeping machine, scared of his own shadow. That, my friend, is what we can be threatened with." (Harding, 65)
This quote show the control that the big nurse has over the men in the ward. She uses the EST treatments as a was to keep them in line. The rumor that she had orderd two hundred treatments for the Cheif, scares the other men that they could end up like him, deaf and dumb. This quote show an ongoing theme of the power and control the nurse has over the men and how she gets it. She uses everthing avaliable to her to keep the men below her, even when things are not true or didn't even happen she still makes them believe it. Two hundred treatments is quite outragous but the men belive its true and this keeps them in line because they don't want it to happen to them.
“The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak.” (60)
ReplyDeleteThis quote is important because it explains how the theme of power is apparent in the book. It helps develop the idea that the asylum is a fishbowl life where being the most powerful, and being in charge, makes you important and gives a sense of control that would not be achieved otherwise. By picking on the weak and going on power strips, people feel like they are stronger. This may not be true in reality, but it is an illusion brought on by permanent detainment.
Gina Chenoweth p3
Kiera Wesley
ReplyDelete"Another thing: I'm in this place because that's the way I planned it, pure and simple, because it's a better place than a work farm... So I'm saying five bucks to each of you that wants it if I can't put a betsy bug up that nurse's butt within a week." (pg. 69)
McMurphy states that he is in the ward because he chose to be there and that he is smart enough to provoke a response from Ms. Ratched to prove that she is volnurable. This is a turning point in the story because it is the point in which he is going to start to seize control of the ward. From this point on, we should expect to see an ongoing battle between him and the Big Nurse. From the other patients perspective, Mcmurphy is challenging himself to do the impossible. If McMurphy wins the bet, then the ward could be changed from a dictatorship to the democracy that it was originally supposed to be.
Savannah Guillen
ReplyDelete“Seen ‘em all over the country and in the homes—people who try to make you weak so they can get you to toe the line, to follow their rules, to live like they want you to… If you’re up against a guy who wants to win by making you weaker instead of making himself stronger, then watch for his knee, he’s gonna go for your vitals” (57).
This quote is significant to the rest of the story because it shows that McMurphy knows how the Big Nurse is able to dominate the ward. The patients are living exactly how the Nurse wants them to live, and McMurphy’s advice to them is to guard their vitals, because that is how the Nurse is able to control them. This quote helps develop an on-going theme of a strong dictator controlling the lives of the weak by using underhanded techniques instead of strength. When I think about this quote I see an image of a scheming and powerful tyrant threatening to remove the manhood of men who don’t succumb to the tyrant’s rule.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnna Billmaier
ReplyDeletePeriod 3
" 'Ya know, ma'am, he says, 'ya know--that is the ex-act thing everybody always tells me about the rules...' He grins. They both smile back and forth at each other, sizing each other up. '...just when they figure I'm about to do the dead opposite.' " (page 23)
This is the point in the book when the Nurse sees that McMurphy is trying to take over the ward a little and break from the norm of the usual patients. When the Nurse attempts to tell that McMurphy is going to follow the rules just like everyone else, his immediate response is to tell her that he's not much a follower of the rules. I believe this forshadows a takeover of the ward by McMurphy later in the book. I thinkt that he will be the one to finally "defeat" the Nurse.
Leslee Fall
ReplyDelete"Now she's madder and more frustrated than ever, madder's i ever saw her get. Her doll smile is gone, stretched tight and thin as a red-hot wire. If some of the patients could be out to see her now, McMurphy could start collecting his bets." Page 89
This quote is important because it shows how McMurphy does have potential to crack the Nurse. He irritates her greatly but since he didn't do anything wrong she can't take it out on him or punish him. I can see him growing bigger and taller further in the book till he is strong enough to dominate her. I think he will soon seem like a God to everyone else in the ward, especially the Chief, because of his strength.
Jaina
ReplyDelete“Now. Shall we get into the meeting?” (43)
This quote is significant because it shows how big nurse is able control all of her patient. Also, the patients are doing exactly, what Big nurse want them to do. At the meeting Big Nurse wants everybody confession what they did wrong (crime). Since Big nurse wants them to do it, they had to do it, because of the control of Big Nurse even though they didn’t like it. The quote story helps to develop the theme that Big nurse has control of all of her patient who are all men.
Erik Enselman
ReplyDelete"the doctor doesnt hold the job of hiring and firing" pg 59
The signifigance to the rest of the story is that the doctor has no control over what is happening and basically everything in the ward is controllef by Big Nurse. The Big Nurse gives the patients excessive amounts of drugs to control them that really could make their conditions worse. This really shows that the ward is controlled by the nurses and that they control it wrong.
Brian Gleadle
ReplyDelete"He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we'd be easy to get at." (114)
This quote is significant because this is the point where McMurphy is starting to really take control and the Chief is losing his safety in the fog. To the Chief the fog is what develops when he gets scared or nervous or if the Big Nurse is really trying to take over. Now McMurphy is "pulling" him out of the fog. This further develops on the Chiefs "Fog" issue. The imagery makes me think of a giant hand reaching into the fog to pull the Chief out and make him stand up for himself in the clear world.
Craig Thomas
ReplyDelete"I look around, and the block boy named Geever is coming, and i kick off my shoes and get in bed just as he walks up to tie a sheet across me. When he's finished with me he takes a lst look around and giggles and flips the dorm lights off." (pg. 77)
This quote is showing how messed up the black boys are. They are in someways more mysterious and strange then the guys in the ward. They black boys, at least Geever, enjoy doing things to the patients. Like when Geever tied him down. He "giggled" and then shut off the lights.
Katie Martens
ReplyDeleteThen I will explain the theory. Mr. McMurphy, one of the first things is that the patients remain seated during the course of the meeting. It is the only way, you see, for us to maintain order.” Page 47
As McMurphy is explained the rule of the group therapy sessions, this is the first thing that the doctor tells him. I think that this quote is very ironic because there really is no order to the sessions, once it starts, it seems like they get out of control. It is an important rule because they need to remind the men that they do not have the power. This reiterates the theme of power and control in two ways. First the doctor is showing he has control by telling McMurphy all the rules of the meetings. Also, the Big Nurse is the one who told the Doctor what to say, proving that she has the power over everyone.
April Dick
ReplyDelete"So you see, my friend, it is somewhat as you stated: man has but one truly effective weapon against the juggernaut of modern matriarchy but it certainly is not laughter... more and more people are discovering how to render that weapon useless and conquer those who have hitherto been the conquerors" (66)
The weapon Harding is referencing is a man's penis, and that not using rape effectively shows a lack of power. In order to counter this "weapon", Harding suggests that women use castration to become dominant over men, which is why McMurphy calls Nurse Ratched a ball-cutter. The idea of sexuality is a re-ccuring theme that becomes a key part of the power struggle between men and women both in the ward and in society. The reason Nurse Ratched has so much power over the men in the ward in the beginning is because she is "impregnable" and she plays the role of a "ball-cutter".
-Dan McMillan-
ReplyDeleteBuddy dont give me that tender little mother crap. She may be a mother, but shes as big as a damn barn and tough as knife metal. She fooled me with that kindly little old mother bit for maybe three minutes when i came in this morning, but no longer. I dont think shes really fooled any of you guys for any six months or a year, neither. Hooowee, I've seen some bitches in my time, but she takes the cake. -McMurphy p.57
I feel that this quote portrays the fact that McMurphy acts like he is way tougher than anyone else and that he isnt afraid of the Big Nurse. As for the others in the hospital the Big Nurse represents an almighty power that needs to be upheld amongst the inmates. For whatever reason she appears to be the most feared person in the book because of her features and the way she goes about her business. While the story continues, i believe that the Big Nurse will maintain her authority throughout the rest of the story.
Kirsten Zoba
ReplyDelete"Nine-fifty the residents leave and the machinery hums up smooth again. The nurse watches...the scene before her takes on that blue-steel clarity again, that clean orderly movement..." (Kesey 37)
This quote is important as it refers directly to the "machine" the ward has become under the control of the Big Nurse. Though she does it through over medicating and EST, the institution has won an award for the greatest patient to employee ratio. This also continues Kesey's theme of incorporating robots and other cartoon images into the novel.
Brody Hovatter
ReplyDeleteWhile describing the therapeutic procedures the patients go through in the hospital, Chief Bromden says that "...A guy has to learn how to get along in a group before he'll be able to function in a normal society..." (48) and "How society is who decides who's sane and who isn't, so you got to measure up." (48) During the fifties (when the story takes place), conformity to society was a major issue. To be considered normal in America, you had to act and voice the same opinions as everyone else, or else you would be considered a freak. This description of society by Chief Bromden shows the ongoing theme of conformity not only in the hospital, but in society as well.
Tesia Davenport
ReplyDelete"But the rest are even scared to open up and laugh. You know, that's the first thing that got me about this place, that there wasn't anybody laughing. I haven't heard a real laugh since I came through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing."
This quote gave me a strong visual of how cold and depressing it must have felt walking into the instutition.Beyond that I feel like McMurphy is challenging the men to stand up to nurse Ratched. He wants them to regain their personalities and their footing as individuals.
Laura Ahlrep
ReplyDelete"No buddy, not that. She ain't peckin' at your eyes. That's not what she's pecking at..."At your balls, buddy, at your everlovin' balls." (Page 57)
The significance to the rest of the story is that this quote defines the big nurse who is probably one of the most important characters in the whole book. It perfectly shows how the nurse handles her patients, by essentially taking their power (which in the 50's men had over women) and doing whatever she wants with it. Normally women are seen as the weaker of the two sexes but here she is referenced to peck out their balls, and is quite degrading. This theme of the balance of powers between genders so far has been seen quite a bit through out the section we have read. It gives me an image of a powerful women being unattractive and unwanted greatly because they insult her to a point of saying she cuts off men's balls.
Mark Galambos
ReplyDelete"No, that nurse ain't some kinda monster chicken, buddy, what she is is a ball-cutter (Kesey, 57)."
One of the scariest things a man can experience in his life is the prescence of a "ball-cutter." A ball-cutter in it's very essence is something men do NOT want to be associated with whatsoever. The significance of this quote is to show exactly how much control over the men in the ward the big nurse has, no one is going to mess with her. This was one of the ways Kesey showed the overthrowing of modern society-- in this time period it was men who would control women.
Derek Decker
ReplyDelete"Miss, I don't like to create trouble. But I don't like to swallow something without knowing what it is, either. How do I know this isn't one of those funny pills that makes me something I'm not?"-Max Taber, pg. 35
This quote and the result of it (Taber receiving electroshock therapy to be put back in line) is very indicative of what seems to be the overall theme of the book: conformity in contemporary American society (and, to an extent, today). If one did not conform to societal norms, they were seen as flawed somehow. Here, Taber questioned the pills he was being told to swallow, suspicious that they were there to destroy his individuality for the sake of him being cured of his mental ailments and thus being able to conform to society. For this, he was subject to electricity being shot through his brain, which made him into the man that the Combine believed he was supposed to be. This episode shows the dark side of contemporary American society. The pills were the societal norms to which people had to conform without question. If they didn't conform, or if they even dared question why they should be as society says they ought to rather than being who they want to be, they were treated harshly to put them back in line with the status quo. They were shunned, looked down upon, whatever it took to send the shock through their heads that they must be like everybody else.
Sarah Hale!
ReplyDelete“The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes sly and frightened and elusive and he digs holes and hides when the wolf is about…He most certainly doesn’t challenge the wolf to combat.” (Harding, 60-61)
I love this quote because it not only acts as a strong extended metaphor to how the patient’s at the asylum view the Big Nurse but it’s almost a foreshadowing of what McMurphy will take as a challenge throughout the rest of the book. On page 69 McMurphy even states, “So I’m saying five bucks to each of you that wants it if I can’t put a besty bug up that nurse’s butt within a week.” Implying he’s going to break the Nurse, he’s going to do whatever it takes to “get the best of that woman…” without letting her get the best of him. (McMurphy, p. 68) The on-going theme that this quote helps develop is that of the patients (currently) being many inferior rabbits to the Nurse being one merciless wolf. The imagery this quote presents is one of hundreds of tiny rabbits that if working together could defeat the single wolf, but alone and without a leader or communication, they’ll scramble to dig holes to protect themselves and they’ll care not about any of the other rabbits… This leads us to question whether McMurphy could potentially be that ambitious leader.
Maxx Forde
ReplyDelete"No. She doesn't need to accuse. She has a genius for insinuation. Did you ever hear her, in the course of our discussion today, ever once hear her accuse me of anything? Yet it seems I have been accused of a multitude of things, of jealousy and paranoia, of not being man enough to satisfy my wife, of having relations with male friends of mine, of holding my cigarette in an affected manner, even--it seems to me--accused of having nothing between my legs but a patch of hair--and soft and downy and blond hair at that! Ball-cutter? Oh, you underestimate her!" (Kesey, 60)
The significance of this quote to the rest of the story is that it shows that the Big Nurse doesn't even have to take an explicit action in order to do what she wants to get done. By being to accomplish her goals without taking such explicit actions, it allows her to stay out of the way any possible trouble. If anything is brought up about her ethics, she can just say that she didn't do it, although she very well meant it to happen all along. It also shows that Harding doesn't only agree with what McMurphy said before (something which he had disagreed with), but he believes that McMurphy hasn't gone far enough. It shows that things are worse than it appears to be to McMurphy and that his challenge may be tougher than he once thought it would be. It helps bring along the whole "battle of the century" type feeling that is being built up throughout the book. It just feels like you can see a comic book superhero and his arch nemesis posturing for and epic fight. I can't wait to see how this keeps building until the end of the book!
Jade Baumann
ReplyDelete"You know, that's the first thing that got me about this place, that there wasn't anybody laughing."
This quote showed how much of a change it must have been coming into the institution, and how sad of a place it must be. It just shows how much was given up when forced to come here. The men needed to break free and be themselves rather than just do what they were told by the nurse. If they did, the setting wouldn't be so cold and free of happiness and laughter.