Be sure to write your first and last name on the first line of your response.
This week write down a quote from the book Cuckoo's Nest, give the page number of the quote, and then 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"How'd he manage to slip the collar? Maybe, like old Pete, the Combine missed getting to him soon enought with controls(84)."
Said by Cheif Broom about McMurphy. Shortly before this was said, Pete had an up roar at one of their group meetings about the ward. Pete had started out the usual way he started out the meetings by saying he was tired and then when one of the black boys tried to calm him down, but that only upset him more.
This is going to create a chain reaction with the other patients in the ward. Maybe it was the presence of McMurphy's arrival in the ward that gave Pete the confidence to speak out during the meeting and may have an affect on other people.
Jenny Hergert
ReplyDelete"But I tried though," he says. "Goddammit, I sure as hell did that much, now, didn't I?" -McMurphy Page 111.
In the scene with the control box, McMurphy knows he can't lift it, and so does everyone else. But McMurphy tries to lift the impossibly heavy thing anyway. It becomes a symbol of the ongoing battle between the ward members and Nurse Ratched, or more specifically McMurphy and the Nurse; them against one unmovable target. What he's trying to tell his friends is that even if it seems an impossible task, it's worth at least trying to bring down the tyrant that is Nurse Ratched.
Kiera Wesley
ReplyDelete"And we're all sitting there lined up in front of that blanked-out TV set, watching the grey screen just like we could see the baseball game clear as day, and she's ranting and screaming behind us." (page 128)
At the end of Part 1, McMurphy wins the bet. Ms. Ratched ends up losing her temper and the impossible is proven to be possible. As soon as the other patients realize that McMurphy has gotten under the Big Nurses' skin, they all begin to defy her rules and realize that in that moment he really is not so big. This scene helps to shape the direction of the story and how the characters behave towards Ms.Ratched in the future.
"I thought the old buzzard was tougher that this, he said to Harding after one meeting. "Maybe all she needed to straiten her out was a good bringdown. The thing is - he frowned - she acts like she still holds the cards up that white sleeve of hers." Pg. 146
ReplyDeleteDuring the meeting McMurphy is talking to harding about Big Nurse's attitude and how he thinks he has "broken" her. Harding doen't feel the same pleasure McMurphy does becase the nurse doen't outwardly show her change of attitude. Even though she broke down once, she doesn't continue to have the same uncontrolled show of emotions. This quote is an example of the ongoing theme of the great power stuggle between the big nurse and the other employees and the men in the ward. When McMurphy made the bet that he could break the big nurse, I think the men expected her to make a drastic change and stay that way. But Harding realizes that just because she exploded once, doesn't mean she's changed for good.
Christine Nafziger
ReplyDelete“I have a very strong feeling that he will prove this, to us as well as the pacients. If we keep him on the ward I am certain his brashness will subside, his self-made rebellion will dwindle to nothing.”(136)
In the staff meeting that was called to talk about McMurphy, the Big Nurse says this. McMurphy has rebelled against the staff in the ward by refusing to listen to them. All the staff members think that they should send him away but the Big Nurse has another idea. The Big Nurse predicts that if they leave him alone then he will stop being so rebellious. The theme that this helps develop is the question of who has the authority in the ward. McMurphy has rebelled and thinks he has power since the Nurse does not fight back but this quote shows that she has a plan to take him out of his rebellious state of mind. Finally, this shows that the Big Nurse always has control even when others don’t think she does.
Garrett Johnson
ReplyDelete"Then he stops, his voice dribbling away under McMurphy's eyes. After a bit of silence McMurphy says softly, "Are you guys bullshitting me?" (167)
This is when McMurphy finds out that the majority of the ward patients are not commited, but are voluntary. When Harding tells McMurphy this he simply cannot believe that the men in this ward are going through each miserable day by choice. The patients complain about the care and are constantly scared of what the Big Nurse will do next, but they never do anything about it. This is significant because it shows that the patients are either to weak or scared to live in the outside world, or are just too insane to let themselves go. The on-going theme that this quote represents is the fear that the patients live in day to day. For the patients the ward is their 'fog'. What happened to them in the outside world is the reason for them going into the ward in the first place, so that may be why they don't want to go back out. The imagery that I see when I read this quote is all of the ward patients trapped in this fog so thick that they can't even bring themselves out of their self inflicted misery.
Lexy Kaftan p.3
ReplyDelete"Oh Dale you never do have enough do you?" this is what hardings wife says to him after she asks him for a cigarette. Harding's wife emasulcated what little manliness he has left. She dominates him and puts him down and basically doesn't like that he is gay. She much like the big nurse is a ball cutter. She flirts with other men right in front of his face. She implies that he doesnt satisfy her sexually or emotionally or really at all. Definately a ball-cutter.
Gina Chenoweth
ReplyDelete“I don’t think you fully understand the public, my friend; in this country, when something is out of order, then the quickest way to get it fixed is the best way.” (164)
In this scene, Harding is explaining the process of Electro-Shock Therapy to McMurphy. They discuss how it yields results, by making unruly patients manageable, but is not an ideal solution. Perfection is an on-going theme that Harding puts in terms of the EST treatment. The goal is to get the patients “fixed” in a simply, minute-long procedure even if it leaves permanent damage. This applies to much of the real world because people often choose the fastest way of getting things done, rather than the best way. The scene also represents the EST and how people must practically be zombies when the treatment is over.
Tori Weisel
ReplyDelete“It’s all our fault, and she’s going to get us for it if it’s the last thing she does. I wish McMurphy’d wake up and help me.” (144) This is Chief thinking to himself.
As McMurphy has shown more and more leadership over all the men in the ward, the men are starting to use McMurphy as a type of security blanket. They think that everything will be ok if McMurphy is there. For example, in group meetings the men feel that they can speak up if McMurphy does to. McMurphy is also helping to change the men, like Chief. Chief is starting to question who he is. The quote shows how much all the men, especially Chief depend on McMurphy to help them because he is the strongest.
Anna Billmaier
ReplyDeletePeriod 3
"He stopped in front of her window and he said in his slowest, deepest drawl how he figured he could use one of the smokes he bought this mornin', then he ran his hand through the glass." (page 172)
This is the last part of the book we read where McMurphy breaks the Nurse's glass to get a pack of his cigarettes and then later mocks the Nurse saying he, "com-pletely forgot it was there" because it was so clean. This is an important event in the book because the window symbolizes the Nurse's protection from the rest of the ward. She would stand behind that window and would be able to see everything else that is going on in the room. She also had the control pannels to "everything" in the Combine behind that window. By breaking the window, McMurphy is breaking the Nurse's protection from everything outside of her office. I thought it was interesting how Ken Kesey described McMurphy's hand running through the glass, as though there were a hole for it to gently glide through, rather than smashing it to pieces with a hard blow. I think this shows McMurphy's confidence that he has power over the Nurse and doesn't have to use hard focre to win the battle between him and the Nurse.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLeslee Fall
ReplyDelete"She's lost a battle here today, but it's a minor battle in a big war that she's been winning and that she'll go on winning."(101)
In this quote McMurphy has just gained control over the Nurse in a group meeting. The Chief sees that even though the Nurse lost this time that she will always dominate everyone in the end. This is important because it shows the on going struggle between the Nurse and McMurphy for power over the ward. And it continues this way throughout the book. In some parts McMurphy seems to be the biggest person at the ward while in other parts the Nurse is the biggest person in the ward. But this quote shows that now matter how hard McMurphy can try to gain control, the Nurse will always win.
April Dick
ReplyDelete"Forty patients, and only twenty voted. You must have a majority to change the ward policy. I'm afraid the vote is closed." -Nurse Ratched (124)
Earlier in the book, the doctor described the group meetings to be a democracy, and Nurse Ratched's policy on group voting also seems to be democratic. I think it is ironic that the nurse claims this because the ward itself is everything but a democracy, and resembles more of a tyranny. The nurse tries to create the illusion of the ward being a therapeutic, constructive environment for its patients by claiming that it is a democracy so that the patients have more confidence in her methods and therefore are more subjected to her tyranny.
Jaina Shah
ReplyDeleteThe question pops their heads up. Cleverly, he’s put them on the carpet too. They all look from him to the Big Nurse. Some way she has regained all her of old power in a few short minutes. Just sitting there, smiling up at the ceiling and not saying, she has taken control again and made everyone aware that she’s the force in there to be dealt with. Page 133
In this quote shows that Big Nurse can gain control any power she wants. In few pages before 133, it shows that McMurphy has the power over Big nurse. Everyone is depend on McMurphy, cause he can lead everyone and as well he’s powerful and he has no fear of big nurse or other staff. This show that they both want power and they both have to fight for it. In this it mention “some way she has regained all her of old power in few short minutes” This shows that no matter how McMurphy tries hard, Big nurse will always have control over her her patients.
Katie Martens
ReplyDeletePeriod 3
“No, it wasn’t just her that made him little. Everybody worked on him because he was big, and wouldn’t give in, and did as he pleased. Everybody worked on him just the way they are working on you” (187).
This is the part of the story where Chief Bromden just started talking to McMurphy about his life and family as a child. His dad was a big man, but his mom was even stronger. Chief’s dad was taken down because of people who had more authority over him. Also his mother reminds me of the Big Nurse in many ways because she is a big and powerful woman. Finally, the Chief’s dad related to McMurphy because people saw them both as threats, and that is why they are the ones to be “worked on”. This explains that Chief has been silent because he does not want to be taken down like his father or McMurphy. This obviously related to the theme of control because to me I think Chief was staying silent to keep control of how people treated him.
Savannah Guillen
ReplyDelete“I dropped back till I was walking beside McMurphy and I wanted to tell him not to fret about it, that nothing could be done because I could see that there was some thought he was worrying over in his mind like a dog worries at a hole he don’t know what’s down, one voice saying, Dog, that hole is none of your affair—it’s too big and too black and there’s a spoor all over the place says bears or something just as bad. And some other voice coming like a sharp whisper out of way back in his breed, not a smart voice, nothing cagey about it, saying, Sic ‘im, dog, sic ‘im! (169).
This quote develops the theme of the struggle for power between McMurphy and the Big Nurse through the metaphor of the dog and the hole. McMurphy knows that the Nurse is dangerous just like the dog knows that there could be something dangerous in the hole. But the impulsive part of McMurphy is saying to attack the Nurse with everything he’s got, even if it’s not the smartest decision. This quote shows that even though the decision to undermine the Nurse’s authority is dangerous, McMurphy knows that he won’t be able to stand the Nurse’s tyrannical rule much longer. The image of the dog and the hole fits with an earlier scene when Chief Bromden watches from a ward window as a dog listens to Canadian geese and then gets hit by a car.
Nik Toor
ReplyDelete"I’m sure sorry, ma’am,” he said. “Gawd but I am. That window glass was so spick and span I com-pletely forgot it was there.”
This quotes is significant to the part of the story we’ve read so far because for a while McMurphy was trying to hold back just to get out of the ward, but now it seems like he might be going back to his old ways of trying to get to the big nurse. With McMurphy going back to trying to get under the big nurse’s skin it really supports the fact that maybe McMurphy really is a psychopath because maybe as hard as he tries he just can’t hold himself back and conform to the rest of the ward. I think braking the glass is one of the biggest insultes to the big nurse so far because she really tries to control the ward by making them clean the window all the time, and the window is also what keeps her kind of separated from the rest of the ward and McMurphy totally underminded her power and destroyed the it.
Mark Galambos
ReplyDelete"'Hell of a life. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Puts a man in one confounded bind, I'd say.'" McMurphy says, 'Yeah. I see what you mean,' looking down into Sefelt's gathering face. His face has commenced to take on that same haggard, puzzled look of pressure that the face on the floor has" (Kesey 155).
The hard truth about the ward is that it is nothing more than a horrible, overly controlled place. The patients in the ward have zero control over what goes on, they are dictated strictly by the doctors and the big nurse. They are kept in line and are not allowed to make their own choices. It wears on the patients, their demeanor has changed, the patients are kept under pressure and not allowed to conform with the rest of society. Through the way the patients are kept in line and controlled, Kesey shows how society can be relentless and tough on those who are different. He uses the ward to represent society and the Big Nurse as society's powerful grasp, keeping every person in shape and making sure they are to be cured and to make them conform with what is thought to be "normal."
Laura Ahlrep
ReplyDelete"As soon as you let your guard down, as soon as you lose once, she's won for good." (Page 101)
This quote almost perfectly shows the nature of the big nurse who would be one of the most important characters in the book. The nurse always has to have her way and will do anything to get it and you may be able to put up a fight but if you show that you have weakness and lose once then she will make sure you know that you will never win again. This quote gives me an image of almost a very strong, almost pirate character for the big nurse because she does everything she wants even if it's against normal regulations. She also fits a womans sterotype as in she plays nice to everyone but her intentions are certainly not nice.
Brian Gleadle
ReplyDelete"...when I see that they don't look like they'd heard me talk at all. They aren't even looking at me....in fact they're all looking off from me like they'd soon I wasn't there at all." (131)
This quote is another reiteration of the fact that no one listens to the chief, and he might as well not be there. It continues the theme of the chief being completely ignored and may be the origin of his "deef and dumb" story. In my head the imagery conveys the chief standing in his own little bank of fog and no one being able to hear out of it. The fog just swallows his words and his person.
Erik Enselman
ReplyDelete"The way the Big Nurse acted so confident in the staff meeting, that worried me for a while, but it didnt make any difference to McMurphy. All weekend, and the next week, he was just as hard on her and her black boys as he ever was." (pg 138)
This is significant because it shows that McMurphy is pushing his limits way to hard. this is an on going theme of McMurphy trying to take control on the ward. He trys to hard and doesnt really realize that the big nurse controls who leaves the ward.
Crystal Nybo
ReplyDeleteI acted deaf to them laughing at me, like I didn't even know, but when they stuck a broom out for me to do their work up the hall, I turned around and walked back to the dorm telling myself, The hell with that. (pg 191) - Chief
This is the first time in the book where Chief stood up for himself and didn't do what the black boys told him to do. It was a huge moment showing that McMurphy is really making a difference at the institution. People are starting to change their behaviors and stand up for themselves more. This shows us that later on in the book Chief is going to build up more confidence and do more shocking acts that no one in the ward imagined.
Craig Thomas
ReplyDelete"there's no more fog any place." (pg. 130)
In the book the cheif has a problem with the fog moving in whenever he is afraid or scared about something. So when he says there isnt any fog anymore it is showing that he is getting better. I believe that McMurphy is actually helping him overcome his problems. But since McMurphy wants out i dont know what will happen to the rest of the patients
Tesia Davenport
ReplyDelete"Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balence, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy....but he won't let the pain blot out the hummor no more'n he'll let the hummor blot out the pain." (pg 213)
This quote is when all the guys go on a fishing expedition. McMurphy relizes that his laughter can overcome his pain. Soon, thanks to McMurphy, everyone else begins to laugh along with McMurphy. So to round this up McMurphy finally teaches them how to overcome pain with hummor. What makes that so significant is that if you recall the first thing McMurphy said when he went into the aslyum was, "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." So he finally proved his point and heard the laughter that he's missed since he entered the aslyum.
Denisse Manrique
ReplyDelete"No he isn't extraordinary. He is simply a man and no more, and is subject to all the fears and all the cowardice and all the timidity that any other man is subject to.(p.136)" -Nurse Ratched
I felt that the judgment that nurse Ratched made of McMurphy brought up the theme of fear that has been appearing all over the book. Her believing that all men are cowardly and timid has to do with how she treats them and why they submit themselves to that treatment. She knows that most of them are there because they rather endure the shock therapy and the mental torture of group therapy then be in the real world. She knows that they can all leave whenever they'd like but she also know they wont and thats why she treats them the way she does. She thinks that McMurphy is just like the rest of them but throwing tantrums until he gets what he wants or proves himself. She's just waiting until he breaks so that he can prove her right.
Brody Hovatter
ReplyDeleteAfter one patient in the hospital has an epileptic seizure, many patients in the ward, especially the friend of the one hurt, are concerned for him. Fredrickson, the friend of the man who had the seizure, confronts Big Nurse about the way she treated him. Fredrickson says to the nurse, "You know how Seef worries about what he looks like and how women think he's ugly." (153) This quote helps to support the theme of female dominance in the book. Seef (the man who had the seizure), it seems, feels the need for female approval. Along with Harding's wife, Big Nurse represents one of the emasculating women in the book, or as McMurphy would call her, "A ball cutter."
Dan McMillan
ReplyDeleteFor the first time in years i was seeing people with none of that black outline they used to have, and one night i was even able to see out the windows. -p.141
This quote depicts that the chief is finally coming to understand the smoke that he has been experianceing. He realizes that the fog machine broke down in the meeting he atteneded.I think as the book continues on, the chief will in time not have fog problems for the machine will be broken indefinatly.
Derek Decker
ReplyDelete"I looked out the window and saw for the first time how the hospital was out in the country." - Bromden (pg. 141-142)
I think that this is a significant quote because it shows how when Bromden is always hidden away in the fog, he begins to forget that there exists a world outside the cold walls of the asylum. This works into the context of the theme of conformity in 1950's America. The fog is the self-imposed place where one "hid"; in other words, they made themselves imperceptible to others by conforming to the norms so that they wouldn't stick out and risk being ostracized as a result. But so concerned are they about conforming that they begin to forget that there exists anything that society deems out of the boundaries of the ordinary. Also, for some reason, this quote reminded me of a passage from a work by Plato called The Republic. It depicted society as a group of people in a cave with a fire behind them and a blank wall in front of them, making them capable only of seeing the world through shadows. If one were to leave this cave, they would discover the Sun, and although its light would undoubtedly blind them at first, they would eventually be able to perceive the world in true form. This, in turn, would give them a better perspective as to what's important in life.
Maxx Forde
ReplyDelete"'You think I wuh-wuh-wuh-want to stay in here? You think I wouldn't like a con-con-vertible and a guh-guh-girl friend? But did you ever have people l-l-laughing at you? No, because you're so b-big and tough! Well, I'm not big and tough. Neither is Harding. Neither is F-Fredrickson. Neither is Suh-Sefelt. Oh--oh, you--you t-talk like we stayed in here because we liked it! Oh--it's n-no use...'
He's crying and stuttering too hard to say anything else, and he wipes his eyse with the backs of his hands so he can see." (Page 168)
I thought that this was interesting because given the revelation that was just made about all these people not being committed to the asylum, it seems that they might as well be. The mental and emotional damage done to them outside the asylum is what seems to be keeping them from leaving. This is something that it seems that Billy believes is too hard for McMurphy to comprehend. It just helps develop the trend of powerlessness of the people within the asylum without McMurphy's help. Although it's hard for him to see why they need him, this shows that they need him more than ever. It just goes to show that when you don't conform with society, it's nice to be with other people who are also different.
Kirsten Zoba
ReplyDelete"The nurse objected, said the next thingthey'd be playing soccer in the day room and polo games up and down the hall, but the doctor held firm for once and said let them go." (Kesey 175)
I found this very interesting because it was the second time the doctor hasn't considered the Big Nurse's opinion, second to the time McMurphy convinced him to let them play cards. It's significant because it relates to both the ongoing theme of authority and foreshadows the nurse not being in control in the future.
Sarah Hale:)
ReplyDelete“Whatever it was went haywire in the mechanism, they’ve just about got it fixed again. The clean, calculated arcade movement is coming back…” pg. 156
The significance this quote has to the rest of the story is the constant battle of who has authority, or who controls the “mechanism”. When McMurphy acts tyrannically towards the Big Nurse and black boys, the patients feed off of his confidence and self-assurance and in turn act out with McMurphy standing up for their pitiful rights. They control the mechanism, at least for a moment’s time they do. Once McMurphy decides that he doesn’t want a lives sentence in the asylum, they are unable to stick together alone, and crumble, returning the once haywire mechanism back to its controllers. The on-going theme it helps to develop is that once the Acutes loose McMurphy as their leader in standing up to Big Nurse, doctors, and the black boys, they become too fearful to stand up on their own. As a group, they simply fall apart without McMurphy. The imagery it creates is that of a group of 3rd graders attempting to stand up to their teacher. Without that 4th grader who’s been held back and has the knowledge (he thinks he’s figured the teacher out) and confidence that the 3rd graders lack, they fall apart due to their insecurities and lack of experience.