Main Characters:
Chief Bromden:
The novel's half-Native American narrator has been in the mental hospital since the end of World War II. Bromden is presumed by staff and patients alike to be deaf and mute, and through this guise he becomes privy to many of the ward's dirtiest secrets. As a young man, the Chief was a high school football star, a college student, and a war hero. After seeing his father, a Native American chieftain, humiliated at the hands of the U.S. government and his (white) wife, Chief Bromden descends into clinical depression and begins hallucinating. Soon he is diagnosed with schizophrenia. He believes society is controlled by a large, mechanized system which he calls "The Combine."
Randle McMurphy:
A free-spirited, rebellious con man, sent to the hospital from a prison work farm. He is guilty of battery and gambling. McMurphy is transferred from a prison work farm to the hospital, thinking it will be an easy way to serve out his sentence in comfort. In the end, McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched, sacrificing his freedom and his health in exchange for freeing the previously shackled spirits of the cowed patients on the ward.
Nurse Ratched (Big Nurse):
The tyrannical head nurse of the mental institution, who exercises near-total control over those in her care, including her subordinates. She will not hesitate to restrict her patients' access to medication, amenities, and basic human necessities if it suits her manipulative whims. Her favorite informant is the timid Billy Bibbit, whom she coerces into divulging the unit's secrets by threatening to complain about him to his mother. McMurphy's fun-loving, rebellious presence in Ratched's institution is a constant annoyance, as neither threats nor punishment nor shock therapy will stop him or the patients under his sway. Eventually, after McMurphy nearly chokes her to death in a fit of rage, Nurse Ratched has him lobotomized. However, the damage has already been done, and Nurse Ratched's rule is broken after McMurphy's attack leaves her nearly unable to speak, which renders her unable to intimidate her patients, subordinates and superiors.
The "Black Boys" Washington, Williams and Warren (Part of staff):
Three black men who work as aides in the ward. Williams is a dwarf, his growth stunted after witnessing his mother being raped by white men. The Chief says Nurse Ratched hired them for their sadistic nature.
Billy Bibbit (Acute):
A nervous, shy, and boyish patient with an extreme speech impediment, Billy cuts and burns himself, and has attempted suicide numerous times. Billy has a fear of women, especially those with authority such as his mother. To alleviate this, McMurphy sneaks a prostitute into the ward so Billy can lose his virginity. The next morning, Nurse Ratched threatens to tell his mother; fearing the loss of his mother's love, Billy has an emotional breakdown and commits suicide by cutting his own throat.
Dale Harding (Acute):
The unofficial leader of the patients before McMurphy arrives, he is an intelligent, good-looking man who's ashamed of his repressed homosexuality. Harding's beautiful yet malcontent wife is a source of shame for him.
Charlie Cheswick (Acute):
A loud-mouthed patient who always demands changes in the ward, but never has the courage to see anything through. He finds a friend in McMurphy, who's able to voice his opinions for him. At one point McMurphy decides to fall in line when he learns his stay in the ward is indefinite and his release is solely determined by the Big Nurse. As a result, Cheswick drowns himself in the ward's swimming pool when he decides he himself will never escape the relentless Big Nurse.
Acutes:
The acutes are patients who officials believe can still be cured. With few exceptions, they are there voluntarily, a fact that angers McMurphy when he first learns of it, then later causes him to feel further pity for the patients, thus further inspiring him to prove to them they can still be strong despite their seeming willingness to be weak.
Chronics:
The chronics are patients who will never be cured. Many of the chronics are elderly and/or in vegetative states.
Plot:
The book is narrated by "Chief" Bromden, a gigantic yet docile half-Native American patient at a psychiatric hospital, who presents himself as deaf and mute. Bromden’s tale focuses mainly on the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, who faked insanity to serve his sentence for battery and gambling in the hospital rather than at a prison work farm. The head administrative nurse, Nurse Ratched, rules the ward with absolute authority and little medical oversight. She is assisted by her three day-shift orderlies and her assistant doctors.
McMurphy constantly antagonizes Nurse Ratched and upsets the routines of the ward, leading to endless power struggles between the inmate and the nurse. He runs a card table, captains the ward's basketball team, comments on Nurse Ratched's figure, incites the other patients to conduct a vote about watching the World Series on television, and organizes an unsupervised deep-sea fishing trip. His reaction after claiming to be able to and subsequently failing to lift a heavy control panel in the defunct hydrotherapy room (referred to as the "tub room") – "But at least I tried" – gives the men incentive to try to stand up for themselves, instead of allowing Nurse Ratched to take control of every aspect of their lives. The Chief opens up to McMurphy, revealing late one night that he can speak and hear. A disturbance after the fishing trip results in McMurphy and the Chief being sent for electroshock therapy sessions, but such punishment does little to curb McMurphy's rambunctious behavior.
One night, after bribing the night orderly, McMurphy smuggles two prostitute girlfriends with liquor onto the ward and breaks into the pharmacy for codeine cough syrup and unnamed psychiatric medications. McMurphy persuades one of the women to seduce Billy Bibbit, a timid, boyish patient with a terrible stutter and little experience with women, so he can lose his virginity. Although McMurphy plans to escape before the morning shift starts, he and the other patients instead fall asleep without cleaning up the mess of the group’s antics, and the morning staff discovers the ward in complete disarray. Nurse Ratched finds Billy and the prostitute in each other's arms, partially dressed, and admonishes him. Billy asserts himself for the first time, answering Nurse Ratched without stuttering. Ratched calmly threatens to tell Billy's mother what she has seen. Billy has an emotional breakdown, and once left alone in the doctor's office, commits suicide by cutting his throat. Nurse Ratched blames McMurphy for the loss of Billy's life. Enraged at what she has done to Billy, McMurphy attacks Ratched, attempting to strangle her to death, tearing off her uniform and revealing her breasts to the patients and aides who are watching. McMurphy is physically restrained and moved to the Disturbed ward.
Nurse Ratched misses a week of work due to her injuries, during which time many of the patients either transfer to other wards or check out of the hospital forever. When she returns she cannot speak and is thus deprived of her most potent tool to keep the men in line. With Bromden, Martini, and Scanlon the only patients who attended the boat trip left on the ward, McMurphy is brought back in. He has received a lobotomy, and is now in a vegetative state, rendering him silent and motionless. The Chief smothers McMurphy with a pillow during the night in an act of mercy before lifting the tub room control panel that McMurphy could not lift earlier, throwing it through a window and escaping the hospital.
Quotes:
1. “Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.”
Meaning (1):
To me: This quote, to me, means more than laughter being good medicine. Its about being happy with yourself so you don't lose yourself. Laughter and being happy provides you with a light for your dark path called life. Without it, you'll get lost.
To Ken Kesey: I believe that this particular quote meant something deep to the author. Maybe he was in a certain place in his life where he needed laughter, her needed to be happy. He used McMurphy to express that.
To anyone: Anyone who read this quote could relate to it immediately. Anyone knows what laughter can do and what it can mend. Reading this quote will only remind them of that. But it's deeper than "laughter is the best medicine." It's about using laughter to find your foothold in life.
Meaning (2):
The quote is central to understanding McMurphy's character and the way he deals with and sees life. Being able to laugh and poke fun is central to rebellion and fun, the very antithesis of Nurse Ratchet and the ward.
The other patients have lost their footing, lost the ability to stand for themselves because they've been robbed of this very quality through routine, medication and oppression.
McMurphy's the agent of chaos who's going to give it back to them or die trying. He persists beyond when things seem possible. Like when they switch off the TV during the big baseball game so McMurphy just carries on narrating like an excitable commentator. By doing so the others come to life and get involved, they re-find their footing even if it's briefly.
2. “All I know is this: nobody's very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.”
3. “He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.”
4. You can't really be strong until you see a funny side to things.
5. This world... belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak.
6. But I remember one thing: it wasn't me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all.
7. They can't tell so much about you if you got your eyes closed.
8. He won't let the pain blot out the humor no more than he'll let the humor blot out the pain.
Meaning: Basically this means that McMurphy will try to get the best of this situation and won't live it down like he had throughout most of the play.
9. What makes people so impatient is what I can't figure; all the guy had to do was wait.
References for characters:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo%27s_Nest_(novel)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randle_McMurphy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_Ratched
Reference for plot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo%27s_Nest_(novel)
References for quotes:
https://prezi.com/9e-wpvrvnsd7/man-when-you-lose-your-laugh-you-lose-your-footing/
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/156766?ref=one-flew-over-the-cuckoo%27s-nest
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/598763?ref=one-flew-over-the-cuckoo%27s-nest
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/473065?ref=one-flew-over-the-cuckoo%27s-nest
https://www.azquotes.com/quote/347944?ref=one-flew-over-the-cuckoo%27s-nest
Ref for Quote 1, Meaning 2: https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-understand-man-when-you-lose-your-laugh-you-lose-your-footing-by-Ken-Kesey-Are-there-any-examples-to-explain/answer/J-Carthy
Ref for quote 7: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2100252-one-flew-over-the-cuckoo-s-nest
Ref for quote 8: https://prezi.com/r9boum20bjpq/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/
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