One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Analysis Questions

Directions: Answer these questions while reading the novel. YOU MUST support each of your
answers with a direct quote from the novel. Be sure to cite each quote using the author’s last
name and the page number it is on. For example (Kesey 65)

*Download this document and type directly on it. Please use a different color font so your
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PART ONE

Pgs-3-41
 Who is the narrator? What does he tell the reader about himself? What do others think of
him?
Chief Bromden, he is a long-term schizophrenic patient in a psychiatric ward, everyone
thinks he is deaf and dumb. “They laugh and then I hear them mumbling behind me,
hospital secrets. They don't bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets when
I'm nearby because they think I'm deaf and dumb" (Kesey 3)

 How does the Chief describe the “Big Nurse”? Why specifically does he describe her in
terms of being “machine” like? How do other characters react to her?
He describes her as having "skin like flesh-colored enamel" and says that her fingertips
smooth, and of a strange orange colorl He sees her as a "Big tractor" “Her face is flesh-
colored enamel, blend of white and cream and baby-blue eyes, small nose, pink
Kin like little nostrils" (Kesey s)

 When Chief gets scared, what does he do? What memory does he think of?
Chief be to scram and hallucinate be thinks he is being surrounded by machines; the
nurses end up having to medicate him. He mentions that his forthcoming story about
the psych ward might seem too awful to be true. “Been silent so long now it’s gonna roar
out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and my God; you
think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But
please!” (Kesey8)908-iopuyi

 On page 13, Bromden states, “you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my
God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the
truth! But, please. It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it’s the
truth even if it didn’t happen.” What does the narrator mean by this? Is the narrator a
credible source for the reader? Explain.
 How does the “new” admission react to the orderlies differently from the ordinary
admission?
McMurphy undermines nurse Ratched’s control while he tries to seems nice to everyone
in the ward, he now understands that he is under the nurse’s control and that she can do
anything she wants with him “Been silent so long now its gonna roar out of me like
floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving God; you think this
is too horrible to have really happened, this is to awful to be the truth!”

 Describe the new admission. Use 3 specific details from the text. Who does Bromden
compare him to?

McMurphy is large, intelligent and very observant, he introcued gambling to the ward
and encourages men to rebel against the rules created by Nurse Ratched. “I figure, you
see, buddy, to be sort of the gambling baron on this ward, deal a wicked game of
blackjack. So you better take me to your leader and we’ll get it straightened out who’s
gonna be boss aound here.” (Kesey 19)

 Why is R. P. McMurphy on the ward?

He is faking a mental illness to get out of work. “Nobody left in that Pendleton Work
Farm to make my days interesting anymore, so I requested a transfer, ya see. Needed
some new blood.” (Kesey 19)

 Who are the Acutes?

Patients that seem to be curable , like McMurphy, Harding, Cheswick and Billy, they
challenge Nurse Rachet’s authority. “He waks to one of the card games, tips an Acute’s
cards up with a thick, heavy finger, and squits at the hand and shakes his head”(Kesey 12)

 Who are the Chronics?

Patients who used to be acutes but became mentally damage by excessive shock therapy,
“Chronics are divided into walkers, like me, can still get around if you keep them fed,
and Wheelers and Vegetables. What the Chronics are-or most of us- are machines with
flaws inside that can’t be repaired”

 What is the “Shock Shop”?

A room in the hospital where the electroshock therapy to the brain was given. “Ellis it's a
chronic came in an acute and fouled up bad when they overloaded him in that filthy
brain murdering room that the black boys call the shop shop” (Kesey 17)

 What is the “Combine” Chief keeps mentioning? What does a real Combine do? How do
the two Combines compare?

The combine is a Society of people that live in the place of real combine is a giant
machine that helps get products both combines help give out product in the end. “Across
 the room from the Acutes are the culls of the Combine’s product, The Chronics.” (Kesey
15)

 Why do the Acutes avoid the Chronics? Why do they stay away? How does Big Nurse use
this to her advantage?
They avoid the Chronics because they are different and can’t be cured from their illness.
Big nurse threatens them by saying she will move them from their cute group to the
Chronics group. “she'll point out to an acute, whenever he goes into a sulk, that you boys
be good boys and cooperate with the staff policy which is engineer for your cure, or you'll
end up over on that side”

 Describe Harding. Give 3 specific descriptions from the text.

“Harden is a flat nervous man with a phase that sometimes makes you think you've seen
him in the movies, like it's a face too pretty just to be a guy on the street. He's got wide
then shoulders he curved them around his chest when he's trying to hide inside himself.
He's got hands so long and wide and dainty I think they carved each other out of soap
and sometimes they get loose and glide around in front of him free as to wild birds until
he notices them and traps in between his knees it bothers him that he's got pretty hands”
(Kesey 20)

 What does Chief think as McMurphy “inspects” him for the first time?
Chief felt almost uncomfortable around him and he was confused on why he was doing
such a big inspection. “McMurphy leaned his head down near mine where I had to look
at him. Is that right? You deef, chief?” (Kesey 24)

 How does Nurse Ratched have power on the ward?

She has power by controlling some of the people and can kind of make them follow her
lead. “When she finally gets the three, she wants--get them one at a time over a number
of years, weaving them into her plan and her network-- she's then positive they hate
enough to be capable.” (Kesey 30)

 Why was Mr. Taber corrected? What was his “punishment”?

Mr. Taber was corrected because he was asking the same questions to big nurse over and
over. His punishment was the shop shock. “if Mr. Taber chooses to act like a child, he
might have to be treated as such.” (Kesey 34)

 What can we predict is going to happen on the ward now that McMurphy seems to be
keeping Nurse Ratched’s “outfit” from running smoothly?
We can predict that McMurphy will try to pass the nurse off and make her insane.” And,
like I explain, the big nurse gets real put out if anything keeps her outfit from running
smooth.” (Kesey 41)

 Pgs 42-75
 What is the fog?
the fog is used to symbolize our character creating a fake reality for the patients in their
own situation. “One of these days I'll quit straining and let myself go completely, lose
myself in the fog the way some of the other Chronics have.” (Kesey 420

 How does Nurse Ratched exhibit her power over the patients during the group meeting?
How does Randall react? What is the doctor’s reaction?
She announces that the patients should be punished for their insubordination. “We came
to the same conclusion- that there should be some manner of punishment meter out for
the unspeakable behavior concerning the house duties thrww weeks ago.”(Kesey 199)

 What is the theory of the Therapeutic Community?

“Patients sit together and they are encouraged to bring out old sins and talk about them.
Mr. Mx-Murphy, one of the first things is that the patients remain seated during the
course of the meeting. It’s the only way, you see for us to maintain the order”(Kesey 48)

 Describe Pete Bancini. Give 3 specific details from the novel. What “words of wisdom”
does he tell the men on the ward that goes unheeded? What does Chief compare Bancini
to on page 53?
He is one of the patients, he suffered from brain damage when he was born, he also told
the rest of the patients that he was born dead, he tells them all the time how tire he is.
“Old Pete Bancini, sways to his feet and starts wagging his head and wheezing. ‘Im tired.
Whew. O Lord. Oh, I’m awful tired…’ The way he does whenever theres a new man on
the ward who might listen to him” (Kesey 49)

 Describe Harding’s metaphor of the rabbit and the wolf. Who are the “rabbits” and who
are the “wolves”?
He compares the defenseless patients, to rabbits who have no power when compared to
the nurses, who he calls wolves. “He is frightened, desperate, intellectual little rabbit,
totally incapable of running this ward without Miss Batched’s help and he knows it.”
(Kesey 63)

 What bet does McMurphy make by the end of page 69 with the other Acutes?
He thinks he will not get sent to the Shop Shock and they tell him to stay on his line.
“And my friend, if you continue to demonstrate such hostile tendencies, such as telling
people to go to hell, you get lined up to go to the Shock Shop, perhaps even on the
greater things, an operation.” (Kesey 65)

 Pgs 76-101

 What does Chief say Nurse Ratched can control? When does she lose control of it
according to Chief?
 She has control over the ward’s clock and can slow or speed up time willingly. “The Big
Nurse is able to set the wall clock at whatever speed she wants by just turning one of
those dials in the steel door; she takes a notions to hurry things up , she turns the speed
up, and those hands whip around that disk like spoke in a wheel.” (Kesey 76)

 How does McMurphy manipulate the men during the card game?
He manipulates the doctor and the other patients the same way, he figures out what they
want, and also makes them think they are close to getting it. “Once he took a break for a
cigarrete and tilted back inn his chair, his hands folded behind his head, and told the
guys, “The secret of being a top-notch con man is being able to know what the mark
wants, and how to make them think he’s getting it.” (Kesey 88)

 What effect do the red pills have? Why won’t Chief take them?
How does he avoid getting caught?
The pill paralyzes the patients. Chief doesn’t take them because he knows that they just
want to immobilize the patients so they can’t realize what’s happening around them.
“When you take one of those red pills you don’t just go to sleep; you’re paralyzed with
sleep, and all night long you can’t wake, no matter what goes around you. That’s why the
staff gives me the pills; at the old lace I took to waking up at night and catching them
performing all kinds of horrible crimes on the patients sleeping around me.” (Kesey 85)

 What is the significance of Chief’s description of the ward on page 79-82? How does this
description connect with the idea of the Combine? What is Chief’s fear? What does he
want to do?

 McMurphy is singing in the shower, and Chief wonders why he isn’t being yelled at for
raising a racket. Answer the question Chief asks himself at this point in the novel. “He
lives under the same laws, gotta eat, bumps against the same troubles; these things make
him just as vulnerable to the Combine as anybody else, don’t they?”
The reason that he is able to do these things is because the way that he acts. he is wild
and free an also charming and a way that people tend to like this allows him to get away
with many things. A good example of his character is when he is being yelled at about
cleaning the toilet bowl. He turns the situation into a joke by saying “No: that's a toilet
bowl… a TOILET bowl” (Kesey 140). This show his fan character that makes people at
the world like him more so he can get away with more things than most.

 What is the “towel” incident? Describe what happened. How did McMurphy “get” Nurse
Ratched? How did Nurse Ratched react?

The towel incident is a confrontation between McMurphy and big nurse. McMurphy Got
out of the shower and said that he did not have clothes. Then he told her someone stole
his clothes. He then dropped his towel, revealing his underwear. she was very upset
 because she called Mr. Washington to get her new pair of clothes. She then calmed
herself. “she's glaring at those big white whales leaping around on his shorts in pure
wordless outrage”

 Pgs 101-145

 Why do you think McMurphy says, “you couldn’t pay me to leave this place”?

. He says this because he likes being held in there this is because he says that he enjoys
being here more than any other place. “you couldn't pay me to leave this place “ (Kesey
103, this implies that he likes it there because not even money would make him to leave.

 What does the Doctor suggest they do on the ward? What are the patients’ reactions?
What is Nurse Ratched’s reaction? Why would she be against it?
He wants to put up a carnival on the ward. “I wondered what the attitude of some of the
men toward a carnival here on the ward” (Kesey 108)

 How does McMurphy win the “radio” battle and a second day room? According to Chief,
who will win in the long run and why?

He says he needs to turn it up so people with bad hearing can also hear it, but the
younger people complain saying that it is loud enough. “He suggested the speaker be
turned up louder so the Chronics with auditory weakness could hear ir” (Kesey 110)

 What do the patients do when McMurphy asks to change the schedule to watch the
World Series that shows the Nurse has control over them? Why is McMurphy so angry
with the patients?
The nurse says no because it would change their routine. “She tells him how the schedule
has been set up for a delicately balanced reason that would be thrown into turmoil by the
switch of routines” (Kesey118)

 The control panel is an important symbol to the novel. How is the control panel at this
point in the novel significant?
It is important because it is what cut him when he tried lifting it because it was very
heavy. This shows how hard it is to change the rules in the ward. “…because of the
bandage where that control panel cut into him when he tried to lift it.”(Kesey 140)

 Why does Chief say, “What makes people so impatient is what I can’t figure; all the guy
had to do was wait.”? What is he discussing? What s his opinion?
He is talking about hearing the shipment of organs rumbling into the storage down the
coal chute. “I can hear the rumble into cold storage down the coal chute” (Kesey 129)

 How does Nurse Ratched win the battle over the second vote to watch the World Series?
How does McMurphy win? What does this mean for Chief?
She holds absolute power over the ward. “You are under the jurisdiction of me” (Kesey
144). They just ignore her and drop all the cleaning supplies and watch the game.