One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Book

Chief Bromden, the half-Indian narrator of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, has spent the last ten years in an Oregon psychiatric hospital. His paranoia is obvious from the first lines of the One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Book, and he has hallucinations and delusions. Bromden’s worldview is dominated by his fear of the Combine, a massive conglomeration that controls society and forces people to conform. Bromden, despite being six feet seven inches tall, pretends to be deaf and dumb in order to go unnoticed.

Part 1: They’re Out There

Chief Bromden, the son of a Native American father and a white mother, begins the One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Book by recounting real and imagined humiliations at the hands of African-American hospital assistants. While they tolerate his treatment, despite the fact that he is physically much larger than them, Chief is more afraid of Big Nurse, Nurse Ratched.

The Nurse is described as a woman of great power and control who is resentful because her ruthless, machine-like efficiency is hampered by her naturally endowed large breasts. Despite her power, the paranoid-schizophrenic Chief believes she is working for the Combine, a vast mechanised network that hums behind the hospital’s walls and floors, controlling everything from the environment to human behaviour.

Randle Patrick McMurphy, a new patient on the ward, is introduced. McMurphy stands out from the other patients right away with his disregard for all authority. He gambles, swears, and makes obscene sexual remarks, and he immediately opposes Nurse Ratched. McMurphy expresses his opinion that Ratched is a “ball-cutter.” She exerts control over the men by encouraging them to spy on one another and to participate in group sessions in which they verbally brutalise one another.

They initially defend Ratched before agreeing with McMurphy’s assessment. He tries to assert his newfound power among the patients by requesting permission to watch the World Series on the ward’s television. When he is denied this permission, he turns on the television anyway. Ratched turns off the power to the television because she controls it. McMurphy, on the other hand, gains the upper hand by insisting on staring at a blank screen, which the other patients imitate.

Part 2: Just at the Edge of My Vision

In Part 2 of the One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Book, a lifeguard who is involuntarily committed to the hospital like McMurphy tells him that he must follow Ratched’s rules or risk having his sentence extended indefinitely. He moderates his rebellious behaviour, but he has already planted the seeds of rebellion in the minds of his fellow patients. When McMurphy is unable to back the patient Cheswick’s claims that he should be allowed to smoke, the disappointed man commits suicide by sinking himself in the pool where McMurphy first made a decision to “toe the line.”

Following this incident, McMurphy is informed that the other Acutes committed themselves of their own free will and that they are free to leave at any time. He reverts to his rebellious ways, smashing a window to get at the cigarettes, a symbolic action alluding to Cheswick’s lost battle with Ratched. Ratched, for his part, remains oblivious, waiting for McMurphy to make a mistake.

Part 3: After That

In the 3rd part of the One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Book details McMurphy’s successful attempt to take several of the patients fishing. Ratched attempts to scare the squeamish patients away from the trip by posting newspaper clippings of bad weather and sailing accidents, but the men rustle up their courage and go. Doctor Spivey, a morphine addict tricked by Ratched to recognise her authority, and Candy Starr, a young prostitute who proudly displays her physical feminine attributes, accompany the men on the trip. The trip inspires the group, and they return to the hospital to show off their newly discovered individuality.

Part 4: The Big Nurse

Ratched’s attempts to make the other patients suspicious of McMurphy’s motives begin Part 4 of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Book. She manipulates the conversation to make it appear that McMurphy is acting solely for his own benefit. Chief believes this assertion is correct, and he allows McMurphy to use his strength to win a bet against the other patients.

McMurphy, on the other hand, redeems himself in the eyes of the other men when he defends another patient from an enema administered by a belligerent hospital aide. A fight breaks out, and Chief steps in to help McMurphy. The fight is won by the two, but they are sent to the Disturbed Ward. McMurphy and Chief are subjected to electroshock therapy after refusing to apologise.

Chief returns to the ward before McMurphy and discovers that he and McMurphy have become heroes in the eyes of the other men. He demonstrates his ability to speak to the patients and tells them about McMurphy. McMurphy’s absence from the ward solidifies his reputation among the men. When he eventually returns, McMurphy tries to hide his mental strain with a false show of bravado.

While the other men have regained their sanity and sense of self, McMurphy begins to act like a parody of his former self. The other patients recognise McMurphy’s precarious condition and plot his escape. He refuses, however, to keep a promise he made to Billy Bibbit. Bibbit, a 31-year-old virgin, has a date with the prostitute Candy Starr.

McMurphy is transferred to the Disturbed Ward, and many of the patients assert their right to leave. When he is returned, the remaining patients are sceptical that the lobotomized body is McMurphy. When it is determined that it is he, Chief suffocates him and flees.