One+Flew+Over+the+Cuckoos+Nest+By+Stewart+M

__** One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest **__ __** Ken Kesey **__ ** Journal Entry One ** ** Pages 1-60 ** The story starts off from the point of view of Chief Bromden, who is currently the longest residing patient at Nurse Ratched’s psychiatric ward. This special ward or hospital is for human beings with [|mental illnesses].media type="youtube" key="iIydrSMyNq0" width="339" height="280" align="right" Chief starts to explain the typical day in the ward, but before he does that he explains the two groups of people that reside there. They tend to be split up. One of the groups is called the Chronics. The Chronics are patients who are very antisocial or do not talk at all and tend to be the most mentally ill. Chief plays it off as if he’s deaf and dumb, but he really knows what’s going on and doesn’t let anyone know that, and plays off as a chronic. The acutes on the other hand act like normal human beings, but have some personality traits that still consider them to be mentally ill. The employees who watch over the patients are Nurse Ratched and her three black aides. Nurse Ratched was described as having “skin like flesh-colored enamel, blend of white and cream and baby-blue eyes, small nose, pink little nostrils”(6). After a couple of pages into the book McMurphy is introduced, who is a patient who has just arrived and is believed to be sane and is just playing the role to get out of jail work.



The daily life of the ward included “medicine time”, which is when all the patients have to stop what they are doing and are given a pill and take it with water. There are also the psychiatric meetings, which all the acutes sit around and talk about their problems. Normally it’s pretty quiet, but Ms. Ratched knows how to get them talking by making them feel bad and pressuring them into it. So, when they start talking they tell her everything. During this whole meeting a character by the name of Dale Harding is speaking the whole time about his wife problems. After the meeting is over, McMurphy pulls Harding aside and tries to explain to him that what Nurse Ratched is doing is horribly wrong and is corrupting him, when he believes he is actually a pretty sane man. But Harding explains to McMurphy that she’s doing the right thing and it’s for the better of him. McMurphy quickly learns that cigarette smoking is a big part of the everyday life in the hard and happily partakes in it.



So far I have enjoyed the novel a lot. It is a lot different from the movie, which I have seen in the past, because the book is taken from the persepective of Chief Bromden, where as in the book it is taken from the perspective of McMurphy. I enjoy seeing it from a different point of view and it makes the novel even more interesting. I really like how every character has a very specific personality that makes them all different, none of the characters are very alike and it makes the book amusing because it makes the plot a lot more confusing. I believe this novel has displayed [|how doctors over prescribe medicine]and just throw it out not knowing how it may effect each patient. So far nothing disappoints me about the book.

__**Possibly Research Topics:**__
 * They all smoke cigarettes
 * Chief Bromden is half Indian
 * The aides are black
 * “Shaving room” Electric Room
 * Psychiatric Hospital

** Journal Entry Two ** ** Pages 61-126 **

The novel resumes with McMurphy complaining about the music that the ward plays, which is always played over a loud speaker. McMurphy confronts Nurse Ratched and requests that she turns it down, but she explains to him that some of the patients are hearing impaired and need it turned up so they can enjoy the music. Later that night McMurphy confronts Bromden as they are about to fall asleep and discovers that he is not deaf by telling him that one of the staff members is coming to tie him into bed and Bromden responds immediately. In the same night Chief doesn’t take his medication, which causes him to have, a nightmare that the hospital is turned into a slaughterhouse. In this slaughterhouse the staff has hanged Blastic, and coincidentally Chief wakes up to find out that Blastic died in his sleep that night. That next morning McMurphy asks one of the aides for toothpaste but is told that it’s against ward policy and substitutes it with soap powder. Throughout this section of the book McMurphy has been playing cards with all the other patients and has caused them to all gamble and lose their cigarettes. Ms. Ratched does not like gambling in her ward and starts to get upset with this.



They have another [|psychotheraputic meeting] and in this meeting McMurphy proposes the idea that Nurse Ratched allows them to watch the world series and at first she says no. So McMurphy tries to reason with her by saying they should change the schedule so they clean at night and watch the game in the afternoon, but Ms Ratched still wouldn’t change her mind. McMurphy then proposes to take a group vote and the only one that stands up for McMurphy is Cheswick and he gets himself in a lot of trouble and makes Ms. Ratched very upset. McMurphy then goes on to say how they are going to break out of a window and go to a bar to watch the game. Bromden then tells McMurphy how he is trying to drag them out of the fog, but he feels safe in the fog and doesn’t want to leave the fog. Bromden later had another hallucination and it’s that human body parts are being delivered to the hospital. They then have another group meeting where McMurphy tells Nurse Ratched that he would like to have a revote on whether or not to watch the world series, but Ms. Ratched makes it so he can’t win by making the chronics part of the voting process, but they don’t even know what’s going on. This section then ends with McMurphy going in front of the TV with the other acutes and acting as if the game is on, while ignoring Ratched who is yelling at them telling them to resume their duties.

I am continuing to enjoy this book. I have noticed some similar scenes from the movie, but they tend to be changed a little. For instance, they play monopoly in the movie, but it’s only for a short period, where in the book it’s for three days. I believe this book is getting more interesting, because McMurphy is continuing to test Nurse Ratched and upset her and I’m wondering if she’s going to send him to the “shock room.” I also wonder if Nurse Ratched can do anything more harmful other than the shock room, that maybe McMurphy does not know about and could really harm him.

__**Possibly Research Topics:**__
 * Hallucinations
 * They play board games such as, Monopoly
 * They gamble in card games
 * The World Series
 * Group Therapeutic meetings

Journal Entry Three **Pages 127-224**

Part two of the novel starts off with all the patients still watching the television screen, but it is still blank. However, McMurphy is not watching and everyone is watching Nurse Ratched to see how she will react to this rebellious behavior, which McMurphy has sparked. Later on a staff meeting is held in the staff room where Chief is sweeping and he over hears them debate whether or not to send McMurphy to the Disturb ward. Ms. Ratched does not approve and says that McMurphy is her ward’s responsibility and that they will straighten him out.

McMurphy continues to annoy Ratched and her staff and encourage the patients to follow in his footsteps. This causes Ms. Ratched to grow even more upset. The patients even challenge and empower Nurse Ratched at their group therapy meetings, by questioning what she says and disagreeing with what she believes. Then McMurphy has a revelation one day when they go to the pool and the lifeguard informs McMurphy that his stay is indefinite and that unlike in a prison when you know you will be released, the mental institution decides when to release you. This causes McMurphy to change his ways and become a model patient. He starts doing so by cleaning the latrine and keeping his wisecracks to a minimum. Due to McMurphy’s change in behavior the ward returns to it’s normal state and Nurse Ratched takes back complete control of the ward. One day Chief accompanies the Acutes to the library. At the library Vera, Harding's wife, is visiting. Vera is very rude to Harding and treats him with little to no respect, just as he had discussed in the group therapy meetings. McMurphy and Harding have a deep conversation where McMurphy explains to Harding how he feels bad for him and that he needs to learn to stick up for himself. Following the trip to the library, Nurse Ratched holds a group meeting where she informs the patients that they will be punished for their previous rebellious behavior. Their punishment is that they cannot play cards in the tub room anymore and she will be taking away their cigarettes. In response to this decision, McMurphy walks over to the Nurses’ station and smashes his hand through the glass and retrieves the cigarettes. He then shares the cigarettes with the rest of the patients in revolt.

Then part three begins and starts off with McMurphy devising a plan to go on a fishing trip with the rest of the acutes. All of part three takes part at the fishing trip where McMurphy has brought his girlfriend Candy Starr along. When they first arrive at the dock, the fishermen make negative comments to the patients and the boat captain refuses to give them a boat, because they never filled out legal waivers. Thus, causing McMurphy to distract the captain and make the patients steal a boat. They later come back from their fishing adventure with tons of fish and are met with compliments and are not disciplined for their actions, surprisingly.

As I have said in the previous journals, I really enjoy this book. I felt part two was very interesting, because McMurphy realizes that he has to change his ways in order to get out of the ward, but I am confused as to why at the end of part two he goes and steals the cigarettes. This confuses me because I thought he realized that he has to act more maturely if he wants to leave the ward, but he broke the rules and angered Nurse Ratched. Part three was most likely my least favorite part so far, because this whole part of the book is just talking about how they are on a fishing trip. Because they just talk about them on the fishing trip it makes it very boring.

__**Possibly Research Topics:**__
 * Fishing Trips
 * Violent/Abusive Punishments
 * Prison Sentencing
 * Theft of boats
 * Disturbed wards vs Normal Wards

Journal Entry Four ** Pages: 225-281 **

This part of the novel starts off with Chief Bromden discovering that Nurse Ratched is working on counterattacking the relationship that McMurphy has with the fellow acutes. Nurse Ratched starts to tell the acutes that McMurphy is using them to make money. For example, she says that he has won more than $300 from the other patients and that he is taking credit for giving the patients items and freedoms. She also remarks that McMurphy some how made money off of the fishing trip. Nurse Ratched plants all of this into the acute’s heads while McMurphy is making a call to Candy Starr, a friend of his, who he is trying to get to come and visit. This plan that McMurphy devises, seems it make him appear even worse because he then asks for money from Billy, so Starr can bring alcohol when she visits. McMurphy starts to notice that everyone around him is acting weird and suspicious and he doesn’t understand why. While all the patients were showering McMurphy started to harass one of the aides who earlier in the story had gave McMurphy a bloody nose while playing basketball. Chief steps in to defend McMurphy and this causes them to get handcuffed and sent to the Disturbed Ward. At the disturbed ward Chief and McMurphy receive electroshock treatment. McMurphy continues to receive three more [|treatments], but continues to be rebellious while stationed in the Disturbed Ward. While McMurphy was gone the patients devised a plan for McMurphy to escape, but he didn’t want to because he wants to have Starr come and visit.

Due to McMurphy’s behavior the doctors propose that they perform “surgery” on McMurphy to change his attitude and behavior. McMurphy doesn’t realize what kind of surgery this is and just treats it as if it’s a joke. La ter that day McMurphy bribes the night watchman to let Starr and her friend in and she brings large amounts of alcohol and marijuana. While this “party” is occurring McMurphy and Harding have a conversation where McMurphy discovers that Harding is bisexual, and McMurp hy responds by s aying all individuals are different and it’s ok. Nurse Ratched later busts the party and she threatens Billy to call his mom and tell her that he lost his virginity. This causes Billy to commit suicide and this enrages McMurphy. McMurphy then attacks Nurse Ratched. This is the final straw causing McMurphy to receive his [|lobotomy]. To put McMurphy out of his misery Chief suffocates him and then escapes from the ward.

This was a very hectic and chaotic end to the book and I enjoyed it. It was crazy because there were parties going on, people losing their virginity, people committing suicide, people killing each other, and people escaping. I enjoyed this ending, because Chief (the poor innocent guy) gets out of the ward and will get to live a normal life. I think it is very interesting to watch the movie and then read the book, in either order, and compare how they are different and similar. I have found many similarities and differences from the two. Also, I have found things that were added to the book that weren't in the movie and vice versa.

__**Possibly Research Topics:**__ __Trailer For One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest__ media type="youtube" key="jReNeEHH2lQ" width="425" height="350" align="center"
 * Illegal use of Marijuana
 * Alcohol Abuse
 * Lobotomies
 * Committing Suicide
 * Escaping from imprisonments
 * Shock Therapy/Treatment