Chapters 1 - 5
2) The nurse gives the orderlies the gallon jar of vaseline because the patient is unwilling to have his temperature taken orally so they need the vaseline to take the patient's temperature rectally.
4) A head installation is a lobotomy. When Ruckley came back he had an "oily purple bruise and two littlebutton-sized pulgs stitched one above each eye." (Kesey 16). Before the head installation, Ruckley was kicking the orderlies and biting student nurses' legs, after the head installation, he would only look at an old photograph.
Chapters 6 - 10
1) Chief Bromden's belief that Nurse Ratched controls the clocks on the ward develops the power and control that Nurse Ratched possesses as well as Chief's knowledge or realisation that Nurse Ratched "abuses" her power. Chief says that the Big Nurse can change the speed of the clocks to whatever she wants "by just turning one of those dials in the steel door" (Kesey 76). This shows how Ratched is in complete control over everything that happens in the ward while it is under her watchful eye, like a machine with its engineer close by at all times. Chief also says that Ratched tends to speed up time on days that one would want to move slowly so that you can enjoy the moment and slows time down on days that are simply the regular routine. This shows that, although Chief is still intimidated by the Big Nurse and she has power of his body, Nurse Ratched does not control his thoughts. He does not listen to her because he has no other options, but because it is the wisest option.
2) The young Catholic nurse reacts as though McMurphy is trying to sexually force himself upon her when all he wanted to do was simply help her by picking up the watering can that she had dropped. McMurphy's intentions were more considerate than courteous, yet the nurse acts as though his chivalry was actually sexual harassment or assault. This shows how patients are forbidden from performing any action that can possibly be considered courteous, let alone any action that can be considered sexual.
Chapters 11 - 15
1) McMurphy's laughter keeps him safe by not letting anything that Nurse Ratched or the orderlies do appear to bother him. His laughter keeps him from reaching his breaking point and as a result keeps him out of the Disturbed Ward.
2) The irony is in two parts. He says that the ward is a nice place, yet the patients are victims of matriarchy. He also says that if someone would want to leave the ward, they would have something wrong with them when having something wrong with them is the reason for their being at the ward in the first place.
Chapters 16 - 20
3) Cheswick drowned when his hand got caught in a grate that is over a drain. This is symbolic of how holding on to the hopes of overthrowing Nurse Ratched can have harsh consequences. The great symbolises the hope, and Nurse Ratched's power and control are symbolised the pool water and the screws that keep the grate in place. McMurphy had shown up at the ward and started getting patients to think more about their voices being heard. Cheswick refused to back down when he challenged Ratched, and this is symbolised by his hand get caught and being unable to be pulled free from the grate.
5) It is expressing how the ward is like a machine that went haywire and is almost fully repaired. The chaos that McMurphy causes made the ward go out of routine and once the machine is repaired the ward is back to the usual daily routine.
Chapters 21 - 25
1) Chief continues to act like he is deaf and dumb because it helps him stay in the background. In the ward, being noticed is not always the best thing seeing as when you are noticed, it is because there is something wrong that needs to be corrected. Going unnoticed is much safer. When you are in the background, less people want to "fix" you. I find that it makes him a more efficient narrator since he can describe more characters' actions and expressions by being uninvolved instead of being able to describe the actions and expressions of a few people who happen to be in his line of sight.
3) I think that McMurphy punching through the window had been a premeditated act. The way that he simply punches through, grabs some cigarettes and calmly apologises makes it seem as though he had prepared himself for it, even if it may have only been a few seconds of preparation but still preparation none-the-less
Chapters 26 - 29
5) Yes because no matter what she does, McMurphy will always be the patient that was courageous and/or crazy enough to perform the sexualized act at all, and that simple little pinch was something that she would have never expected. It was McMurphy's match being taken to Ratched's wooden fortress after being doused in kerosene. McMurphy was the unstoppable force that was capable of shattering Ratched's immovable object.
6) As difficult as it might be, I would smother McMurphy and just live with the guilt. There would be two options; let McMurphy live a life without active emotions or smother him and save him from being forced to live a life with no meaning.
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