'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' Quiz

Answer: While working night shift at a Veterans' Hospital in California

According to his biography on the flyleaf, in 1957, Ken Kesey graduated from the University of Oregon with an Arts degree in speech and communication. Playwriting and screenwriting courses made up the majority of his major but he became disengaged so took literature classes to fulfil his major. After he graduated, he elected to enrol in the non-degree program at Stanford University's Creative Writing Center which led to his being awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. In the five years he was at Stanford he worked the night shift as an orderly in nearby Menlo Park Veterans Hospital.

At this time he volunteered to participate in Project MKULTRA, financed by the CIA. This project studied the effects of psychoactive drugs, such as LSD, on people. Kesey wrote detailed accounts of his experimentation and often spoke to hospital patients while under the effect of LSD. It was this role as a medical guinea pig, as well as his working environment in a state veterans' hospital (with access to LSD) that inspired him to write "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" in 1962.

Answer: Chief Bromden

Chief Bromden was the narrator and, even though is a major character in the story, he was 'just' an observer for most of the novel, which makes him an ideal narrator. He noticed everything that happened in the ward and how the staff reacted. Chief pretended to be deaf and unable to speak, and because of this everyone spoke freely around him. He appeared powerless, but he was powerful because of his gained knowledge.

His reliability as a narrator is never questioned, though he suffered from 'fog' and hallucinations. He had a theory about how the world works: he believed it was a huge machine (called The Combine) and everybody was just part of this machine. When parts of it were broken, they were sent to this hospital to be "fixed" so they could be placed back into this machine. He wanted no part of it, so resisted it. Part of this resistance was pretending to be deaf and mute. (The Combine, as we saw this novel through the Chief's eyes, is seen to be real and was a theme of the novel.)

His back story shows that he was once at one with the natural world, a world that his white mother wrecked when she persuaded Chief's father to sell his tribal lands for the construction of a dam on the Columbia River. This was Chief's first experience of mechanization triumphing over the natural world. When he tells this story he says his mother kept getting 'bigger' (a major theme) while his father had "shrunk" into alcoholic depression.

The Chief fought in WWII, but he has been a patient in the hospital ever since he returned from it. As such the reason for Chief's hospitalization is ambiguous. Maybe he had a breakdown over the decline of his father or from the horrors of war, this was speculative. As a reader, we never find out. Both scenarios involve an emasculating (firstly his mother and secondly within the hospital) and controlling authority (both major themes of the book). Such authority figures could provide substance for his dark vision of the society of oppression (hence The Combine.) It is also plausible that Chief was sane when he was admitted to the hospital but that his sanity failed when he received multiple electroshock 'treatments'. The paranoid hallucinations he suffers from, which revolve around hidden machines in the hospital that control the patients, are metaphors for the dehumanization he has experienced in his life.

Answer: The Big Nurse

Nurse Ratched is a flat character: Her character does not change at all throughout the whole novel. She started as a scheming, manipulative agent (of The Combine, according to Bromden) and is exactly the same at the end of the novel. Her portrayal can be compared to comic book villains as she asserted arbitrary control simply because she could.

Nurse Ratched was a tyrannical head nurse of the mental illness ward in a state hospital. She had near-total control over her patients and her subordinates. She placed control above patients' health and would, without any guilt, restrict her patients' access to medication, facilities and human necessities as she maintained control of the ward. She encouraged patients to inform on each other so she could stamp out any situation before it escalated. She even had complete control over her own emotions.

Bromden described Ratched by saying [she] "tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision-made machine. The slightest thing messy or out of kilter or in the way ties her into a little white knot of tight-smiled fury." Bromden thought she was an instrument of The Combine, and the wicker basket she carried contained instruments to control patients, not the expected feminine accoutrements. Bromden further stated that she resembled a "doll on the outside, but mechanized and steel underneath. Her expressions are always calculated and mechanical." Additionally, the Public Relations man depicted Ratched as "just like a mother" (in the book, emasculating mothers such as Mrs Bibbit and Mary Louise Bromden are prevalent; this is not meant by the author to be a compliment). Ratched also emasculated the men on the ward, making them misbehave like little boys and scared them from ever challenging her authority.

She was described as having a face that was "smooth, calculated, and precision-made, like an expensive baby doll, skin like flesh-coloured enamel, blend of white and cream and baby-blue eyes, small nose, pink little nostrils". She does, however, have one undeniably feminine feature: her large bosom, which she conceals as much as she can beneath a heavily starched uniform as she does not want her gender to be an issue). Her large bosom exuded sexuality and emphasized her role as a macabre mother figure for the ward. She was at times able to act like "an angel of mercy" but simultaneously shamed the patients into submission as she knew every patient's weak spots. She maintained her power by the judicious use of shame and guilt, as well as by a determination to "divide and conquer" her patients. Consider this excerpt from the novel where Nurse Ratched is addressing a group meeting of all the patients:

"Please understand: We do not impose certain rules and restrictions on you without a great deal of thought about their therapeutic value. A good many of you are in here because you could not adjust to the rules of society in the Outside World because you refused to face up to them. After all, you tried to circumvent them and avoid them. At some time-perhaps in your childhood-you may have been allowed to get away with flouting the rules of society. When you broke a rule you knew it. You wanted to be dealt with, needed it, but the punishment did not come. That foolish lenience on the part of your parents may have been the germ that grew into your present illness. I tell you this hoping you will understand that it is entirely for your own good that we enforce discipline and order."

Answer: Transferred from a work prison farm

McMurphy was serving a prison sentence at a state-run work farm but was transferred to the ward on suspicion of being a psychopath. He had a history of violent behaviour and was convicted of statutory rape. He was suspected of faking his state of mind to avoid the manual labour required of inmates on the farm and to complete his sentence in an easier environment that the relative comfort of a hospital ward offered.

Affable, optimistic and engaging, as well as a compulsive gambler, McMurphy soon made himself at home with his fellow inmates and evaluated the political landscape of his new environment. He was alarmed about what he observed and began to challenge slowly and deliberately the authority of Nurse Ratched. His mischief and laugh-filled nature, along with a few very minor victories over Nurse Ratched, earned him respect and admiration from the inmates, who then, in turn, questioned both their rights and their treatment.

At one stage McMurphy learned that his fate and release relied on the signature of Nurse Ratched and the doctor (who was under the control of Ratched), whereas most of the acute patients admitted themselves and were free to leave at any time. He then actually conformed with Ratched's rules at one point (with dire consequences for another patient), though he could not maintain this pretence as he couldn't abide by the rules of Nurse Ratched. His greatest strength (and one of his biggest weaknesses) was that he was never deflated by his defeats. He never allowed himself to be dissuaded from taking risks, which, in turn, inspired his fellow patients.

The battle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched continued to escalate - with McMurphy taking bigger and bigger risks until it resulted in an inevitable final tragedy.

Answer: Attendance at a college football match

When McMurphy, was admitted into the ward, his desire to improve conditions in the ward was almost always self-indulgent. He set up a card table and taught the inmates to gamble for cigarettes (which he usually won). He tried to convince Nurse Ratched to let the inmates watch the baseball World Series in the afternoons and then perform their afternoon tasks in the evening. Of course, Nurse Ratched was not going to let this happen as it would be a loss of control on her part. She protested about a basketball match between the Acutes and the hospital aides, but it was allowed to proceed. In all these activities McMurphy was seeking his own pleasure, but he could also see that the inmates enjoyed the activities and, further, it was Ratched's oppressive control of the ward that 'diminished' the men. Over time he became an advocate for the patients, trying to improve conditions for them rather than himself.

McMurphy managed to get approval for a fishing trip out on the ocean on a rented boat. The patients had the best time and the laughter, rarely seen until now, was loud and frequent. Of course, McMurphy had his own agenda, going below decks with a prostitute called Candy who later found she really liked Billy so McMurphy arranged a late night party in the ward in two weeks' time (he bribed the night watch Mr Turkle), so Billy could lose his virginity with Candy. On the planned occasion, two prostitutes were covertly allowed to enter the ward, late at night. They had vodka. Cough syrup was stolen from the ward dispensary and mixed with the alcohol. While the Billy-Candy relationship was consummated, the ward degenerated into a fuel-soaked mess and the aides came on the ward at 6:30 am to find drunken men asleep, two with prostitutes and a mess of spilt booze, broken glass and drunk inmates. This tested Nurse Ratched's resolve, but she maintained her calm. After McMurphy got into a fist fight with the aides in the aftermath (with Chief coming to the aid of McMurphy), Ratched demanded an apology. When there was none forthcoming, she sent him to electroshock therapy until he did. After repeated sessions he never apologized, despite the fear it caused knowing he was going to get another dose.

Answer: Washington

Dale Harding was the most articulate of the patients on the ward and was the apparent leader before McMurphy was admitted. With his college education, he was perhaps the most objective in showing McMurphy the way things worked in the ward. He was homosexual but the social pressure to 'conform' overwhelmed him. He was married, but he committed himself into the hospital to escape the prejudice and emasculation by his wife. McMurphy emboldened him, though, and after he observed the fate of McMurphy, Harding, being an acute (voluntary) patient, was strong enough to check out of the hospital.

Billy Bibbit was an acute patient who appeared younger than his 31 years. He was totally dominated by his mother, who was a close friend of Nurse Ratched (who used this knowledge, in turn, to totally control Billy, encouraging him to 'snitch' on his ward mates). Billy committed himself to the hospital on his own volition because he was overwhelmed by the outside world. After he spent the night with Candy Starr at the after-hours ward party, he was initially proud and stood up to Nurse Ratchet with a demonstrated lack of stutter. However, he was not strong enough to resist her control and paid the ultimate price.

Charlie Cheswick was an acute patient who recognized the need for change in the ward but was powerless to act. He saw an ally in McMurphy and when McMurphy had a few small initial wins, Cheswick was empowered. However, when McMurphy conformed to Nurse Ratched's rules to facilitate his release, Cheswick was despondent and drowned himself in the hospital swimming pool. Ratched blamed McMurphy for his death.

Washington, Williams, and Warren were all aides on the ward. They were completely under the control of Nurse Ratched. The Chief believed they were hired because each of them had sadistic streaks. That remained unproven; however, their sadistic nature was evident in the way they treated the patients.

Answer: Randle inadvertently empowered him

Dr Spivey was an interesting character. He was initially portrayed as being weak and emasculated by Nurse Ratched, possibly (though this was not proven) because he was addicted to analgesics and feared Ratched would expose this. However, he did sign off on McMurphy's proposed basketball game despite Ratched's protestations, and when there was only one girl (and hence only one car) to take the inmates to the fishing boat, Dr Spivey stepped up and offered to drive his car and accompany them on the trip despite Ratched stating no-one should go as Candy was not 'wholesome'. Nevertheless, they all went.

There is a crucial passage in the novel when the two cars stop at a gas station. The attendant noticed the men were from the mental hospital. Dr Spivey said they were a work crew. Chief Bromden narrated that "lying made us feel worse than ever-not because of the lie, so much, but because of the truth." The attendant bullied spineless Dr Spivey into buying more expensive extra-premium gas. McMurphy saw this, got out of the car, and said they would take regular gas and they were a "government-sponsored expedition." He added that they were "indeed crazy psychopathic criminals headed to San Quentin prison". McMurphy intimidated the attendant, telling him to send the gas bill to the hospital and use Dr Spivey's cash to buy beer for the men. The patients saw McMurphy using their mental illness as a tool of power, and they felt less nervous. By capitalizing on an almost universal social fear of insanity (in that era), McMurphy showed the men that they were not helpless, and that there was power in embracing the very people they were. Dr Spivey witnessed this as well, so when the fishing trip returned to a waiting Captain and police officers (as McMurphy had taken the boat without completing all the paperwork), Dr Spivey took charge. He told the cops they didn't have any jurisdiction as this was a "government-sponsored expedition," and therefore it should be a federal agency. He turned the tables by stating there "should be an investigation into the lack of lifejackets on board".

McMurphy had unknowingly empowered Dr Spivey.

Answer: The triumph of good over evil

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" probed what it meant to be sane or insane, but more importantly, who got to define what qualifies as sane and qualifies as insane. The novel insinuated that Nurse Ratched and all the other instruments of "sanity" in the novel are, in fact, insane. When Randle McMurphy is admitted to the ward, as a womanizing gambler, the reader can immediately determine that he indeed faked mental illness to escape the hard labour of a prison work camp to get relocated to the more comfortable ward and is perfectly sane. While Nurse Ratched suspected McMurphy was sane, Ratched had to treat him as insane because only then could she control him. So we had a ward that was meant to cure the insane but instead a head nurse was treating as insane a man who she believed to be sane. This was arguably, itself, insane behaviour.

The author's psych ward characters begs the question of the line between what is sane and insane. The characters are damaged and hurting, but are they insane or do they simply not fit in the rigid society of the 50s? Chief Bromden, successfully pretended to be deaf and mute for years, though in his role as narrator he was lucid. His hallucinatory fog appeared to be a manifestation of what the ward and the world had done to him, rather than a manifestation of the person himself. Dale Harding was an educated, articulate man, but because his homosexuality did not fit in society, he voluntarily admitted himself to a mental institution. Through these and other characters in the psych ward, the author asked where are the boundaries of sanity, and who determines them, and how just is a world that allows the strong to label the weak as insane just to shut them away, out of society's reach.

Nurse Ratched's need to exercise complete control over the men in her ward made her a metaphor for the whole mental institution, the government that funds it and indeed, society itself. After the sane/insane decision had been made, it was used to control and categorize people to make them easier to control, rather than "treat" and "rehabilitate" them. In this novel, the rehabilitation was more punitive and controlling than restorative, and not at all helpful as treatment. Mechanisms such as the electro-shock treatment table, tablets that caused memory loss, the daily meetings that riled men against each other, and the 'betrayal' list on Nurse Ratched's forcing them to snitch on each other were all methods to force patients to obey, not to make them healthy. A further example is categorizing the patients as Acutes and Chronics, which demonstrated a loss of human dignity: the men in the ward do not have names, just labels. There were no outside activities; indeed, there was nil exposure to the outside world. All ward 'therapy' was calculated with precision, which was exactly as Nurse Ratched demanded it. This allowed her to strip away all humanity from her patients to ensure she had complete control. This allowed her to run the ward like a well-oiled machine, as described by the chief as The Combine. McMurphy's ushering in of human dignity in his interactions with the men transformed them. They recovered their own lost human dignity, and, with McMurphy's help, they sought their own control, which was the autonomy to make their own decisions.

The author drew a distinct picture that equated the men's sexuality with freedom, or in other words their very ability to be men. The men are stripped of freedom by Nurse Ratched through shock, medication, intimidation and shame. This ensured the men had a set-in-stone unchanging schedule that made them submissive. McMurphy identified Ratched's MO as emasculation (he called her a 'ball-breaker'). As such, they operated diametrically in opposition in the ward, McMurphy with his bravado about sexual conquests against Ratched as an emasculating force who went to great pains to eliminate any femininity from her person, hiding her body behind a starched uniform.

The loss of masculinity is not solely due to the Nurse. The Chief feels emasculated by his mother for making his father look small, Harding is emasculated as his wife derides his homosexual friends and flaunts her promiscuity in front of him; Billy Bibbit's mother has complete control over him (except for one brief moment) until he has sex with Candy and can stand up to Nurse Ratched. Because of Billy's subsequent suicide, McMurphy is the one who loses control and rips nurse Ratched's uniform, revealing her breasts and feminine figure for the first time. This destroys her (institutionalised) mask of a non-feminine and even non-human facade, and rightly or wrongly re-asserts masculine dominance. It demonstrates to the men that Ratched is not some impersonal vengeful force, but she is a woman and that the men can be powerful too if they choose to reassert their masculinity [Author's note: It would be interesting to see how this would be interpreted in contemporaneous society, 60+ years after the book was first written].

There were other minor themes including the use of mechanical imagery to represent modern society (eg The Combine) and biological imagery to represent nature (featured heavily in the Chief's story).

Answer: True

The novel contains many references or inferences about Christian religion with the martyrdom of McMurphy being the most obvious one. However, this climatic event is foreshadowed long before it happened.

McMurphy's actions in the ward initially are Dionysian (sensual, spontaneous, and emotional) as he stands for drinking, gambling* and womanizing over any form of spirituality. However, there are elements of messianic qualities: his laughter represents the human spirit, whereas the public relations man's laugh is disingenuous and the patients' snickers are effects of The Combine. Later on the fishing boat (McMurphy took 12 people (disciples) and his laughter on that trip evokes the spirituality of a messiah as described by the Chief.

*McMurphy's death is foreshadowed by his love of gambling - he has a tattoo of aces over eights - known as the dead man's hand.

The author describes a hospital environment that depicts life as polarizing between pain (their everyday life) and laughter (McMurphy's) in a similar manner to the Christian doctrine of sin or salvation.

The initial reference to Jesus Christ occurs when patient Elli,s who has received many, many electroshock treatments, demonstrated the shape of the electroshock table by posing crucifixion-like by spreading his arms against the wall. This of course is an allusion to Christ nailed to the cross. Harding explained to McMurphy: "You are strapped to a table, shaped, ironically, like a cross, with a crown of electric sparks in place of thorns."

During the fishing trip, the patients embrace their identities (there is much laughter on their part) while McMurphy retreats into the background (he goes below deck with Candy). This part of the novel is indicative of a Pentecost, as the patients finally embrace the spirit of McMurphy through laughter and self-determination, just as the Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit following Christ's crucifixion.

The trial and consequent punishment of Christ was symbolized when McMurphy and the Chief were sent to the disturbed ward, where they were met with a patient who repeated, "I wash my hands" repeatedly, echoing Pontius Pilate. McMurphy lay down on the table with arms outspread, and referred to the electroshock conductant applied to his forehead as the anointing of "a crown of thorns."

The party held in the ward near the end of the novel represented the Last Supper. Cough syrup spiked with vodka represented transubstantiated wine. Candy and Sandy, the two prostitutes, were Mary Magdalene figures. The betrayal of Judas was portrayed by Billy Bibbit, not by blaming McMurphy for his sexual encounter with Candy but for his subsequent suicide. (Judas committed suicide after his betrayal of Judas to the Romans). Bibbit betrayed McMurphy's 'teachings' by abandoning his new-found self-realization and identity by not believing it could overcome the fear of his mother's expected condemnation.

There are some differences, however. After Billy's suicide, McMurphy realised his efforts to liberate the patients will all be in vain, so he turned unchrist-like and violent and attacked Ratched. This resulted in his lobotomization, thereby relinquishing his identity. This was not lost on the Chief, who suffocated him in a mercy killing, then escaped, and lived to tell his gospel of the life and 'teachings' of McMurphy. McMurphy's martyrdom had a different meaning from Christ's: Jesus died to redeem the sins of the individual, and McMurphy died to save the patients from the sins of society that were thrust upon them.

The other major difference between Jesus and McMurphy, was that McMurphy weakens as his 'followers' become stronger. In a sense this makes him a 'comic-book' hero, which was in keeping with McMurphy's language throughout the novel - it was never once spiritual, but was the language of the movie cowboy. Once again the author was able to produce a dichotomy that was a motif throughout the novel: in this case, McMurphy was portrayed as both a comic book hero and a Jesus Christ-like figure.

Answer: Randle failed, Chief succeeded

The control panel symbolised both The Combine and Ratched's Rules of the Ward. Both appeared too large to move or even change.

Randle McMurphy bet the other patients that he could lift the control panel, an object that was so heavy that other patients did not believe he could actually lift it, but they all wanted to see him try. He failed and walked away in pain ("At least I tried"). However, there is a sense of optimism as he fought against the unconquerable.

As part of his 'duty' to make Chief 'big' again, McMurphy encouraged Chief to get his former strength back. At the end of the novel, Chief threw the control panel out of the window and escaped. Figuratively, Bromden used a symbol of his own oppression within the hospital to liberate himself from it, and also from The Combine in general.

The Chief, by throwing the control panel, demonstrated the progress of the men in the time frame of the novel. He needed to return to his home and see his natural surroundings and if his relatives had discovered ways around the (Combine-constructed) hydroelectric dam. He had a need to reconnect to both his past (pre-Combine) and his future (bypassing The Combine).
The final line was accurate (in both a literal and figurative sense) - he had been away from home far too long and he had been mentally absent.

This is where the movie ends and the viewer believed the Chief was free, and hence becomes the one who flew over the cuckoo's nest. However, the novel is more ambiguous: Chief was a 'Chronic' and therefore never free to leave the hospital at all. When he escaped from the hospital, the path he took was the same path along which he saw the dog chase the geese, and the dog ran toward the headlights of an approaching car (which can be interpreted as a battle between nature versus machine and one that an animal cannot ever win). The dog was doomed. The reader is therefore in two minds as to whether Chief ever did make it to freedom, or whether he returned to the hospital where he wrote down his recollections of McMurphy and the changes McMurphy was able to make in the patients of the ward. If you read the first chapter again, it appears (author's emphasis) that the Chief is telling his story (the novel) in past tense from the hospital ward. This makes Randle McMurphy the one who flew over the cuckoo's nest.