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One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Literary Analysis

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Imagine a life where people ignore us and treat us as if we were not even there, simply because they believe we do not have the same mental age as our peers and cannot hear. All on a day to day basis. When entering One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, one can tell that Chief Bromden, our Indian narrator, is fully aware of his surroundings and does not live up to the statement above; even though the nurses and aids in the ward think otherwise. In this novel, we see how Chief Bromden comes to understand that he is not the one who started to present himself as deaf and dumb, but it was the people around him that thought he was too dumb to hear what they were saying. Through Kesey’s writing, we come to see how McMurphy, a rough-n-tough fighting man, helps Chief regain his ability of speech and build his emotional and “physical” strength back to its fullest potential. …show more content…

“‘Juicy Fruit is the best I can do for you at the moment, Chief. Package I won off Scanlon pitchin’ pennies.’ And he got back in bed. And before I realized what I was doing. I told him Thank you” (217). Just from Chief observing how McMurphy interacts with the other patients, he subconsciously warmed up to McMurphy and felt comfortable around him, therefore feeling comfortable enough to subconsciously tell him ‘Thank you’ for the random act of kindness towards him. Though from the first time McMurphy met Chief, he suspected that Chief was fully capable of understanding and comprehending what was going on in his surroundings. “‘Well, what the hell, he can shake hands, can’t he? Deef or whatever. By God, Chief, you may be big, but you shake my hand or I’ll consider it an insult . . .’” (25). Although McMurphy more than likely was just showing off to the other patients when he was trying to get Chief to shake his hand, but he suspected that the claims of Chief being deaf and dumb were an

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