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Why Is Chief Bromden Weak

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Chief Bromden, nicknamed “Chief Broom” because the aides make him sweep the halls, narrates One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Although he says that he is telling the story about “the hospital, and her, and the guys—and about McMurphy,” he is also telling the story of his own journey toward sanity. When the novel begins, Bromden is paranoid, bullied, and surrounded much of the time by a hallucinated fog that represents both his medicated state and his desire to hide from reality. Moreover, he believes that he is extremely weak, even though he used to be immensely strong; because he believes it, he is extremely weak. By the end of the novel, the fog has cleared, and Bromden has recovered the personal strength to euthanize McMurphy, escape from the hospital, and record his account of the events. …show more content…

Everyone in the hospital believes that he is deaf and dumb. When McMurphy begins to pull him out of the fog, he realizes the source of his charade: “it wasn’t me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all.” As Bromden himself is demystified, so too is the truth behind what has oppressed him and hindered his

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He also felt that McMurphy was bigger than him, even though Bromden is about 6’7. Its only when Bromden starts hanging out with McMurphy is that he starts to feel his is big again and grows as a person in terms of self-confidence. By Bromden suffocating McMurphy, this shows that Bromden has truly grown in terms of self-confidence, because if this were to happen in the beginning of the novel Bromden would have just stood by and done nothing about what had happened to McMurphy. McMurphy has done what he set out to do from the beginning of his stay in the ward, which was given the men a sense of pride and confidence, which he has now given to Bromden. Bromden’s character has now developed opposite of Mcmurphy.

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(Kesey, 142). In this section of the novel, we discover that Chief Bromden was the last vote of the meeting, and we also learn that he himself chose to raise his hand to participate in the vote, rather than sitting in silence. Through this quote, it proves to the readers that Chief Bromden has built a sense of confidence, and is now able to stand up for himself as well as his other fellow patients, rather than letting the nurse and helpers beat him around like they did before. As said earlier, whenever the fog machine was turned on, it usually signified that he wanted to hide away from the others. However, this time it was not “turned on” because he felt the courage to make his own decisions.

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Additionally, his ability to have full awareness triggers the newfound sense of confidence in himself that he uses to finally escape from the ward. One night when Bromden is lying awake in the ward, he describes, “I was seeing lots of things different. I figured the fog machine had broke down in the walls when they turned it up too high for that meeting on Friday... For the first time in years I was seeing people with none of that black outline they used to have, and one night I was even able to see out the window” (Kesey 162).

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The fog begins to appear when Nurse Ratched gains full control and power over the men. However, they “haven’t really fogged the place full force all day, not since McMurphy came in” (78). Bromden’s hallucinations incorporate a thick fog that begins to fade only with McMurphy’s arrival to the ward. The fog represents an escape from reality for Bromden as well as the “pollution” the mechanical nature of society has developed. Bromden physically cannot see through the fog without the help of McMurphy: the beacon of hope that follows his natural impulses.

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When Bromden was home alone when he was younger, three government officials wanted to buy the land. “He bends toward me and squints and lifts his mustache up to his nose again like it’s me stinking instead of the fish.” This suggests that Bromden plays deaf and dumb as a result of how the government official acted like he was invisible. Bromden is just a spoke on the wheel.

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