Tuesday, April 28, 2009
A New Sense of Confidence
When the men leave the ward to go on the fishing trip they are all a little depressed at first. However, I found it interesting how they all gained a new sense of confidence when McMurphy stands up to the gas attendant. Soon they are ordering everyone at the station around and mocking people when they reach stop lights. I found it interesting that the Chief thought the more insane you act the more people fear you.
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McMurphy is the one in the ward to break away from the "norm" of the ward. He brings about a new sense of confidence to the ward and once the patients feel and know that he opprotunity is there for them to conform, they do. The patients start acting like McMurphy and just because he exudes his confidence so freely and confidently, is makes it easier for the patients to conform to McMurphy's ways. Also, to act insane publicly takes a great deal of confidence and it is not the insanity that makes people afraid, it is the extreme amount of self assurance that people are taken back from, the intensity of confidence that make people take a step back for a second and think. When the patients act out, as Cory said, it shows how the patients self confidence has significantly stregnthened, but their confidence seems to only be a result of mirroring the confidence of McMurphy. If the base of the patients confidence is from McMurphy, if McMuprhy becomes quiet and loses his confidence, as has happened in the past, will the patients lose their self confidence and assurance as well?
McMurphy shows the most confidence by leading this fishing trip. His fishing trip is more of a celebration and an accomplishment. He tries to get the other patients to feel the way that he does. By showing this joy and freedom and strength that McMurphy portrays, it make the patients want to follow. McMurphy is a strong individual, and takes risks to feel alive. He wants the patients to embrace life, and not feel like the trip is an escape, but more like something to enjoy.
What interested me most in the entire reading was the quote "never before did i realize that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power... the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become." It is an entirely new mindset for the patients to have. This allows them to order the gas attendents around and even though gas attendents aren't the highest reguarded people in society the patients prove that they can make them do what they ask by making them fearful.
I think Jess's point and questions are very interesting - the patients seem to have a new way of conforming by "following" McMurphy's lead, but at the end of the part 3 - the patients are empowered and confident even though McMurphy seems worn out and frantic - more subdued. So perhaps a transition has occured where they don't depend solely on him for their source of conformed confidence so to speak.
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