The Chief's Vote

Near the end of Part One the Chief raises his hand in response to McMurphy's plea to vote, suggesting to the other patients and the staff that he was only pretending to be deaf. Will he stop acting completely and help McMurphy defeat the Nurse or will he pretend his vote was a coincidence and hope it is forgotten? What do you think the Big Nurse will do to him when and if she finds out that he can hear?

McMurphy

Does he have another side to him that we do not see cleary? is his overall tough guy attitude really all there? does his tattoo represent him

Women of the Cuckoo's Nest

Kesey makes it very obvious with the charcter Nurse Radchet that the patients were caught in a matriarchy (society ruled by women). Nurse Radchet is a ball buster, in that she emasculates all the patients by bringing up their histories, and letting the patients rip on and tear down eachother. Thus reducing the men to almost nothing. It would appear that Harding was institutionalized because of his cheating wife, Bibbit because of his mother and even McMurphy with a count of rape. Could it be that women drive men insane?

McMurphy

McMurphy's laugh (and all that it represents) seems to be the only glimpse of sanity we see in the hospital. Can McMurphy's actions bring back the sanity of other patients, the sanity they most likely had before they were brought into the hospital? We will see, but McMurphy was clearly only admitted by pleading insanity as his defense. Will the clarity that McMurphy represents (in such an unclear place) cause other patients to step back from the situation and realize how mistreated they are and give them the power to do something about it, or is the nurses system already so ingrained into them that none of them can see it even with the spark of normalcy that McMurphy is proving to be?

Acutes and Chronics

As I read this novel it is becoming more and more apparent to me that this insane asylum has got things all wrong. The patients are split up into two groups: Acutes and Chronics. To me the acutes don't really belong in a mental institution. They are just people who do not conform to societies standards. They either do not meet up to their gender roles (Harding couldn't please his wife, Billy Bibbit was constantly being put down by his mother), or they are unfit for any other 'facilities' (McMurphy). The chronics on the other hand do belong there. They can hardly function, some pee themselves, some are vegatables. Does anyone else agree? Disagree?

Sanity in the Cuckoo's Nest

It seems that McMurphy isn't what we'd consider a typical crazy person to be. In fact, a lot of the Actues don't seem far out crazy, yet some of what they're subjected to at the hospital does seem crazy. What do you think Kesey is trying to say/show about sanity? Who/what on the ward is truly insane?