general quotes + analysis cuckoos

Question 1

` “A beam like a neon snake comes out of the black panel in the room, fastens on his cleat marked forehead and drags him in like a dog on a leash.”

Answer 1

The shock shop is shown as cruel, using electrocution to make the men weak and obedient
- It shows how powerless they are, with the procedure dominating them. The trauma from the shocks leaves lasting scars, making it hard for the men to control themselves
- Fear of being sent there stops them from rebelling against Nurse Ratched, showing the ward’s oppressive control

Question 2

boxer shorts (symbolism)

Answer 2

• mcmurphys boxers, a gift from a fellow college student who said mcmurphy himself was a literal symbol.
• white whales evoke the famous Moby Dick, a beast associated in Herman Melvilles novel my Moby Dick with a variety of symbolic meanings including masculinity, unseen power, insanity and freedom.
• the threat of mcmurphy dropping the towel explores the theme of freedom and confinement as mcmurphy is confident about his sexual freedom and wouldn’t be scared to drop the towel.

Question 3

Religious Symbolism:
“mcmurphy takes 12 of us towards the sea”

Answer 3

• mcmurphy takes 12 disciples and he continues to see out his mission to free the patients from their slavery to the hospital, even at the expense of his own safety.
• just like the disciples followed jesus, the patients follow mcmurphy out to sea and do everything he does. He is beginning to lead and guide them.
• jesus made blind men see and mute men talk, just like mcmurphy prompted the chief to talk for the first time in years and eventually heals bromden of his “deaf” and “dumbness”.
• like jesus mcmurphy sacrificed himself for other people on the ward and devoted his life to bring goodness to the other patients.

Question 4

the dog, the car and the geese symbolism

Answer 4

• the dog: the patients
• The car: the nurse
• battle between an animal and a machine and the animal cannot possibly win.
• Thanks to McMurphy, Chief Bromden is slowly emerging from his fog
• He looks out the window and reflects on the natural world that he once felt connected to. He sees the geese fly free while he is incarcerated. He sees the dog representing the men of the ward. While geese are wild and free, the dog is domesticated and caught in subservience. The dog getting run over represents how powerless the men are in the ward under the system and Nurse Ratched.

Question 5

bird symbolism

Answer 5

• Freedom, independent, fly in a group
• “One Flew” suggests like birds the patients are free and independent and have hope for the future
• however contrasts with “cuckoos nest” as the patients are trapped within the mental hospital and kept under the strict running of the nurse
• trapped mentally and physically( physically being in the ward “nest”)

Question 6

control panel symbolism

Answer 6

• represents the nurse and the combine and the immense power and control they exert over the patients.
• when mcmurphy tried and failed to lift the control panel, he was showing the men they would have to bind together if they wanted to break out of the ward because no single man is able to get out of the ward themselves.
• the control panel represents freedom within the ward and how hard it actually is for the patients to become less trapped.

Question 7

rabbit symbolism

Answer 7

• represents the patients as they are weak and scared and are prey to bigger animals, like the nurse who is superior and in charge.
• Kesey wants the readers to understand that the patients at the beginning of the novel are weak and emasculated. This is usually the nurse, but at this stage it is mcmurphy.
• The idea of men being emasculated and made to feel less dominant is an important theme throughout the whole novel

Question 8

Machine Imagery

Answer 8

• “Well oiled Machine”, “Wired”, “Factory”
• Just like a factory Kesey describes the running of the wars as mechanical, precise and run with the upmost control, almost like clock work. This makes the ward sound very clinical and lacking in any warmth
• Highlights the chiefs hallucinations, perhaps why he fears the ward
• unreliable narrator

Question 9

motif of laughter

Answer 9

• (chapter 2) ‘i realise all of a sudden it’s the first laugh i’ve heard in years’
• scared to laugh, desensitised, conditioned to feel nothing, breaking cycle-he hasn’t been stripped of his dignity like the other
• ‘i forget sometimes whag laughter can do’
• ‘he works so hard pointing out the sunny side of things…maybe he was blind to the other side’

Question 10

fog imagery

Answer 10

‘i believe the fog affects the memory, some way it doesn’t affect mine’
- flawed narrator?