One Flew over the Cuckoos
Nest
English 3.2 Respond Critically to
written text studied
Introduction
• Goal: To appreciate the narrative viewpoint of the novel
and the impact of this on the reader.
Success Criteria:
• Starter: A little bit of Radio Head.
I know what an unreliable
narrator is
• The exposition – Chief Bromden
I am able to filter through
Kesey’s unreliable narrator
• The exposition – Kesey’s style and Nurse Ratched
• Review – key idea questions –
Fitter Happier – Radio Head
•
Fitter, happier, more productive, comfortable, not drinking too much
Regular exercise at the gym, 3 days a week
Getting What
on better
withdo
your
point
youassociate employee contemporaries at ease
Eating think
well, no
more
microwave
dinners and saturated fats
these
lyrics
are
A patient better driver, a safer car, baby smiling in back seat
making
about
Sleeping
well, no
bad modern
dreams, no paranoia
Careful to all animals,
life? never washing spiders down the plughole
Keep in contact with old friends, enjoy a drink now and then
Will frequently check credit at moral bank, hole in wall
Favors for favors, fond but not in love
Charity standing orders on sundays ring road supermarket
No killing moths or putting boiling water on the ants
Car wash, also on sundays, no longer afraid of the dark or midday shadows
Nothing so ridiculously teenage and desperate nothing so childish
At a better pace, slower and more calculated, no chance of escape
Now self-employed, concerned, but powerless
An empowered and informed member of society, pragmatism not idealism
Will not cry in public, less chance of illness, tires that grip in the wet
Shot of baby strapped in back seat, a good memory still cries at a good film
Still kisses with saliva, no longer empty and frantic like a cat tied to a stick
That's driven into frozen winter shit, the ability to laugh at weakness
Calm fitter, healthier and more productive a pig in a cage on antibiotics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1gHw52S4sQ
Exposition: The
Narrator
•
Read pp 1 – 6
1. What is your first impression of Chief Bromden?
2. How reliable is he as a narrator?
3. What leads to him being privvy to many of the wards
secrets?
4. What does he mean by ‘Cagey’
5. To what extent do you agree with the following: ‘But his
hallucinations, though they seem crazy at first,
metaphorically reveal his deep, intuitive understanding
of his surroundings’?
Exposition: The Big Nurse
• Close reading – Chief Bromden’s first
comments, ‘I’m mopping the ward floor
when the key …’ (P4 Penguin ed) to
‘…pleased and peaceful with the thought.’
• How does Kesey use language features to
create an impression of Nurse Ratched
(note the name!)
Review
• Create three – five questions that answer key
ideas from the first few pages of the novel. (You
must be able to answer them.)
• Quiz your group and select the best question.
• Quiz for whole class – one question per group.
Cuckoos Nest Lesson Two:
McMurphy
• Goal: To understand how Kesey creates a first impression of
McMurphy.
• Reading – Enter McMurphy.
• Randle McMurphy - The novel's protagonist. Randle McMurphy is
a big, redheaded gambler, a con man, and a backroom boxer. His
body is heavily scarred and tattooed, and he has a fresh scar across
the bridge of his nose. He was sentenced to six months at a prison
work farm, and when he was diagnosed as a psychopath—for “too
much fighting and fucking”—he did not protest because he thought
the hospital would be more comfortable than the work farm.
McMurphy serves as the unlikely Christ figure in the novel—the
dominant force challenging the establishment and the ultimate
savior of the victimized patients.
ABCD – How character is Constructed
Evidence
Appearance
Behaviour
Comment by Narrator
Dialogue
Characterisation (What impression is shaped
through that quotation)
Evidence
Characterisation
Appearance
Scarred face, prison clothes, red curly hair,
side burns, tattoos, grinning, cap, big(?)
Brash – fiery temper
Fighter – violent, perhaps dangerous?
Lived a hard life
Stereotype of red heads being fiery, passionate
Behaviour
Talkative, outgoing, physical, laughs loud
and often, sings, introduces himself, starts
gambling. Assumes leadership – ‘Bull
Goose Looney
Charismatic, appealing to other patients and reader
Entertaining – showman
Gregarious (Full of life) – strong contrast to others
around him
Becomes leader – (Christ?)
Comment by Narrator
Powerful influence
Sees MM as big – therefore powerful
Draws parallel bt MM and his father
Upset the norms, routines, establishment
Machinery is twitching, shorting
Draws attention to the CONTRAST of MM to a Change the status quo
typical admission
Dialogue
Happy to be there – away from the work
farm.
Issues commands to the black boys
“Characters and how they interrelate is the main focus of a novel.”
To what extent do you agree with this view?
Respond to this question with close reference to one or more novels you have
studied.
• Together we’re going to create a mindmap as a way of keeping track of who’s
who, and how they interconnect.
• Let us begin …
Lesson Three: The first group
meeting
• Goal: To understand what constitutes literary analysis, and apply the
summary/analysis model
• Starter – returning to our mind-map – read p25 ‘The Big Nurse gets
real put out …’ to p27 ‘White and cold and stiff as her own.’ What
do we learn about the staff here? Add what you can to the mindmap we began last lesson.
• quotation – ‘Like chickens at a pecking party.’ What does
McMurphy mean by this analogy?
• Big nurses divide and conquer, psychological control. Skim Read:
PP37-45. Complete the summarise analyse
• Bottom of P51 – McM’s analogy.
Summary / Analysis
• Summary – what happened – bullet points
will do
• Analysis – WHY is it important?
What does it reveal about Character?
Theme? Purpose? Develop Tension?
Advance the conflict?
Summary
•
•
•
During the Group Meeting, Nurse Ratched reopens the topic of Harding's difficult
relationship with his wife. When McMurphy makes lewd jokes at the nurse's
expense, she retaliates by reading his file aloud, focusing on his arrest for
statutory rape. McMurphy regales the group with stories about the sexual
appetite of his fifteen-year-old lover. Even Doctor Spivey enjoys McMurphy's
humorous rebellion against Ratched. The doctor reads from the file, “Don't
overlook the possibility that this man might be feigning psychosis to escape the
drudgery of the work farm,” to which McMurphy responds, “Doctor, do I look like
a sane man?” McMurphy has similar defiant retorts for almost any action
Ratched can consider, which perturbs Ratched greatly. McMurphy is
disconcerted that the patients and the doctor can smile but not laugh. Bromden
remembers a meeting that was broken up when Pete Bancini, a lifelong Chronic
who constantly declared he was tired, became lucid for a moment and hit one of
the aides with a heavy iron ball. The nurse injected him with a sedative as he
had a nervous breakdown.
During the meeting, the patients tear into Harding's sexual problems. Afterward,
they are embarrassed, as always, at their viciousness. As a new participant and
observer, McMurphy tells Harding that the meeting was a “pecking party”—the
men acted like a bunch of chickens pecking at another chicken's wound. He
warns them that a pecking party can wipe out the whole flock. When McMurphy
points out that Nurse Ratched pecks first, Harding becomes defensive and
states that Ratched's procedure is therapeutic. McMurphy replies that she is
merely a “ball-cutter.”
Analysis
• At the center of this controlled universe is Nurse Ratched, a
representative of what Bromden calls the Combine, meaning the
oppressive force of society and authority. Bromden describes her in
mechanical, inhuman terms. She tries to conceal her large breasts as
much as possible, and her face is like that of a doll, with a subtle edge of
cruelty. Bromden imagines that the hospital is full of hidden machinery—
wires, magnets, and more sinister contraptions—used by Nurse Ratched
to control the patients. The nurse is, in fact, in complete control of the
ward, and the tools she uses—psychological intimidation, divide-andconquer techniques, and physical abuse—are every bit as powerful and
insidious as the hidden machinery -Bromden imagines.
•
• Immediately upon his arrival, McMurphy challenges the ward with his
exuberant vitality and sexuality, which are directly opposed to the sterile,
mechanical nature of the hospital and modern society. He is set up as
an obvious foil to Nurse Ratched, as well as to the silent and repressed
Bromden. McMurphy's discussion with Harding reveals the misogynistic
undertones of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The patients associate
matriarchy with castration, explaining the lifelessness and
oppressiveness of modern society as a product of female dominance.
Lesson Four: Rabbits, Wolves and
Combines
Goal: To
understand how
Kesey’s analogy
clarifies the forces
of ‘The Combine’
• Starter: What is the
natural way of things
between wolves and
rabbits?
Lesson Four: Rabbits, Wolves and
Combines
•
Reading: Pp 57 This world belongs … 60 - What can she do to you anyway?
•
Harding: “Mr McMurphy my friend … my friend …I’m not a chicken, I’m a rabbit.”
•
Bromden: ‘Billy Bibbet and Cheswick change into hunched-over white rabbits right
before my eyes.’
•
Harding to McMurphy: “Friend … you may be a wolf.”
1.
How does Harding’s analogy help explain the way the ward operates? Think about
how Ratched controls the patients.
What is McMurphy’s response to Harding?
Why does Kesey include Bromden’s hallucination? Think about what it reveals
about his reliability as a narrator.
Who are the two wolves on the ward? How does thinking about them in this sense
help intensify the tension of the conflict?
2.
3.
4.
BROMDEN’S hallucinations are the voice of
Kesey’s allegorical protests
Unpicking Bromden
• Despite hallucinations and Delusions, Bromden is in fact, extremely
insightful and perceptive, if not read on a literal level.
• Read P67 ‘One Christmas after midnight …’ – bottom of P69.
• Explain how there is a truth in everything the narrator says. Include
explanation of the trapping of Santa Claus, The Nurse turning dials,
levers etc, the fog and the control of time.
• Be prepared to feedback your answers
• Review – What is the combine? Is it real (think carefully)
• Homework: Read or re-read pp77-81 – Chief Bromden’s Dream.
Answer the following – How did Bromden know about the death on
the ward?
Lesson Five: The World Series
• Goal: To appreciate the escalating conflict
between Ratched and McMurphy and how
this contributes to characterisation and
theme.
• Starter: What was Moby Dick? What did
he symbolise?
The symbolism of the encounter is
heightened by McMurphy's boxers, a gift
from a college student who said that
McMurphy was himself a literary symbol.
White whales evoke the famous Moby Dick,
a beast associated in Herman Melville's
novel Moby-Dick with a variety of symbolic
meanings, including masculinity, unseen
power, insanity, and freedom.
The votes
• Read pp86-88 ‘She’s so mad.’ (Older
edition 112, 118-119, 131-136)
• How does Kesey create humour here?
What purpose does it serve?
• Reading The votes and results (PP104,
109-110, 122-126)
The Symbolism of the Control
Panel
• How does the incident with the control panel help to
develop the theme of rebellion against the oppressing
forces of society (i.e ‘The Combine’)?
• Consider – the parallel between the control panel and
earlier descriptions of Ratched – in her glass nurses
station, through Bromden’s perspective, controlling all
around her
• Consider what Ratched herself represents – the
controlling nature of society trying to dominate individual
freedom
• Consider what McMurphy is trying to teach the men –
think about the World Series votes.
My Thoughts
• The incident with the control panel is rich with symbolism,
linking clearly to the primary theme of the txt – society’s
oppression of individual freedom.
• The control panel itself, so clearly similar to Ratched’s nurses
station, and Bromden’s view of the ward as a giant controlling
machine (‘The Combine’) provides the first layer of symbolism.
The control panel represents Ratched’s controlling ward, in turn a
microcosm of how Kesey views society – as a controlling
dominating force which has no tolerance for difference and
freedom. Through his act of trying to lift the control panel,
despite knowing he will fail, McMurphy is trying to inspire the
men to have the courage to rebel against the system, which in
turn leads to their victory in the vote for the World Series.
McMurphy teaches his disciples to rebel, and shows then the
freedom they can enjoy through this.
McMurphy starts a Monopoly game with Cheswick, Martini, and Harding that
goes on for three days. McMurphy makes sure he does not lose his temper
with any of the staff. Once, he does get angry with the patients for being “too
chicken-shit.” He then requests that Ratched allow them to watch the World
Series, even though it is not the regulation TV time. In order to make up for this,
he proposes that they do the cleaning chores at night and watch the TV in the
afternoon, but Ratched refuses to change the schedule. He proposes a vote at
the Group Meeting, but only Cheswick is brave enough—or crazy enough—to
defy Ratched, since the others are afraid of long-term repercussions.
McMurphy, furious, says he is going to escape, and Fredrickson goads him into
showing them how he would do it. McMurphy bets them that he can lift the
cement control panel in the tub room and use it to break through the reinforced
windows. Everybody knows it will be impossible to lift the massive panel, but he
makes such a sincere effort that for one moment they all believe it is possible.
At the next Group Meeting, Bromden feels immersed in fog and cannot follow
the group as they grill Billy about his stutter and failed relationship with a girl.
McMurphy proposes another vote regarding the TV, with the support of some of
the other patients. It is the first day of the World Series. Bromden observes the
hands go up as McMurphy drags all twenty Acutes out of the fog. Ratched
declares the proposal defeated, however, because none of the twenty Chronics
raised their hands and McMurphy needs a majority. McMurphy finally
persuades Bromden to raise his hand, but Ratched says the vote is closed.
During the afternoon cleaning chores, McMurphy declares that it is time for the
game. When he turns on the TV, Ratched cuts its power, but McMurphy does
not budge from the armchair. The Acutes follow suit and sit in front of the blank
TV. She screams and rants at them for breaking the schedule, and McMurphy
wins his bet that he could make her lose her composure.
1.
To what extent do you agree that novels use a clash
of opposites to present ideas?
Discuss your views with reference to a novel (or novels)
you have studied.
In what ways are McMurphy and Ratched
opposites? Use a T-Chart to illustrate at least 5
contrasts
How does this help Kesey present the idea of
Society’s domination of individual frreedom?
Essay planning time …
Lesson Six: Part Two
Goal: To analyse the changing nature of the narrator and
the setting
Read p136 ‘They all congratulate him – 137 ‘Now if there is
nothing else…’
Why does Nurse Ratched decide to keep McM on the
ward?
P140 (Picador 151) ‘I was seeing lots of things different.’ –
p143 ‘…. same spot on the pavement’
How is Bromden changing? Why (Layers)?
What are the symbolic layers beneath Bromden’s
observations of the scenes outside the hospital?
McM’s realisation
• Reading P147 (Picador 158 Bottom) ‘The
lifeguard raised his … – 151 ‘…he was
drowned.’
How is McM’s understanding of his situation
changed here?
How does this affect his behaviour?
What are the consequences of this change?
Lesson Seven: Rounded
Characters
• Goal: Explore the ways in which Kesey makes McM a rounded
character
• Key term: Rounded character – one that changes as the events
unfold – develops in some way.
• ‘Whatever it was went haywire in the mechanism, they’ve just about
got it fixed now.’
• P165-168 (Picador 179) ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’ Explain what
Harding means by, ‘No. You’ve got a lot more to lose than me.’
What does he mean by this? How does it add to our understanding of
the other patients? How does it add to our understanding of the
combine?
The glass shatters
• Reading: P 170 (Picador 184) ‘There was just a
couple of minutes …’ to end of part three.
• Discussion Forum AND IT’S YOUR
DISCUSSION – ALL CONTRIBUTE – WE
WON’T STOP UNTIL EVERYONE’S SPOKEN.
• Topic – why does McMurphy
act this way, given that he
now knows what he has to
lose? Many layers here!
Unpacking the symbolism
• In what ways is the breaking of the near invisible glass in
the nurses station an act ripe with symbolism?
• Time to DECONSTRUCT the objects and actions
• Moreover, the glass, which is kept so spotless that it is
almost invisible, represents the control Nurse Ratched
has over the patients; it is so deviously subtle that they
sometimes forget it is there. By breaking the glass,
McMurphy reminds the other patients that her power
over them is always present, while simultaneously
suggesting that their knowledge of her power renders
that power breakable.
<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/cuckoo/section3.rhtml>
Review: SPLAT
Write down an answer to a key question that
could be asked about what we’ve learned
today.
I will read a list of questions to you. If you
have the answer written down (before I’ve
asked it) shout SPLAT!!
Lesson Eight: Gone Fishing
Goal: To appreciate how this key event contributes to the
liberation of the men from the influences of the combine
•
Starter: Write out the correct number for the sequence of these events:
1.
The chief recalls the first time he was ignored
– byReturns
some white businessmen who
Essay
came to try to get his father to sell them the village land
McM convinces George to come and captain – he used to be the skipper of fishing
You wouldn’t want to
boats.
missand
the isopportunity
McM requests an unaccompanied day pass
refused
for academic
growth
McM promises to make Bromden big again
and convinces
him to come on the
fishing trip.
would you boys?
Ratched pins up clippings about how dangerous the open seas are.
One of the girls doesn’t come – McM convinces the doctor to join them, using his
attraction to Candy
The patients start a basketball team, with the support of the doctor
McM gives Bromden some more chewing gum. Bromden says thank you, then
speaks for a long time, telling McM about what became of his father
McM gets the idea to start a fishing trip
The night aid discovers where Bromden keeps his secret stash of chewing gum.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Lesson Eight
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Starter: Write out the correct number for the sequence of these events:
While McMurphy laughs. Rocking farther
The patients start a basketball team, with and
the support
of the doctor
farther backward
against the cabin
McM requests an unaccompanied day pass
and
is refused
top,
spreading
his laugh out across the
McM gets the idea to start a fishing trip water—laughing at the girl, the guys, at
Ratched pins up clippings about how dangerous
the
seas are.
George,
atopen
me sucking
my bleeding
The chief recalls the first time he was ignored
– byatsome
white businessmen
who
thumb,
the captain
back at the pier
and
came to try to get his father to sell them the
village
land
the bicycle rider and the service-station
The night aid discovers where Bromden keeps
stash
of chewing
gum.
guys his
andsecret
the five
thousand
houses
and
McM gives Bromden some more chewing the
gum.
Bromden
says
thank
you,
then
Big Nurse and all of it. Because he
speaks for a long time, telling McM about what became of his father
knows you have to laugh at the things
McM promises to make Bromden big again and convinces him to come on the
that hurt you just to keep yourself in
fishing trip.
balance,
just totokeep
theskipper
world from
McM convinces George to come and captain
– he used
be the
of fishing
running you plumb crazy.
boats.
One of the girls doesn’t come – McM convinces the doctor to join them, using his
attraction to Candy
What are the biblical Allusions
<< Matthew 8 >>
•
New American Standard Bible
23When He got
into the boat, His disciples followed Him. 24And
behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so
that the boat was being covered with the waves;
but Jesus Himself was asleep. 25And they came
to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we
are perishing!” 26He said to them, “Why are you
afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and
rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became
perfectly calm. 27The men were amazed, and
said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the
winds and the sea obey Him?”
The fishing Trip
• Reading: P202 (Pic 221)- 205
• What is it that McM gives the
men at the service station?
• Reading P211 (Pic 231)
‘Martini ran to the edge …’ 215
• What does he give to them in
the boat?
• What are the biblical parallels?
• Think ABOUT FAITH IN
MATTHEW 8
SEXY Paragraph Time: In what
ways is McMurphy a developing
into a Christ figure?
Lesson Nine: Ratched’s Next Move
Goal: To explore how Ratched uses language to imply,
suggest and manipulate
Close Reading P228 (Pic 250): Ratched’s
manipulation
Group Work: Look closely at the way Ratched
interacts with the men. How does she use
language to manipulate? Try to find at least
three techniques she uses.
Find a quotation to illustrate
each, and explain how it is
manipulative
The Fight
Reading: P232 – 238 (Pic 256)
‘Everyone could hear the helpless cornered
despair in McMurphy’s voice.’
How does this quotation further
your understanding of this
incident?
Prediction: What will happen next?
Lesson Ten: Electro Shock
Therapy
Goal: To analyse the significance of this
‘therapy’ to the literary elements of the
novel
Reading: Page bottom 242 – 245 (Pic 268)
Discussion – Written response
If the ward symbolises Kesey’s view of society’s treatment
of the individual, what is the significance of electroshock-therapy?
Close Analysis Reading: P249-252
(Pic 274)
What do you notice about this extract?
How does it….
• Link to the portrayal of gender in the novel?
• ‘Besides … it wouldn’t be any use to lop ‘em off.’
• Explore the theme of society’s domination of the
individual?
• ‘…for some reason he didn’t seem to be
responding to the EST at all and that more
drastic measures might be required.’
• Further characterise McMurphy
• ‘He insisted it wasn’t hurting him. …But … the
muscles on his jaw went taunt and his face
drained of colour.’
• Escalate the narrative tension?
• ‘We told him of our plan for his escape and he
told us there was no hurry and reminded us of
Billy’s date.’
McMurphy the Martyr
• McMurphy's self-sacrifice for the benefit of the other patients begins
to surface after he defends George, and also when he undergoes
the electroshock treatments. McMurphy is belted to a cross-shaped
Review:
table, an obvious allusion to a crucifix.
This Christ imagery suggests
an impending martyrdom on the part of McMurphy, and he even
of he gets to wear a
compares himself to ChristRead
whenthis
heshort
askspiece
whether
crown of thorns. Of course,
a martyr
ultimately
must sacrifice himself
analysis
from
sparknotes.
to save others. This proves true, since although Bromden feels
strong enough to withstand
the
effects
of the electroshock,
Add
any
thing include
here
McMurphy weakens underthat
thewe
repeated
treatments.
have NOT already Bromden finally
begins to feel that his victory over the hospital is complete. He is no
discussed
this lesson.
longer ruled by his fears or his
past, thanks
to the help of his unlikely
saviour, McMurphy.
Party Party Party
•
Goal: To explore the significance of the rebellion’s
climax and its consequences
•
The other patients know that Ratched will continue
to harass McMurphy, so they urge him to escape.
McMurphy reminds them that Billy's date with Candy
is later that night. That night, McMurphy persuades
Turkle to open the window for Candy. She arrives
with Sandy in tow, carrying copious amounts of
alcohol. Everyone mixes vodka with cough syrup,
while Turkle and McMurphy smoke joints. Sefelt has
a seizure while with Sandy, and Harding sprinkles
pills over them both, declaring that they are
“witnessing the end, the absolute, irrevocable,
fantastic end.” Sometime after four in the morning,
Billy and Candy retreat to the Seclusion Room.
•
Reading: PP 263 – 267 (Pic 289)
The Party…
What is the significance of the following quotations?
Bromden: ‘Drunk and laughing and running and carrying on with
women, right square in the centre of the combines most powerful
stronghold ... Maybe the combine wasn’t all that powerful.’
Harding: ‘They’re still sick men in a lot of ways. But at least there’s
that: they are sick men. No more rabbits.’
‘…it was the great, deadly, pointing forefinger of society was pointing at
me – and the great voice of millions shouting, “Shame. Shame.
Shame.” It’s society’s way of dealing with someone different.’
What is it about the party that leads the men to salvation?
‘…the men were immune to her poison. Their eyes met her; their grins
mocked the old confident smile she had lost.’
The consequences
• P270 ‘Good morning Miss Ratched.’ Billy Bibbet
– what do you notice about the way he begins
talking to Ratched? How and why does this
change?
• Bitter, bitter irony (why?): ‘First Charles
Cheswick and now William Bibbit.’ I hope you’re
finally satisfied. Playing with human lives gambling with human lives - as if you thought
yourself to be a God.
The Ending
• Viewing – the last few minutes of the film.
• Reading – the last few pages
WWWWHW
• After Nurse Ratched provokes Billy, leading to his
suicide, McMurphy truly does become a Christ figure for
the patients. Under the invisible but heavy pressure of
the other patients' expectations, McMurphy makes the
ultimate sacrifice to ensure that Ratched cannot use
Billy's death to undo everything they have gained. By
attacking Ratched and ripping her uniform, he
permanently breaks her power but also forfeits his own
life. Though Ratched tries to give McMurphy a fate
worse than death by having him lobotomized, Bromden
dignifies McMurphy by killing him, assuring that
McMurphy will always be a symbol of resistance instead
of a lingering cautionary tale for future patients on
Ratched's ward.
Essay Returns
• Goal: To process the feedback you’ve been given to enable
you to achieve your targets
• Essays – sans feedback with a general overview. What mark
would you get?
• The criteria – self-assessment time
• Feedback
• Modelled redrafting
• Your turn.
Analysis
• What is the significance of the ending to the
following:
• Characterisation
• Themes
• Reader response
• Authorial Purpose
Growing in sophistication ...
• Goal: To take the writing of your essays to
the next level ...
• Starter – recap of our model paragraph
paragraph ...
• The magic sentence
• WHY???
Bringing it all together
Return to the mind-map we began creating in the earlier stages of the novel. What can
we add to it now?
Homework – essay planning – choose one – bring it for tomorrow (guess why…)
NOVEL
Either:
1. Setting enhances the reader’s appreciation of important ideas in novels. To what
extent do you agree with this view?
Your response should include close reference to a novel (or novels) you have
studied.
Or:
2. The novel is often concerned with human weakness and its consequences. To
what extent do you agree with this view?
Your response should include close reference to a novel (or novels) you have
studied.
Or:
3. A novel usually depicts the journey of a character or characters. To what extent do
you agree with this view?
Your response should include close reference to a novel (or novels) you have
studied.
Essay One – So far so…?
10 minutes planning
10 Minutes with help sheets
40 Minutes writing 700 word Minimum
NOVEL
Either:
1. Setting enhances the reader’s appreciation of important ideas in novels.
To what extent do you agree with this view?
Your response should include close reference to a novel (or novels) you
have studied.
Or:
2. The novel is often concerned with human weakness and its
consequences. To what extent do you agree with this view?
Your response should include close reference to a novel (or novels) you
have studied.
Or:
3. A novel usually depicts the journey of a character or characters. To what
extent do you agree with this view?
Your response should include close reference to a novel (or novels) you
have studied.
McMurphy’s and Ratched’s and actions are both in
stark contrast and this helps to show the
representation of freedom and the combine. The
quotations, ‘her face is smooth, calculated and
precision made ... Skin like flesh coloured enamel.’
and ‘He’s got on work farm pants and shirt, sunned
out till they’re the of watered milk. His face and
neck are the colour of oxblood leather.’ help to
emphasise the direct contrast the two have in
appearance. The description of Ratched helps to
link to the theme of society’s domination of the
individual. Her face has no individualism and
connotes that it is machine made, just like the rest
of society who have been stripped of their
individuality and freedom. The pale ‘flesh coloured
enamel’ also shows that she lacks freedom to see
the sun because she is inside all day, which
connotes the way the world was moving in the
1960s, away from the primary sector to the tertiary
sector, where all the jobs were being run and
managed from inside offices. This links to the
theme that society is churning out people who are
in fact society’s robots. These colorations and
precision like features are of direct contrast to
McMurphy. McMurphy’s clothes are the colour of
‘watered milk,’ and his skin is the colour of,
‘Oxblood leather.’ This shows that McMurphy has
had freedom and has been excluded from
societies domination of the individual. Furthermore
this helps contrast the two charactersand help
Kesey present ideas of freedom and his theme:
societies domination of the individual
McMurphy’s and Ratched’s appearance and
actions are both in stark contrast which presents
the idea of freedom and the combine. The
quotations, ‘her face is smooth, calculated and
precision made ... Skin like flesh coloured enamel.’
and ‘He’s got on work farm pants and shirt, sunned
out till they’re the of watered milk. His face and
neck are the colour of oxblood leather.’ illustrate
this contrast. Ratched’s face has no individuality
which implies that it is machine made, perhaps like
the rest of society who have been stripped of their
individuality and freedom. The pale ‘flesh coloured
enamel’ also suggests that she lacks freedom to
see the sun because she is inside all day, a
reference to the social movement of the 1960s,
away from the primary sector to the tertiary sector,
where all the jobs were being run and managed
from inside offices. This evokes a sense that
society is straying from its natural state, into a
more sterile, uniform place, where individuality and
freedom is being lost. These contrast dramatically
with McMurphy’s clothes of ‘watered milk,’ and skin
of, ‘Oxblood leather.’ McMurphy’s weathered
appearance suggests he has lived a free life,
beyond the confines of conformity, and sets him in
direct opposition to Ratched, foershadowing the
major conflict. Clearly Ratdhed embodies
conformity and McMurphy freedom – and the clash
of these two opposites is central to Kesey’s
purpose – to criticise his societies oppression of
individual freedom
Setting enhances the reader’s appreciation of important ideas in
novels. To what extent do you agree with this view?
Your response should include close reference to a novel (or novels)
you have studied.
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Key Point: The setting of the novel represents the idea of the oppressive
domination of the individual by society
Worth describing the setting – through Bromden’s eyes – as the machine
like combine – also as a microcosm – through which Kesey develo[ps social
criticism
The central conflict between McMurphy and Ratched is a power struggle for
control of the ward, a battle between the oppressive forces of conformity
and the freedom of individuality.
Exploring symbolic aspects – the thin class of the nurses station, the control
panel – McMurphy attempts to lift it – Bromden throws it through the window
to escape
Worth exploring Bromden’s view of the machine not running smoothly as
McMurphy arrives
The incident where Bromden looks out the window and sees the geese and
young dog – shows perception widening as he looks outside of his
immediate setting – idea of Bromden coming out of the metaphorical fog is
one central idea in the text
The setting on the open sea during the fishing trip – McM as leader to
salvation – extends idea of the biblical allusion here.
The novel is often concerned with human weakness and its consequences.
To what extent do you agree with this view?
Your response should include close reference to a novel (or novels) you have
studied.
• In many ways this is correct – the minor characters all show some
sort of significant weakness –the consequence of which is that they
allow themselves to be dominated. Harding (repressed
homosexual) and Bibbit (Dominated ‘castrated’ man keep as a boy
by his dominating mother), Bromden – withdrawn into a ‘fog’ to hide
from those he sees as more powerful than himself (The Combine)
particularly worth exploring.
• Worth exploring the narrator – and tracing his development from
weakness to strength – his coming out of the fog
• Ratched’s weakness? It could be argued that her weakness is her
need for complete control – a clear irony here – her need for power
is her weakness– the consequences of this are her domination and
manipulation – her abuse of power – EST, Billy Bibbit’s suicide
• However position can be argued against, McMurphy is a character
who grows in strength as he grows into a martyr – and this act and
its consequences are key to the novel – ultimately it is a novel
exploring human strength and its consequences.
A novel usually depicts the journey of a character or characters. To what
extent do you agree with this view?
Your response should include close reference to a novel (or novels) you have
studied.
• Key idea – Novel is a series of journeys – some towards salvation,
others destruction.
• Protagonist’s journey – one towards martyrdom (Christ analogy) his
rebellion moves from self-interested to truly noble as he sacrifices
himself to lead the others to redemption
• Narrator’s journey – from ‘Cagey’ to strong – ‘mute and deaf’ to
talking fully functioning human being, from victim of the combine,
living in the fog, to lucid strong ‘Big’ man, liberating McMurphy from
becoming an enduring symbol of Ratched’s power.
• Ratched’s journey – from controlled, machine like abuse of power, to
the total loss of control, a product of her conflict with McMurphy
• Other patient’s journeys – Harding and some of the other acutes
leaving the ward, Bibbit coming so close to becoming a man – from
rabbits and ‘chickens at a pecking party’ to men.
Cuckoo’s Nest – Post Holiday
Recap
Goal: To re-familiarise yourself with the novel and its ideas
Starter – Essays – Returns, submissions and GRRRRS
Recap – Take five minutes to either read and/or add to the
big picture mind-map we’ve been putting together for this
unit
Collective wisdom – complete the following quiz – how well
did you do, how well did we do?
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/cuckoo/quiz.html
Cuckoo’s Nest: Key Quotations
• Goal: To begin to develop a bank of key quotations and critically
analyse their significance.
• Starter – What key things would it be useful for us to have a
quotation about?
• Context Work: Complete the worksheet with the list of quotations.
• Group Work: Complete the second part of the sheet.
• Review: Word perfect quotation quest (see next slide)
Quotations for …
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Bromden’s lucidity
McM breaks Glass
Billy Bibbets stops stuttering
Cheswick’s death
Bibbet’s death
Ratched’s control
McMs labotomy
McM making R lose control, composure
Bromden and combine
Fishing Trip
Pecking party
B and M vs aides
Ratched discovers Billy and Candy
Bromden killing M
Ms entrance
Control panel
Rabbits
Laughter
Word Perfect Quotation Quest
Select Five quotations from the sheet – for longer ones you may wish
to select part of the quotation – highlight the key sentence
Read over them – recite them in voices in your head, imagining the
speaker / narrator delivering the line
Peer Testing – Take turn about to tell your partner what number
quotation you chose to memorise, why it’s significant and then try to
recite it word perfect.
Task: Find each quotation and add a page reference, copy the first phrase, and
expalion its significance in your notes
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“So she really lets herself go and her painted smile twists, stretches to an
open snarl, and she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I
can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling too big a
load” Bromden’s vision of the Big Nurse as an agent of the Combine.
•
The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to
peckin' at it, see, till they rip the chicken to shreds, blood and bones and
feathers. But usually a couple of the flock gets spotted in the fracas, then it's
their turn. And a few more gets spots and gets pecked to death, and more
and more.
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“I was a whole lot bigger in those days” Chief Bromden recalls his youth.
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While McMurphy laughs. Rocking farther and farther backward against the
cabin top, spreading his laugh out across the … Because he knows you
have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just
to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.
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“Anointest my head with conductant. Do I get a crown of thorns?”
McMurphy as he is being prepared to receive electric shock therapy.
Cuckoo’s Nest: Use of secondary
Sources
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Goal: To read selectively and process information to support your analysis
of the text.
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Starter: How useful is the information on the following slides to us?
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The computer lab is booked – your job is to use it to create a series of
HANDWRITTEN notes detailing further information to add to your own
understanding of the text.
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Use sparknotes to begin with – its one of the better ones …
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You should aim to include all of the headings we included on the big picture
mind-map in class on Monday
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(Themes, characterisation, setting, symbolism, narrative viewpoint, conflict)
Theme Analysis: Rebellion Against Authority
and Conformism
The psychiatric ward where the novel takes place can be seen as a microcosm of society. Society
is presented as a ruthlessly efficient machine (the Combine) that makes everyone conform to its
narrow rules. All individuality is squeezed out of people, and the natural, joyful expressions of life are
suppressed. In the hospital ward, the representative of society is the Big Nurse. She embodies order,
efficiency, repression (including sexual repression), slavery and tyranny. She fulfills the need of
society to somehow “repair” those who do not fit into its model so they can be sent back to take their
places as cogs in the great machine. If they refuse or resist, they are destroyed by invasive, abusive
treatments such as electro-shock therapy and brain surgery.
Against the Big Nurse, who serves the will of the collective, is set McMurphy, who embodies
spontaneity, instinct, sexuality, individuality, and freedom. This is the central conflict of the novel.
McMurphy, who has moved around a lot during his life, taking many jobs, never marrying, and living by
his wits, has managed to escape the corroding influence of the Combine. He is ideally suited to get the
men in the ward to see what they have lost, and to help them recover it. McMurphy’s efforts to
encourage freedom and spontaneity in the men and to defeat the Big Nurse and all she stands for,
reaches two grand climaxes in the novel. The first of these is the fishing trip, in which the men
rediscover their own power in a natural environment. The second is the Bacchanalian revel at night in
the ward, when all the repressive rules of the Combine are flouted in a drunken orgy.
Chief Bromden plays an important role in this theme of repression and freedom. His life story is
told in more detail than the others. He was born into an Indian tribe that lived in close touch with
nature. He recalls hunting in the woods and fishing for salmon as a boy. But the Indians’ independent
way of life was destroyed by the greed of white society, that took their land and used it to install a
hydroelectric dam where the best fishing grounds had been. After a technological work force had been
trained to manage the new facilities, the men lost all their individuality. They all had to conform to the
same standardized model and became in Bromden’s view only half alive. The fact that in the hospital
the Chief pretends to be deaf and dumb indicates the total suppression of a more natural,
individualized way of life. It is fitting therefore that at the end of the novel Bromden escapes, and there
are hints that perhaps some of the way of life that he remembers from his boyhood can be recaptured.
Symbolism Analysis
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Machines
The central metaphor of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is that of the machine. The metaphor is introduced
early in the novel, through the character of Bromden, and it recurs at regular points throughout. Bromden sees
society as a giant machine, which he calls the Combine, and he sees the same machine at work in the hospital.
He describes the Big Nurse in machine-like terms. In the first chapter, as he sees her approaching the black boys,
“she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a
motor pulling too big a load” (p. 5). When he describes her physical appearance, it is in terms that apply to
machines: her gestures are “precise, automatic” and “Her face is smooth, calculated, and precision-made. (p. 5).”
But he also comments on her large breasts and regards them as a “mistake . . . made in manufacturing,” which
she resents because they are a mark of femininity. The machine-like Combine tries to make machines out of
everything, including humans. Bromden dreams that the hospital workers are killing Blastic, one of the patients
referred to as a Vegetable. When they cut him up, there is nothing human inside him. Instead, Bromden sees “a
shower of rust and ashes, and now and again a piece of wire and glass” (p. 85). The Combine has done its work
on him. (Significantly, Blastic dies the very night that Bromden dreams of him.) The turning of people into
machines reaches to the level of language and ideas as well. People who have been “processed” by society no
longer have any ability to understand anything that doesn’t fit what they have been programmed to hear. When
Bromden recalls the incident in which the three government agents wanted to buy his father’s land, he remembers
they were incapable of hearing any of the things he said to them. He describes their thought-processes in terms of
machines. He can see the seams where they’re put together. And, almost, see the apparatus inside them take the
words I just said and try to fit the words in here and there, this place and that, and when they find the words don’t
have any place ready-made where they’ll fit, the machinery disposes of the words like they weren’t even spoken
(p. 201).
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Christian Symbolism
As the novel progresses, it becomes clear that McMurphy is to be regarded as a Christ-figure. There are
foreshadowings of this early in the novel in the patient Ellis, who received EST and is now nailed to the wall with
his arms stretched out, as if he were being crucified (this is how Bromden sees him). It is Ellis who says to Billy
Bibbit, as the men are about to set out for the fishing trip, to be a “fisher of men” (p. 222), which is what Christ said
to the fisherman Peter when he called Peter to be his disciple. The table which is used for the EST treatments is
shaped like a cross, which suggests the crucifixion of Christ. McMurphy takes twelve people with him on the trip,
just as Christ had twelve disciples, and he chooses to see out his mission to free the patients from their slavery to
the hospital, even at the expense of his own safety. (For other examples of Christian symbolism, see the Analysis
sections that follow the Plot Summaries.)
Cuckoo’s Nest – Essay Two
• Goal: To achieve the EBIs and replicate the
WWWs of your previous essay.
• Planning time
• A little bit of help
• 45 Minutes – 2 Pages or 600 Words minimum.
• Go!!
2008 Examination
NOVEL(S)
Either:
1. “Characters and how they interrelate is the main focus of a novel.”
To what extent do you agree with this view?
Respond to this question with close reference to one or more novels you have studied.
Or:
2. “What matters most? In a novel, it is always the ideas.”
To what extent do you agree with this view?
Respond to this question with close reference to one or more novels you have studied.
Or:
3. “The imaginary world of a novel helps the reader to understand the author’s
intentions.”
To what extent do you agree with this view?
Respond to this question with close reference to one or more novels you have studied.
NOVEL(S)
Either:
1. “Characters and how they interrelate is the main focus of a novel.”
To what extent do you agree with this view?
Respond to this question with close reference to one or more novels you have studied.
This certainly is important in Cuckoo’s Nest - particularly McMurphy’s influence on the other patients.
Of central concern too is the inter-relation between Ratched and McM – this power struggle is the
central conflict. The theme of society’s domination of individuality is central too – you could either
treat this separately or consider how this is presented through the characters and their
interrelations.
2. “What matters most? In a novel, it is always the ideas.”
To what extent do you agree with this view?
Respond to this question with close reference to one or more novels you have studied.
The idea of society’s domination of the individual is certainly key to the novel. Other themes such as
the abuse of power and rebellion too are really significant, as is the idea of the Christ allusion
through McMurphy. However, you could argue that the conflict between Ratched and McMurphy
is the real core of this novel. Would you separte this from the ideas or explore how this helps to
present some of the major themes?
3. “The imaginary world of a novel helps the reader to understand the author’s intentions.”
To what extent do you agree with this view? Respond to this question with close reference to one or
more novels you have studied.
What are Kesey’s intentions? He wants to depict the way that society can dominate individuality. The
imaginary world of the ward certainly does this – it is a representation of the wider world. Giving
the reader access to this world through Bromden is hugely significant – his seemingly delussion
but actually perceptive and metaphorical description helps the author to present his view of the
world.
First Essay WWW
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Clear argument showing thoughtful analysis of reader response
Good use of integrated quotation
Good use of appropriate literary terminology
Excellent structure and development of sophisticated ideas
Sophisticated style, control, vocabulary and accuracy
An effective structure an organisation
The question has been addressed
Good familiarity with the text
Sound use of evidence
Good level of engagement with the text
Maturely expressed ideas
Insightful, engaged and including a judicious personal response
First Essay WWW
1. An effective structure an organisation
2. The question has been addressed
3. Good familiarity with the text
4. Sound use of evidence
5. Good level of engagement with the text
6. Maturely expressed ideas
7. Clear argument showing thoughtful analysis of reader response
8. Good use of integrated quotation
9. Good use of appropriate literary terminology
10. Excellent structure and development of sophisticated ideas
11. Sophisticated style, control, vocabulary and accuracy
12. Insightful, engaged and including a judicious personal response
First Essay EBI
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Be more deliberate in showing that the novel is a construct – that Kesey
is manipulating the readers response to characters, situations and ideas.
Briefly explain the metaphors of Kesey uses (The combine, the fog,
‘rabbits’ etc) to clarify your argument.
Take more care with the accuracy of your writing
Use frequent, relevant quotation, integrated into your paragraphs
Make use of literary terminology to enable more sophisticated analysis
Clarify your argument by making frequent reference to the key words of
the question.
Manage your time more effectively to ensure at least an introduction, four
developed paragraphs and a conclusion are included.
Revise the rules of the academic voice and strive to employ them
consistently
Develop your paragraphs more through offering additional layers of
meaning and response on the Y of your SEXY paragraphs
First Essay EBI
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Use frequent, relevant quotation, integrated into your paragraphs
Make use of literary terminology to enable more sophisticated analysis
Clarify your argument by making frequent reference to the key words of the
question.
Manage your time more effectively to ensure at least an introduction, four
developed paragraphs and a conclusion are included.
Revise the rules of the academic voice and strive to employ them consistently
Be more deliberate in showing that the novel is a construct – that Kesey is
manipulating the readers response to characters, situations and ideas.
Briefly explain the metaphors of Kesey uses (The combine, the fog, ‘rabbits’ etc) to
clarify your argument.
Take more care with the accuracy of your writing
Develop your paragraphs more through offering additional layers of meaning and
response on the Y of your SEXY paragraphs
Embed your quotations so they have a clear introduction and fit seamlessly into
your sentence
Avoid overly long quotations – one phrase or sentence is usually enough
Clarify the thesis or theme of your argument, and outline key points in the
introduction.
Homework Champion
• Upon reading Sparknotes summary and analysis of One Flew Over
The Cuckoo's Nest I discovered a deeper side to the scene of
Bromden standing at the window when he should have been asleep.
I found that this is the micro-symbolism of the books very
general macro-symbolism, that is the idea of the geese flying
overhead represents those who are able to stay free and above the
"rules of society," while the car is the idea of the machine, or
"Combine" as Kesey descibes, that is society and its devastating
force on the world around it and those who enter its path. Then
the image of the dog running towards where the car is to meet it is
the McMurphy's of the world those who fight society but almost all
inevitably come out of their clash far worse off than their
opposition. In doing this Kesey provides the reader with a subtle
insight into the theme of the book and what is to come.