Wednesday, March 28, 2012

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest #1

So far, after reading the first 60 pages, I have come to the conclusion that Chief Bromden is the antihero, Mcmurphy is another antihero and Big nurse is the villain.
Chief Bromden is crazy. He's very quiet and doesn't fit in with anyone else at the ward. He is not what we would define as socially normal, or normal for an insane asylum at least. He does everything in a very strange way, but generally the reader is on his side. He see's the cruelty and hate in the ward, and will do something about it eventually, as the reader would feel morally obligated to do. The same goes for McMurphy. Is is rambunctious, causes a scene and does everything in a very crude, careless way, therefore he would not usually be depicted as the clean, polite hero everyone has been waiting for. But he is in the ward and he wants to fix what we can see needs to be fixed (the system, Big nurse, not the patients). He see's the inhumanity, the hatred contained in that building, as do most of the patients, but McMurphy is our antihero because he is going to take action. Big Nurse is most obviously the villain. Besides the swift cruelty and hatred that she carries, the way Chief describes her appearance is enough to let you know she is the villain. Chief says she is cold and her face is laced with hate. He describes her as being able to grow as huge as a room with her anger.

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