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19 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Vera Harding always insults her husband about his sexuality. What are examples of things she says? |
"Hoity Toity boys with hair combed back with limp little wrists". "When harding says cigarettes have been rationed, vera says whether he ever does have enough"
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What's the real reason the Acutes and Chronics dont mix? |
Its basic divide and conquer by Nurse Ratched; its easier for her to control them. |
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How does Nurse Ratched explain McMurphy's reason for being in the ward? |
Nurse Ratched explains McMurphy is someone who is looking for the easy road in life. |
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Analyze the atmosphere in the hospital when McMurphy arrives. How does he react? How does he introduce himself? |
The atmosphere is quite, fearful and in control. When he arrives, he is loud, disruptive and tries to make the best of things by laughing. |
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Why do you think Nurse Ratched preferred McMurphy was naked instead of in his shorts |
Nurse Ratched is a form of control. McMurphy shorts symbolize individuality. If he was naked that would've been McMurphy's open defiance. |
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"Its the truth even if it didn't happen". What does Bromden mean? How can something be true if it didn't happen? |
Bromden sees these things via his hallucinations and they have merit. This mimicks what's going on in the ward. His hallucinations have baring to reality. |
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What is doctor Spivey's theory of the therapeutic community? |
Its therapeutic to be in the company of others. But the patients turn into a "pecking party". Ratched is pecking at the patients manhood. |
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Discuss the fishing trip. What does McMurphy teach the other patients? What is the symbolic significance? |
Fishing trip is arranged by the inmates. McMurphy teaches the patients the way of life and how to be brave. Symbolically McMurphy represents the Christ allegory and the patients as the 12 disciples. The power of laughter is used. |
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What is the novel really about? |
Good vs Evil, Power vs Freedom. |
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What is the combine?, |
This is Chief’s word to describe the machine-like nature of the asylum system. But it’s not just the asylum that’s governed by this machine—it’s the entire world. |
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What is the fog? |
The fog that constantly surrounds Chief and the patients on the ward is, Chief claims, "made" by Nurse Ratched. Because we know that Chief is schizophrenic and sees things that are not literally there, we recognize that the fog may be medicinally induced and is a fog of the mind rather than a literal fog. |
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What is the Rabbits and the wolf? |
Harding explains to McMurphy that the world is divided into the weak and the strong. He, the doctor, and most of the patients are the weak—rabbits—and Nurse Ratched is the strong, a wolf. She hasn’t made them into rabbits—they’re in the asylum because they can’t adjust to being a rabbit in the outside world. |
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Who is Chief Bromden? |
Chief Bromden, nicknamed “Chief Broom” because the aides make him sweep the halls, narrates. He is a war veteran and schizophrenic and hallucinates. He pretends he is deaf/dumb. |
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Who is Randle McMurphy? |
big, loud, sexual, dirty, and confident. He is an exmarine and due to his anti-authoritarian behavior and crimes was supposed to be jailed. Came to a psych hospital for an easy way out. |
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Who is Nurse Ratched? |
A former army nurse, Nurse Ratched represents the oppressive mechanization, dehumanization, and emasculation of modern society—in Bromden’s words, the Combine. |
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What is the "Women as Castrators" theme? |
the suffering of the mental patients as a matter of emasculation or castration at the hands of Nurse Ratched and the hospital supervisor, who is also a woman. |
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What is the "False Diagnosis of insanity" theme? |
McMurphy’s sanity, symbolized by his free laughter, open sexuality, strength, size, and confidence, stands in contrast to what Kesey implies, ironically and tragically, is an insane institution. Bromden’s hallucinations about hidden machinery may seem crazy, but in actuality they reveal his insight into the hospital’s insidious power over the patients. |
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Society’s Destruction of Natural Impulses |
Kesey uses mechanical imagery to represent modern society and biological imagery to represent nature. By means of mechanisms and machines, society gains control of and suppresses individuality and natural impulses. |
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The Importance of Expressing Sexuality |
Most of the patients have warped sexual identities because of damaging relationships with women. Perverted sexual expressions are said to take place in the ward: the aides supposedly engage in illicit “sex acts” that nobody witnesses, and on several occasions it is suggested that they rape patients |
