One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Chapter 1

Section 4 Page Range: 173-229
Dates Read: 10/10-10/15
Original Summary: McMurphy wishes to go on a fishing trip with the other patients and a prostitute he knows, but Nurse Ratched denies him permission. The doctor later ends up allowing them to go, but Chief has an internal conflict within himself on whether or not he should go with them and risk revealing that he isn’t actually deaf and dumb. Later that night, Chief accidentally reveals to McMurphy that he can hear and talk, and when McMurphy tells him that he should expose everything he hears, Chief says that he isn’t bold enough like McMurphy to do that. McMurphy makes a deal with him, that if he pays Chief’s fee for the trip and helps make him stronger, then Chief has to help him lift a control panel in the tub room. The next day, when the group goes and stops at a gas station, the attendant tries to take advantage of them, but McMurphy says they’re crazy killers, causing the patients to see that they can use their illnesses to their advantage. After the trip, McMurphy sees that Billy is attracted to the prostitute, later setting up a date for them
Chief means that his spirit and presence does not measure up to his height and that he isn’t like McMurphy, someone who acts like a leader that does whatever he wants. This quote shows that Chief has been broken down, by everyone around in and and outside of the ward. Chief has seen what happens to those that stand out and don’t follow orders, he no longer wishes to be hurt by the world. Chief used to embody a spirit similar to McMurphy’s, but it was broken down once they placed him in the ward and he consistently was put down by those around him. I chose this quote because it helps to show what Chief, the narrator of the story, has felt, his dissatisfaction with the world, and the true thoughts/unspoken words that he had kept within