Pages Jessica, Victoria, Alishya and Faith

Summary  Billy ends up committing suicide by cutting his throat  Bromden realizes that nobody will be able to stop McMurphy from rebelling  Then McMurphy smashes through the glass door, rips open the front of Ratcheds uniform and tries to strangle her  Several of the acutes are transferred to other wards and some check themselves out of the hospital all together

 The doctor is asked to resign, but refuses  Ratched returns with a large bandage around her neck and unable to speak  She loses almost all her power from the ward  The only patients left on the ward are McMurphy, Bromden, Martini and Scanlon  McMurphy is given a lobotomy  The same night Bromden suffocates McMurphy with a pillow  Lastly Bromden builds up the courage to escape from the ward and hitches a ride with a trucker and goes to Canada

Symbols  Pillow: this is a symbol because it was used by Bromden to suffocate McMurphy  Control panel: This was thrown through the window by Bromden to escape the ward  Nurse Ratcheds bandage: This symbolizes defeat of Ratched through both physical and mental features

Themes  The power of laughter:  Is a sign of strength in the ward, it shows that you “somewhat” have a mind of your own.  When Ratched is talking to the ward patients talk about the previous events that happened the night before (drinking, prostitutes) the patients can’t help but laugh. This sows that Ratcheds authority is thinning.

 Self Sacrifice:  McMurphy knows that the only thing that he can do to help the ward patients is to sacrifice himself. So he attacks Ratched, and in return she made him into a “vegetable” like state.  Also shows a change in McMurphy : he usually manipulates, and only thinks for himself, but he slowly changes throughout the novel, and his last final action is a self sacrifice.

Characterization McMurphy: we realize that McMurphy cares a lot more about the people in the ward then he had led on. When he comes back and nurse Ratched holds him responsible for billy’s death, he does not feel the sad that billy took his own life, but he realizes that it would have happened to billy sooner or later. Also he realizes that Ratched had a huge part in billy’s death, for the fact that she threatened to tell his mother that he had slept with a whore. Billy was more afraid of his mother than anything that is why he took his life.

Nurse Ratched: Ratched begins this part in the book by being frustrated, angry, and just overall confusion by what happened in the night. She tried to find billy but can’t find him anywhere until she finallyfinds him with a prostitute on a mattress in the middle of the floor. She is very disappointed in billy’s actions, billy doesn’t care at this point and carries on laughing with the guys. Nurse ratchet then realizes her back is against the wall and she has one last play. The nurse knows that billy is extremely afraid of his mother, she goes on to tell him that she is going to tell his mother what happened between him and the prostitute. With her being such a conservative women billy would not be able to handle it and he goes on to slit his throat. The nurse feels that it is McMurphys fault and does not realize her own doing in his death. The nurse finally ends with giving McMurphy a labotomy for what he had done.

Chief Bromden: Chief observes a lot in this part of the book. He is the eyes and ears of what is going on in the ward. After billy’s death him and the other guys are wondering what had happened to McMurphy. When McMurphy finally returns, they immediately do not think it is the same person. It was like the life had been sucked out of him. Chief and the other guys knew that McMurphy would not like to live like this, and that it would give nurse rachet to much satisfaction getting her way and McMurphy not having so much as a little comeback for her. So what chief does is he suffocates him in his sleep with a pillow. The end of the book chief goes on to free mcMurphy from limbo and chief himself goes on to break out of the ward and be free himself.

Bromden develops into a brave person by the end because he builds up the courage and strength to brake the window. "I put my back toward the screen, then spun and let the momentum carry the panel through the screen and window with a ripping crash" (pg. 324)

Gender Roles Throughout the book it is the women and the coloured boys who are in power over all of those in the ward, but towards the end they start taking a stand. You can tell that Ratched felt threatened in the way she acted. Also, with McMurphy not admitting to being wrong and taking shock treatment instead, proving the stance they took against Ratched. Bromden escapes the ward. So in the end the inmates had turned the tables.

"She couldn't rule with her old power anymore, not by writing things on pieces of paper. She was loosing her patients one after the other" (pg. 321) this quote represents defeat. Nurse Rached has always been the one in power and the one "calling all the shots". Until the patients in the ward finally realize with the help of McMurphy that they no longer have to listen to the Nurse. They had a sense of freedom, joy and defeat.

Analytical Questions  Who wins the battle in the end, Nurse Ratched or McMurphy?  Why is Bromden the narrator of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest instead of McMurphy?  Who is the real protagonist of the novel?  what are the similarities between life in the ward and life outside the ward?

The End