1. Emily, Rachel, Gryph, Behn, Ben, Dalton

2. Summary  In the morning, Chief sees his name signed up for the fishing trip and he gets really excited.  Everyone is wondering who signed up Chief’s name.  Chief acts deaf to their laughing at him but when they stick a broom out to him to do some work, he turns around and walks the other way. He has never before refused to do what they ask of him.  The Acutes get ready for the trip, while the Chronics wander around and stare at Chief. He feels guilty because he’s the only Chronic invited (or going) on the trip.  McMurphy says George seems to know a thing or two about fishing, and George admits that he worked as a fisherman for twenty-five years.  McMurphy declares George will be their captain.  Billy Bibbit whistles, letting her know how good she looks.  At the gas station, the attendants realize that they’re from the hospital and try to manipulate them into buying more expensive gas and other items that they don’t need

3.  Harding suddenly realizes that mental illness contains a sort of power. The more insane a man becomes, the more powerful he can be.  Chief muses in retrospect that the patients thought that McMurphy had taught them to be courageous and use it. Really, though, with McMurphy, the men were just pretending to be brave, not really being brave.  The captain who was supposed to take them out said he needed a signed waiver clearing him with the authorities.  Billy catches the first fish. Then Chief catches a huge fish that’s as big as a fence post.   Chief decides that McMurphy knows that you have to just laugh at the things that hurt you.

4. Symbolism  There are many different symbols in (OFOCN), But the one that stood out the most to me was, McMurphy’s Boxer shorts. McMurphy’s boxer shorts are black satin with a pattern of white whales with red eyes.  The author gave McMurphy these shorts to show that McMurphy himself is a symbol  -Also, The whales on the boxer shorts call to mind Moby Dick; a popular icon in American literature, and evil that inspires Captain Ahab’s task of catching the beast. This symbol suggests that McMurphy is to Ratched as Moby Dick is to Ahab.

5. Themes  Women as castrators With the exception of the prostitutes, who are portrayed as good, the women in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are uniformly threatening and terrifying figures. Bromden, the narrator, and McMurphy, the protagonist, both tend to describe the suffering of the patients as a matter of emasculation or castration at the hands of Nurse Ratched and the hospital supervisor, who is also a woman. The male characters seem to agree with Harding, who complains, “We are victims of a matriarchy here.” Most of the male patients have been damaged by overpowering women. Bromden’s mother was portrayed as a castrating women; her husband took her last name, and she turned a big, strong chief into a small, weak alcoholic.  Importance of expressing sexuality It's implied throughout the book that a healthy expression of sexuality is a key component to sanity. 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 “sex acts” that nobody witnesses, and on several occasions it is suggested that they rape patients, such as Taber, with Ratched’s implicit permission, symbolized by the jar of Vaseline. Harding says, “comical little creatures who can’t even achieve masculinity in the rabbit world.” Missing from the halls of the mental hospital are healthy, natural expressions of sexuality between two people.

6. Questions  After McMurphy insisted on driving past his childhood home where he saw the yellow rag hanging from the tree which was from the dress that was from the first girl he had ever “slept with”, why do you think he says that she turned him a “dedicated lover”? How does he know that from being so young?  Is it possible to cure people with mental illnesses? Is it possible to incorporate individuals with mental illnesses into modern society?