AIR RAID

Here's the sound of an Air Raid Siren, which the Chief talks about in the book when he has the Electric Shock Therapy. And since I couldn't find the noise of the machine they use to shock people here's the sound of a defibrillator. Tell me if you guys think they sound similar.

The Church of McMurphy

As you've all discussed in class and on the blog, McMurphy gets compared to Christ frequently in the novel. For fun, let's follow this out. Suppose the men leave the ward in the end and form a church called "McMurphanity." What would the tenets of the faith be? To go Old Testament with this, what would the ten commandments of this church be?

Ideas?

Billy Bibbit=Judas???

When Billy Bibbit blamed McMurphy and his "apostles" for his actions for the night, it seemed to me that Kesey had expanded his religious allusion to include a Judas. By blaming McMurphy, Billy betrayed his "Jesus" to "Rome". Judas also committed suicide after betraying Jesus, like Billy did. If Billy is supposed to be some version of Judas, I found it interesting that Kesey  depicted him as such a sympathetic character when that is not typically the way that Judas is thought of.

Greek allusion?

The Christian religious allusions in Cuckoo's Nest made me wonder if there was any other types of religious allusions in the novel. It seemed to me that the black boys and Nurse Ratched could be like the three Furies and Hades/Pluto in Greek/Roman mythology (Latin class woohoo!). Hades/Pluto is the God of the Underworld in Greek/Roman mythology and the Furies are kind of like his workers. So, if the similarities were intentional, it may further the nurse and boys depiction as basically the epitome of evil. I also just googled Furies to make sure I was making some kind of sense and a picture came up that depicted the Furies looking a lot like angels. The black boys in the book were typically described as "angels of death", which is literally what the Furies are. I also thought it was interesting that in mythology, the Furies were female and Pluto was male so it was a kind of gender reversal in Cuckoo's Nest.

Nursery Rhyme

When the Chief goes through ETC towards the end of the book he is conscious and describes his old life and his mom. I found it quite interesting and also disturbing that parts of his passage were turned into a nursery rhyme for kids:

"Tingle, ting-le, tang-le toes, she's a good fisherman, catches hens, puts 'em inna pens...wire blier, limber lock, three geese in a flock, one flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo's nest...O-U-T- spells out...goose swoops down and plucks you out." 

It is interesting that the end talks about plucking you out of the cuckoo's nest. It is like the child should not be in the nest and needs to be taken away. The ward can be seen as the nest here (an unsettling and scary place). The goose is the savior in the song and helps free the kid who is stuck in the nest.

The Chief is a disturbed man and his memories of his mom come up while he is being electrocuted in a mental ward. This subject does not sound very child friendly or nursery rhyme-esque to me. If I knew the context of this song I would not be singing this to my kids to get them to go to bed. 

-Shira

Louise Fletcher

Louise Fletcher played Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. This is her acceptance speech for Best Actress at the Oscars. I like it because it shows a completely different person from the one she played.

I wonder about the other characters too. Is Jack Nicholson a strong guy like McMurphy or are they as opposite as these two women?  I doubt two people could be such polar opposites, but what do you think?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Influence in the Cartoon World

This is humorous twist on One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest done by the Warren Brothers and incorporated into a full episode of Animaniacs.  I know its pretty long, but if you get the chance to watch it, it is pretty funny and kind of reminded me of when i was really young...

Feel free to comment on any similar themes and events that are mirrored between the cartoon spoof and the novel and any places in which the cartoon takes liberty and strays from the central meaning of the novel.