“‘So I hushed. I was so peeved at them not listening to me I kept hushed the livelong four weeks I picked that field, workin’ right along side of them, listening to them prattle on about this uncle or that cousin. Or if somebody didn’t show up for work, gossip about him. Four weeks and not a peep out of me. Till I think by God they forgot I could talk, the mossbacked old bastards. I bided my time. Then, on the last day, I opened up and went to telling them what a petty bunch of farts they were. I told each one just how his buddy had drug him over the coals when he was absent. Hooee, did they listen then! They finally got to arguing with each other and created such a shitstorm I lost my quarter-cent-a-pound bonus I had comin’ for not missin’ a day because I already had a bad reputation around town and the bean boss claimed the disturbance was likely my fault even if he couldn’t prove it. I cussed him out too. My shootin’ off my mouth that time probably cost me twenty dollars or so. Well worth it, too.”’ (122-123)
This quote really resonated with me. It made McMurphy’s hidden anger more evident. Like in the ward, he has been keeping his anger held in, maybe this is foreshadowing to his impending explosion. He not only started yelling at everyone, but he said that it was worth it, turning them all against each other. This could be a hint at his underlying insanity that has been hinted at throughout the book. This could also be hinting at why McMurphy is so intent on ruining Nurse Ratchet; once he starts at something, he doesn’t seem to give up. This makes McMurphy a more real character, easier to picture. This could also be foreshadowing to McMurphy’s last day, maybe he will turn the entire ward against each other, just like at the field.
“Juicy Fruit is the best I can do for you at the moment, Chief. Package I won off Scanlon pitchin’ pennies.” And he got back in bed. And before I realized what I was doing, I told him Thank you. He didn’t say anything right off. He was up on his elbow, watching me the way he’d watched the black boy, waiting for me to say something else. I picked up the package of gum from the bedspread and held it in my hand and told him Thank you. It didn’t sound like much because my throat was rusty and my tongue creaked. He told me I sounded a little out of practice and laughed at that. I tried to laugh with him, but it was a squawking sound, like a pullet trying to crow. It sounded more like crying than laughing.” (122)
This quote shows Bromden at his most vulnerable. When McMurphy gives him the gum, he speaks out loud to say thank you. The fact that someone was doing something kind for him, and it caught him off guard enough for him to accidentally speak, something he’d been hiding for decades, shows the lack of kindness that he deals with. That is what resonated with me the most about this quote. It shows the hardship that Bromden has been through, without saying anything about it directly. Later we learn about McMurphy and when he was also viewed as being deaf. Both characters dealt with the hardships of not being able to talk, but dealt with it in very different ways. McMurphy kept not only his words hidden, but also his emotions, just as Bromden, but the way that McMurphy was found to be able to hear and speak, was when he yelled at everyone and made everyone in the field he was working in angry at each other. Bromden just sat there calmly for years, letting all the information stay in his mind, with no outlet to release all the things he heard. When he was discovered, instead of showing hate towards the people around him, he shared wisdom, also through pain. Bromden shared the pain that his father went through, and then told McMurphy his fate if he kept tempting the Big Nurse. He told him of the “combine” and how it worked on his father for years, tearing down his land, his life, and his happiness, until he resorted to drinking. He shared his hate not to spite those that had mildly hurt him, like McMurphy had, but he shared the true hardships that his father endured.
“They take me with the Acutes sometimes, and sometimes they don’t. They take me once with them over to the library and I walk over to the technical section, stand there looking at the titles of books on electronics, books I recognize from that year I went to college; I remember inside the books are full of schematic drawings and equations and theories—hard, sure, safe things. I want to look at one of the books, but I’m scared to. I’m scared to do anything. I feel like I’m floating in the dusty yellow air of the library, halfway to the bottom, halfway to the top. The stacks of books teeter above me, crazy, zig-zagging, running all different angles to one another. One shelf bends a little to the left, one to the right. Some of them are leaning over me, and I don’t see how the books keep from falling out. It goes up and up this way, clear out of sight, the rickety stacks nailed together with slats and two-by-fours, propped up with poles, leaning against ladders, on all sides of me. If I pulled one book out, lord knows what awful thing might result.”(103)
This section shows Bromden’s difficulty with the labels placed on the patients in the ward. He is sometimes placed with the Acutes, sometimes with the Chronics. But in reality, he should be either or neither, since he is faking being deaf and mute, there would be no way to know. This self-identity crisis is one that is a resonating theme in many novels. This part specifically reminds me of Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston. Janie, like Bromden, has this identity crisis. Janie is half African American, and half white. She has a problem fitting into either group, since both are judgmental of her. Bromden has a similar difficulty when trying to define the line between Chronics and Acutes. He stands on the line, and is never pushed into either group. But it is slightly more complicated with Bromden, since he belongs in another group altogether, and through his lies, has placed himself in seclusion, where no one understands how he feels, until McMurphy comes to the ward. Both Bromden and Janie deal with this identity crisis, and both deal with it to a certain extent by ignoring that they are different.
English Journal 