Summary This brief portion features Chief’s recounting of an old doctor who visits the hospital. The doctor observes Chief and, by implication, the other patients as bugs. Chief imagines himself escaping the hospital through a picture hung in the ward, depicting a fly fisherman in a rustic scene. He remembers […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: A Visiting DoctorSummary and Analysis Part 1: There’s Long Spells
Summary McMurphy’s next battle with Ratched concerns allowing the patients to watch the World Series. Because the games are telecast during the ward’s non-regulation television viewing time, McMurphy requests that the time be altered. Ratched refuses at first, then allows a vote of the patients. The other Acutes are afraid […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: There’s Long SpellsSummary and Analysis Part 1: There’s a Monopoly Game
Summary McMurphy joins the patients in an unorganized game of Monopoly. McMurphy, of course, ends up owning all the properties and winning all of the other players’ money. Analysis At this point of the novel, McMurphy owns a monopoly on individuality. His nonconformity allows him to “win” where the other […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: There’s a Monopoly GameSummary and Analysis Part 1: All Through Breakfast
Summary At breakfast, McMurphy teases Billy Bibbit, calling him Billy Club Bibbit with a legendary 14-inch penis. He invents a story about Bibbit picking up two prostitutes — “twitches” — and shocking one of them with the prodigious size of his member. The tale embarrasses Bibbit, but also gives him […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: All Through BreakfastSummary and Analysis Part 1: Come Morning
Summary The next morning, McMurphy shocks the ward by singing. He asks an aide for toothpaste, but is told that ward policy won’t allow the toothpaste to be unlocked because patients might use it at their own discretion. McMurphy baits the aide into a philosophical argument that points out the […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: Come MorningSummary and Analysis Part 1: First Time for a Long, Long Time
Summary Chief doesn’t take his sleeping pill and hallucinates about the Combine and its horrors through the night until he’s awakened by Turkle, an elderly African American who works the night shift. One of the subjects of Chief’s hallucination is the patient Blastic, who coincidentally dies during the night. Analysis […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: First Time for a Long, Long TimeSummary and Analysis Part 1: One Christmas
Summary Chief tells of a visitor to the ward six years before, who was dressed as Santa Claus with a natural beard. He is “fixed” and sent out into the world clean shaven and underweight. McMurphy complains that the ward radio is playing too loud and asks Nurse Ratched to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: One ChristmasSummary and Analysis Part 1: Before Noontime
Summary At 1 p.m., the Acutes assemble for their daily meeting with Big Nurse and Doctor Spivey. Big Nurse opens the session by reading notes that other patients have submitted on Dale Harding. Big Nurse asks if any member of the group would like to touch upon the matter further. […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: Before NoontimeSummary and Analysis Part 1: In the Glass Station
Summary Chief overhears Big Nurse explain to Nurse Flinn, a young nurse, that McMurphy is a manipulator who had himself put in the hospital to escape work detail. Big Nurse explains that McMurphy reminds her of another patient, Mr. Taber. Maxwell Taber, Chief tells the reader later, was an Acute […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: In the Glass StationSummary and Analysis Part 1: The New Man
Summary Chief describes the relationships of the men on the ward. He relates that the Big Nurse encourages them to divulge information on other patients by writing down into her log book what they overheard in conversation. Big Nurse rewards the individual who made the entry by allowing him to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Part 1: The New Man