"Cliff Notes - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

^^^^^^^^^^ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST: SCENE 4

This relatively short scene focuses on two Acutes, Sefelt and Fredrickson, whose situation makes McMurphy re-think his own. Sefelt suffers a severe epileptic seizure, which Nurse Ratched says was caused by his refusal to take his medication.

Sefelt's friend Fredrickson, who, like Cheswick, talks tough then gives up, argues with Nurse Ratched. She says she can't understand why Sefelt hasn't been taking his Dilantin--a medication that suppresses seizures. In fact, she is being coy: she and everyone else know that Sefelt gives his dose to Fredrickson. Sefelt is afraid that the medication will make him grow old, and Fredrickson is afraid of seizures. They both give in to their fears.

As usual, Fredrickson backs down. When McMurphy asks why Sefelt is afraid to take the Dilantin, Fredrickson opens his mouth as an answer. The Dilantin rots gums. On the other hand, if he doesn't take the drug, he will damage his teeth by gritting them during a seizure like the one Sefelt suffered. "Hell of a life," comments Scanlon, who is observing. "Damned if you do and damned if you don't." McMurphy realizes that he is in the same bind: disobedience may not have done him any good, but will obedience save him?

^^^^^^^^^^ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST: SCENE 5

This very short scene shows that Nurse Ratched has so successfully crushed McMurphy's revolt that everything is back to normal. The Chief may not be wrapped in fog, but the machinery within the walls, quiet after McMurphy's victory, is once again humming.

^^^^^^^^^^ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST: SCENE 6

McMurphy's fear and puzzlement have grown worse, and so have the Chief's. While the patients are in the library, an aide announces that Harding's wife has come to visit. This is the woman Harding claims "can't get enough of him," but of whom he is terrified.

Vera Harding is a more complicated character than many of the other women in the book. In some ways she is a member of the Nurse's matriarchy, at least in the sexual fear she inspires in her husband. But far from repressing her own sexuality, she's exaggerated it--in fact, it's hinted that she's able to visit the ward outside normal visiting hours by promising sexual favors to the aide. Still, her effect on Harding is crushing. He grows nervous, he talks too much in his over-intellectual way, and his hands flutter so wildly he is unable to light her cigarette. As he makes fun of her bad grammar, she makes fun of his laugh and complains about his effeminate friends.

McMurphy is caught in the middle of the argument, Vera flirting with him, Harding seeking to have him on his side. When Harding asks McMurphy what he thinks of his wife, McMurphy explodes. "I know what you want me to think; you want me to feel sorry for you, to think she's a real bitch. Well, you didn't make her feel like any queen either."

This is an accurate analysis of Harding's relationship with his wife. Vera is not a monstrous Nurse Ratched; in some ways she is a victim herself. But it's clear McMurphy is not angry with Harding. He's discovering the trap he's caught in, a trap that is giving him bad dreams. Obedience to the Combine has not helped him at all. When Martini plays with the unused control panel in the tub room, pretending to see people strapped into it, it's a sign of healing-like the Chief, Martini is beginning to notice that his hallucinations are hallucinations, and even to joke about them. But McMurphy is too disturbed to notice the improvement, too disturbed even to laugh--a dangerous sign.

^^^^^^^^^^ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST: SCENE 7

Three weeks after the revolt over the TV, the patients, finally under the Nurse's control, are taken for tuberculosis exams. (The Chief sees it as "a check to see if everybody's machinery is functioning up to par.") Next to the x-ray room is the Shock Shop, where the electro-shock therapy takes place. McMurphy asks Harding to explain the therapy, and Harding in his clever way does. Electricity is shot through the brain; the treatment, destructive to brain cells, is generally out of fashion, Nurse Ratched being one of the few who still use it. (Harding's mention of "the grand old Faulknerian tradition... brain burning" is a joke; among William Faulkner's most famous short stories is one entitled "Barn Burning.") Harding explains that, like lobotomy, electro-shock therapy has its advantages: it's cheap and painless. But a technique developed by striking cattle on the head with sledgehammers certainly seems brutal when applied to humans.

McMurphy is upset and afraid. He's discovered that the game he's been playing is for much higher stakes than he imagined. Not only may he not be allowed to leave, he may end up on the shock table--and Nurse Ratched is the one who will decide his fate.

The patients discuss whether or not their problems are entirely the fault of Nurse Ratched, and they agree she alone is responsible. But McMurphy says the Nurse is only part of a bigger problem, one that he can't yet explain. The Chief believes that McMurphy has stumbled on to the secret of the Combine. In a sense, the Chief is correct. McMurphy may not believe in the Chief's fantasy of all-powerful machines, but he's beginning to understand the truth that underlies that fantasy--that Nurse Ratched is only one representative of the forces of fear that control too much of modern society. And those forces are not just sexually repressive--if that were the case all he would have to do is rape Nurse Ratched to defeat her. But that wouldn't solve anything, he knows. All he can do is try to avoid the Nurse entirely.

Harding is amused. McMurphy in turn accuses Harding and the others of using him to win privileges they've been afraid to fight for themselves. He says he has just as much to lose from disobedience as they do.

Now, a revelation. "No," Harding tells McMurphy. "You've got more to lose than I do, my friend." For Harding and most of the other Acutes are not committed but have placed themselves in the hospital voluntarily. Unlike McMurphy, they can leave whenever they want.

McMurphy is dumbfounded. Why would Billy and the rest stay in such a place when they could been enjoying the freedom of the outside world? They aren't so bad off: McMurphy has known many unhospitalized people with more severe problems.

Billy tries to explain. They don't want to be here, he says, but they're too weak. They're not like McMurphy. They don't have his guts. Billy breaks down in tears.

NOTE: McMurphy is coming to understand the patients' problems. Their weakness comes not so much from their illnesses as from the fear planted in them by society and by the hospital, and he sees that he himself has become a victim of this fear, too. You can see him struggling to make sense of this problem, preparing for the confrontation that comes in the next scene.

^^^^^^^^^^ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST: SCENE 8

Like the final scene of Part I, the final scene of Part II shows McMurphy in full battle against Nurse Ratched.

McMurphy is upset by what Harding has told him. Chief Bromden compares him to a dog (like the dog in scene two, Part Two), worrying at a hole and wondering if he should fight or play it safe. But McMurphy has already been playing it safe, and what good has it done him? Like Sefelt, he's damned either way.

On the return from the x-ray room, he asks the aide to let him go to the canteen and buy cigarettes. (These cigarettes, we remember--and we'll be reminded by Fredrickson at the group meeting--are not given directly to the patient but are dispatched to the Nurse's Station and doled out from there.) Chief Bromden knows something is about to happen, and he gets excited. The impatient, ear-ringing feeling reminds him of the minutes before a high school football game.

At this afternoon's group meeting, the epileptic Mr. Sefelt is the topic for discussion. As always, Nurse Ratched aims at his weakest point--his fear of getting old. The Chief notices that McMurphy appears different than he's appeared lately, no longer slouched but flushed and reckless-looking.