In the first half of the novel, Kesey uses a wonderful device to show oppression that makes the reader feel as if they themselves are going insane. Bromden describes it best. "She's got the fog machine switched on...and the more I think about how nothing can be helped, the faster the fog rolls in," (Kesey 101). This fog is not literally there, but instead appears when Kesey wants to create an atmosphere that is disparaging. This dark tone is also emphasized through Bromden's nightmares. In one of the dreams, the hospital turns into a hot industrial factory where the noise of cold, hard, unyielding machinery is almost deafening, (78-82

Chief Bromden is the smartest, most caring and gentle man in this novel. He is the kind of guy that many people would like to know, and associate themselves with.

them blinking into the open," (124).

Life in the ward is quiet until a new patient is admitted. His name is Radall Patrick McMurphy and he is a redheaded brute who smells of sweat, work, dirt and dust. He starts in by disrupting everything familiar in the ward, the silence, the admitting showers, and the way the black boys bully the patients around. He quickly makes friends with everyone including the Chronics who are vegetable like patients. McMurphy is a gambling man who insist that he wanted to come to the ward for an easier life than the one he had at work camp where he previously stayed. One of his first bets with the other patients is to make Ratched lose control of the ward without giving her an excuse to punish him. McMurphy leads the patients through numerous confrontations with the staff. He soon learns he can't leave the hospital without Ratched's approval, so he begins to obey her rules. By raising hopes he hasn't fulfilled he leaves the patients worse off than before. One becomes so depressed he drowns himself.

After this, Kesey puts an almost nostalgic tone on the story. The Acutes, Bromden, and the doctor go on an antic filled fishing trip that makes the group seem as if they did this every weekend, and that insanity had never crossed their minds. On the car ride back, Bromden says of McMurphy, "His relaxed, good-natured voice dolled out his life for us to live, a rollicking past...for all of us to dream ourselves into," (218). The men see that they can change and finally go back out into the world that they had been so afraid of. When McMurphy dies at the end, Kesey does not allow his characters to mourn or forget all that they have learned. Instead the story keeps a positive attitude because Kesey is trying to communicate to the reader that life will go on.

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Approximate Word count = 3345
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)