Chief Bromden Quotes

Bromden describes Nurse Ratched as a machine due to her strict, mechanical way she runs the entire ward. She imposes a rigid schedule that she is reluctant to change. Even though McMurphy received a majority vote, 21 out of 40, to change the TV schedule, Nurse Ratched disregards the last vote because it happened after “the meeting [is] closed” (Kesey, 124). Bromden views the fog as just another machine in the asylum. Just like the other machines, it's aim is to control the patients and destroy the natural impulses. In the case of the fog machine, it is to destroy the urge to seek out

The oppressor, or antagonist, of the story is Nurse Ratched, or the Big Nurse. Her methods of oppression, including attempts to emasculating the men in the medical ward, is the foundation of the work. The nurse uses her power to manipulate the patients as well as members of the staff in the hospital. Since she is in charge of the entire ward, she runs it with an iron fist while concealing her feminism and humanity behind a patronizing façade. As the story progresses, Nurse Ratched loses some power over the patients with the introduction of a new patient on the ward, Randle McMurphy. As McMurphy continues to fight her oppression, her façade breaks down and falls apart as she loses control.

Seabiscuit: An American Legend is a nonfiction book written by Laura Hillenbrand, published in 2001. This book is a biography of a Thoroughbred racehorse named Seabiscuit. Seabiscuit was a lazy, bandy-legged horse, that should not have one at all, on the other hand, he won 11 out of 15 races in the year 1937. He was also the year’s leading money winner.

Second in a discussion of power are the women associated with the patients. The supervisor at the hospital is associated with the patients by controlling who is employed to take care of the patients. Nurse Ratched and the supervisor served in the Army together as nurses. They are still very close and have a good relationship. Because of this relationship, Nurse Ratched’s employment is secured and others won’t stand up to her for fear of losing their own jobs. Harding states “In this hospital, the doctor doesn’t hold the power of hiring and firing. That power goes to the supervisor and the supervisor is a woman, a dear old friend of Miss Ratched’s” (61). The receptionist on the ward is Nurse Ratched’s neighbor

Size, both physical and metaphorical, plays a large role in the misogynistic references in the ward. The Chief makes constant references to people’s size. However, size is relative. One cannot be big without someone else being small. When the nurse is in full control, the Chief sees her as “big as a tractor” (5). With her great size, Nurse Ratched is squashing the

When people think about nurses, many ideas come to mind. They think of the hideous old starched, white uniforms, a doctor’s handmaiden, the sexy or naughty nurse, or a torturer. The media and society have manipulated the identity and role of nurses. None of these ideas truly portray nurses and what they do. Nurses are with the patients more than the doctors. People do not realize how little they will encounter the doctor in the hospital until they are actually in the hospital. People quickly realize how important nurses are. Because nurses interact with their patients constantly, nurses are the ones who know the patients best.

In the beginning of Part III, Bromden has been reflecting on his past when he remembers a scarring experience that affected him for the rest of his life:

In his review of the film on RogerEbert.com, Robert Ebert also describes how the speech that Chief Bromden gives “is a window into a real character with real problems.” By choosing to let the others believe that he was both deaf and dumb, Chief Bromden uses the stereotype of the noble and stoic Native American in order to fool everyone else. In this way, Chief Bromden uses this stereotype to his advantage, and this could be one of the reasons why he is able to evade the treatments that other patients have to endure, such as electrotherapy and

gives the nurse back much of the control she once held previously. It is however offset by the

In the next stanza, the poet describes “A figure walking towards cloaked in blue/ Beeping/ Tubes/ Needles.” The poem addresses the routinely and monotonous aspect of being in the hospital for long periods of time. It is a critique of the biomedical model and how the hospital system is created where patients are tended to by multiple doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals. The patients and healthcare professionals are unable to form a relationship that consists of what Kleinman describes as “empathetic witnessing” (Kleinman). Therefore, detachment between patient and health workers is developed and established, to which the patient cannot recognize or know the people assisting them. In addition, Grealy discusses this in her earliest accounts and appointments with doctors. She states that there is a layer of “condescension” and is an “endemic in the medical

Chief was was your early years like? I was big and strong, I used to play football in high school and I was considered a football star.

Power and control are the central ideas of Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. There are examples of physical, authoritative and mechanical power in the novel, as well as cases of self-control, and control over others. Nurse Ratched is the ultimate example of authoritative power and control over others but R.P. McMurphy refuses to acknowledge the Nurse’s power, and encourages others to challenge the status quo. The other patients begin powerless, but with McMurphy’s help, learn to control their own lives. Many symbols are also used to represent power and control in the book, such as the ‘Combine’, ‘fog’, and the imagery of machines.

Nurse Ratched and Big Brother have many similarities in their deeds - they are able to constantly monitor others and execute their powers. The actions of the nurse towards her patients are crude and inhumane. The big difference, however, between these two leaders lie in the achieving of their goals. While Big Brother manages to get his aims realized, Nurse Ratched is deprived of it, by the brave actions of the patients. The patients try to deprive her of feeling of being a dominant dictator. Both, Big Brother and Nurse Ratched seem to be powerful leaders, and integral part of a system, their unconditional control causes a negative impact on a person’s mind.

Equally important the nurse indicated that she was in a hurry and unable to sit down, choosing rather to stand while she talks to the patient. What the nurse did not realise was that she had assumed a power stance and had failed to create an environment that was holistic, conducive and

It is with this paranoid rambling that the reader meets Bromden. As the first chapter progresses we witness more instances of his troubled mind and his way of describing people as part machine, part human. Nurse Ratched is the called "the Big Nurse," by Bromden. His description of her is an example of his ability to link people with machines. "She slides through the door with a gust of cold...(the) tip of each finger the same color as her lips. Funny orange. Like the tip of a soldering iron. Color so hot or so cold if she touches you with it you can't tell which." (Pg. 4 Kesey). She has the ability, in Bromden's mind, to increase her size. She, "blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big you can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling too big a load." (Pg 5 Kesey). These descriptions of humans who are made part machine, part human allow the reader to get a clearer understanding of Bromden's illness. This, I believe, is a positive aspect of the novel, however there would seem to be, at least one, negative aspect to Kesey's choice of narrators.