1. Aim: How do we explain the relationship between caretakers and patients in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? Do Now: How should the mentally disturbed be treated?

2. “She ain’t peckin’ at your eyes. That’s not what she’s peckin’ at.” What is Nurse Ratched pecking at? What idea is McMurphy setting up here? Emasculation – to deprive a man of his his masculinity, male strength What do you think about McMurphy’s assessment of Nurse Ratched’s motives? Harding states, “We are vicitims of a matriarchy here…” What does that mean? Is this what a matriarchy is?

3. Can McMurphy get Nurse Ratched’s goat? What bet does McMurphy make with the other patients by the end of? According to Harding, what is the only way a man can gain control over a woman? Why does he think McMurphy will fail? What will happen if McMurphy does fail?

4. “All I mean to do, miss, is to –” “Stay back! Patients aren’t allowed to the enter the – Oh, stay back, I’m a Catholic!” What does this moment show about the patient vs. caretaker relationship in the ward? Is there someone in the ward who is different? How might this be part of the problem with the ward, with the treatment of those most in need of help?

5. “Why you sure did give a jump when I told you that coon was coming, Chief. I thought somebody told me you was a deef.” Why does slowly discovering Chief Bromden’s secret make McMurphy laugh? What do you make of Chief Bromden’s experiences with the fog in the following pages?

6. “What reason you suppose they have for puttin’ something as harmless as a little tube of toothpaste under lock and key?” How does McMurphy get the better of the Orderly? What point is McMurphy trying to make? What reason does the ward have to putting something as harmless under lock and key? What does this further tell us about the ward? About the larger world – macrocosm?

7. “I think for a fact that she’d rather he’d of been stark naked under that towel than had on those shorts.” What does Chief Bromden mean? What about his incident with McMurphy made Nurse Ratched so mad? How is McMurphy solidified as hope coming from the outside world?

8. “But I tried, though,” he says. “Goddammit, I sure as hell did that much, now didn’t I?” What is McMurphy referring to in this quote? Why does McMurphy begin to become disappointed with the patients in the ward? However, what does this incident possibly suggest about McMurphy’s plans to challenge the ward?

9. “No. That’s not the truth. I lifted it myself.” How does the Nurse try to undo McMurphy’s seeming victory when he receives 20 votes? What are Bromden and the other men in the ward doing in this moment? What has McMurphy become to the men of the ward? When did this happen?

11. “If somebody’d of come in and took a look, men watching a blank TV, a fifty year old woman hollering and squealing at the back of their heads about discipline and order and recriminations, they’d of thought the whole bunch as crazy as loons.” Great last line! How did Bromden’s memory with his father foreshadow the events of the ward in this scene? Given that the TV is blank, have the patients won? How so?