In the last two parts of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", I finally grasped that the story was not solely about Bromden or McMurphy. Even though, we mainly read about McMurphy's run in time and again with the Nurse and others, the focus was split between the two. In the beginning of the book, we are introduced to Bromden because he is our narrator. So we needed to fully understand why he would feel the way he did at times or even why he has the privilage to be able to attain certain information that others might have never been able to do. Once we are fully acqainted with Bromden and have the jist about what goes on inside of the ward, McMurphy is brought into focus.
I kept on trying to figure out McMurphy's purpose for being the way he is when we were first introduced to him and even after he had been there for a while. (If all he wanted was to leave after he felt he had been there too long, good behavior was his ticket out. But sometimes some people cannot help but to just be themselves. At one point he did try hard to change, but that didnt last long, he's just who he is, one to make his own rules and follow whatever it is that HIS mind tells him to do and everyone knows that.)
Of all of the problems he may have caused all of the patients he encountered in the ward, the best thing he has done for them was to make them realize things aren't as hard as they seem sometimes. Sometimes they were just to hard on themsleves. He showed a lot of them that they didn't have to stay there to cope with their problems because some of them really didn't have severe issues. It's just that when they hit their first snag in their plans, they just lose it. But McMurphy assured them, there was life after this current situation they were all in.
And come to think about it, ever since McMurphy had been on the ward the patients became more unified. At first there were small groups here and there but now they were all for and one for all. And now especially when it came to McMurphy. Before they were all ready to side with the Doctor to send him to Disturbed, but now they act in his defense if the Doctor, Nurse, or anyone else thinks that McMurphy is otherwise a good man with bad intentions for them.
I touch upon the unity they developed because the Nurse noticed it too so she tries to destroy that to regain the order that she has lost in the ward. But it doesn't work. Everyone now trusts McMurphy, even our paranoid Chief Bromden. But she just had to try one last time but this time McMurphy really gets to her as he violates her ultimately. Throughout part 3, McMurphy's toying with her was really starting to wear on her, but now it was enough.
McMurphy has always sacrificed himself for the good of the other patients, but here it is evident after the incident with George. After Billy dies, and McMurphy is in his critical state, Chief Bromden rises mentally and is no longer in fear.
At the end, no McMurphy didn't get to leave with them, but I know he was just as happy for them. But it was a huge suprise to see that our quiet, scared Chief, grew as an individual and became someone empowered as well as the rest of them. They all grew the courage to sign themselves out and deal with the outside world. And Bromden, after putting his friend McMurphy out of his misery, finally decided he could live on the outside. And if he still wasn't so certain by the time he left, he was sure certain he couldn't continue living inside of there. And Bromden was certainly the 'one who flew over the cuckoo's nest'.
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