Many have faced problems
about individuality and freedom once in their lifetime. They feel the need to
conform to others or reluctantly follow an authority’s order. They themselves
cannot speak up because they have no voice and believe no one sees them. Has
that ever happened to you? Because it has happened to me. Like me, Chief
Bromden, our narrator from One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, has also
experienced this. Yet, he was able to change through the presence of a very
influential person named McMurphy, who showed Bromden and the other patients
that sometimes it is necessary to fight against society and its oppression to
keep one’s individualism and sanity. Bromden’s character change is evident
through his decreasing hallucinations, his voice, and his ability to make
choices.
One of the changes in Bromden is
shown through his receding hallucinations, which parallels with the mentioning
of the fog machine. Throughout the story, Bromden starts mentioning less about
the fog machine. Like stated in my earlier blog, the fog machine represents
Bromden’s mental clarity ― the more he
sees it, the more he’s hallucinating and becoming insane. However, he realizes
himself that the fog machine hasn’t been working and that it probably “had
broke down in the walls…and weren’t able to circulate fog and gas and foul up
the way things looked” (pg. 140). This awareness allows Bromden to perceive
reality like the way “normal” people could. He is now more coherent and his
mind stable. He is no longer trying to escape or hide from the reality of
society or his life; instead he is trying to face his own problems and to deal
with them. Even when the fog does come back, Bromden chooses to avoid it.
During the EST, Bromden states, “It’s fogging a little, but I won’t slip off and
hide it. No…never again…” (pg. 248). He chooses to stay away from it and this
determination to not get controlled by the fog demonstrates the amount of
courage Bromden gained throughout the novel. He won’t hide anymore. Although he
is now more vulnerable than ever, it allows the readers how much more confident
and courageous Bromden became in facing reality as well as how stable he has
become.
Another evidence that Bromden has
changed throughout the novel is his frequency in talking. In the first half of
the story, Bromden pretended he was deaf and dumb. He did not say a single word
at loud and allowed people to talk bad about him in front of him. He had no
voice. Voice in this novel represents control, power, and strength. Just like
Nurse Ratched lost her voice and thus, lost power and control over her
patients, Chief Bromden regained his voice and thus, got back his personal
strength, confidence, and control over himself. His process of pretending he
couldn’t talk, to WANTING to talk, to actually talking, and eventually singing
and/or laughing is proof that Bromden is no longer the coward he was before. He
is able to speak his thoughts now and is heard from the others. He is an
individual and isn’t “invisible.”
By far, the biggest change
McMurphy had brought upon the patients and especially Bromden was the
capability to make choices. McMurphy symbolizes the capability for choice while
Nurse Ratched represents the opposite ― she does not allow anyone in her ward to make their own
decisions because she wants to have the control. One’s ability to make choices
(rational choices) is what determines a person from being a “normal, rational”
human being from a person in a mental institution. Chief Bromden realizes this.
He realizes that he can also make choices without being afraid. Thus, wanting
this ability to be rational, he does several things such as raising his hand to
vote for the World Series, deciding not to take the red capsule before going to
sleep, and being one of the people to go fishing. Finally, as a way to protest
as well as fight for what he believes in, he decides to fight with McMurphy
(during the incident between George and Washington during the shower), he mercy
kills McMurphy, and he runs away from the ward. Through this, Bromden was able
to regain back his sense of individuality and humanity. He is not “a product”
of the Combine. He won’t conform to society, or in his case Nurse Ratched’s
ridiculous orders. He will do what he himself wants and with this, he was
finally “free” (pg. 280).
When I moved to New York, the New
York culture was completely different from the culture in Spain. In order to
make friends and fit in, I did what everyone else did and followed to their
society rules although I did not agree to many of them. I soon realized I was
just trying to conform and by following others, I was losing a sense of myself.
Through courage and confidence, I regained back my uniqueness and did what I
believed was right. I made my own choices and did things based on what I
wanted. This is what Bromden went through. He went through a very significant
character change that made him from being a scared, invisible, emotionless
coward to a courageous and confident human being who could make his own
choices.
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