PART I B
Begin the Revolution!! McMurphy begins his endeavor to drive Nurse Ratched of the cliff of sanity and into the sprawling land of insanity below her. With the World Series beginning, McMurphy attacks nurse Ratched’s schedule by insisting the ward be able to watch the games. Nurse Ratched, not inclined to let McMurphy have his way, makes a compromise by putting the idea to vote. Unfortunately, the vote is shot down when nurse Ratched tells McMurphy that in order to have the majority required to win, at least one of the incoherent chronics must also be in favor. With no evidence of even making communication to the other inmates, McMurphy finally seeks out Bromden and gets him to raise his hand, winning the majority. Beaten but not done, in Nurse Ratched insists that the vote was finished by the time Bromden raised his hand. Infuriating to McMurphy, goes to the TV to watch the game. Despite the TV being off, the fellow inmates gather around the TV to watch the game. Unable to cope with this act of insubordination, Nurse Ratched loses her temper in front of all her patients. McMurphy won the battle, but the war has just begun.
Satisfying would be the one word to describe this part of the book. To see Nurse Ratched lose herself in front of the inmates makes McMurphy seem to be the most powerful person in the ward. This kind of rebellion is reminiscent of Achilles in the Iliad going against the great king Agamemnon. While Agamemnon (Nurse Ratched) is the de jure leader, everyone knows that Achilles (McMurphy) is the true muscle behind the leadership. His rebellion resonates with me as all unkind authority is resisted by me, and some authority is resisted just to see the leader squirm with the problems at hand.
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