Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Chief's Escape from Shaving
Chief displays the reoccurring motif of hiding and invisibility as he quickly evades the black boys and shaving. This motif essentially represents him throughout the entire book. I think his "act" of seeming deaf and dumb cloaks him with invisibility and enables him to analyze those around him and escape from the horrors he sees throughout the ward. "Before anybody can turn to look for me I duck back in the mop closet, jerk the door shut after me, hold my breath... When you got something under your belt you're stronger and more wide awake, and the bastards who work for the Combine aren't so apt to slip one of their machines in on you in place of an electric shaver." On page 6 we see that he escapes from the black boys preparing to give him a shave. The rest of the paragraph explains how he would much rather shave in the early morning and not have to worry about shadows where the machines would emerge. Chief hides from both the black boys and the shadows in order to escape from the machines.
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I definitely agree that him pretending to be deaf and dumb is a form of hiding and invisibility. He uses it so that when people are around him they act as if he weren't even there and say whatever they want because they think that he can't hear what they say. This form of invisibility seems like it has been working well for Chief but it was interesting to read when McMurphy finds out that Chief isn't actually deaf when McMurphy warns Chief that a black person from the ward is coming and Chief reacts. Since people do not make the effort to watch what they say around chief, he is able to get much more information than he would be hearing otherwise.
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