Wednesday, November 12, 2008
All Together Now
On page 128, during a particularly strange meeting in which Billy Bibbit's stutter is being discussed, Chief says, "Then the talking fades out altogether; I never knew that to happen before. Maybe Billy's hid himself in the fog too. Maybe all the guys finally and forever crowded back into the fog," (128). Chief has always been able to be extremely observant because of his feigning "deafness", and now, with so many unusual things going on in the ward, he uses his ability to note the behavior of the other patients. Just like he is, the patients are nervous while they anticipate the wrath of Nurse Ratched. They all sense something may happen between McMurphy and Ratched this day, so they take special precautions to "hide" themselves. Usually, the men would be accusing Bibbit of things in order to keep attention on him, but no one is saying anything at all. Chief explains this a little later by saying, "I can't do nothing for you, Billy. You got to understand that as soon as a man goes to help somebody, he leaves himself wide open," (131). No one will stand up for Billy because they don't want to chance that the attention will turn to them. As of now, Nurse Ratched's rage is targeted at McMurphy, and the patients would like to keep it that way. So they hide. The enclose themselves in Chief's fog and wait for something to happen.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree because McMurphy states earlier that all the patients were acting "cagey" and thats why he became aggravated. The patients are nervous about how Nurse Ratched would've reacted if they raised their hand for the vote of watching the world series. "it's still a risk, my friend. she always has the capacity to make things worse for us"(117). They didn't raise their hands because they were trying to make themselves seem invisible of their desire to watch the games and raise their hand however, they're too afraid of the potential consequences of Nurse Ratched's authority. FROM CONNELL
Yeah I agree that the patients do not like to have the attention on themselves and would rather just keep it on McMurphy. I also agree with Connell, the patients fear of the individual consequences on themselves for siding with McMurphy forces them to not raise their hand to vote with McMurphy to move the meeting so that they can watch the World Series. They are afraid of worsening their positions in the ward and Billy mentions to McMurphy later how they all have a long time left in their stay at the ward and do not want to risk worsening their living conditions which Big Nurse has the power to do if they anger her. Even though they all want to watch the World Series they are more concerned about protecting themselves than pursuing their interests. McMurphy calling that cagey means he thinks they are selfish and while this is true, they are looking out for themselves, I don't blame them.
Post a Comment