Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Doctor's Giggle
Upto this point in the book, McMurphy has pretty much been the only source of laughter. But during the ward's meeting, laughter, or rather giggles comes from an unlikely source, the doctor. The fact that McMurphy was able to get laughter out of someone who is under the control of Big Nurse was, in my opinion a big feat and shows how McMurphy is really trying ot shake things up. "The Doctor is working so hard to keep from giggling again he can't answer." Big Nurse get's very annyoed with the doctor and tries her best to reel the doctor back in and get him udner control, because if he is laughing and making the atmosphere seem fun and light, then her whole purpose of having these meetings (which is to further her power and make the patients feel inferior) is in jeapordy. I almost feel like McMurphy is using his laughter and trying to make it contagious to aid in the downfall of Big Nurse.
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2 comments:
I think you're right that McMurphy wants to make others laugh so as to break the coldness of the ward, but I also think he's getting tierd of having to try so hard. On page 78 they're playing poker and McMurphy is "joking and talking and trying to get the players to laugh along with him. But they were all afraid to loosen up; it'd been too long. He gave up trying and settled down to serious dealing." I think McMurphy is going to have to make deeper friendships with the guys on the ward, so that he won't have to try so hard and that they'll work together and laugh more often. It's too hard to do all alone, and if he doesn't get some support I don't think he'll be able to hold off the coldness for long.
I think thats really interesting that you said that he is going to have to build deeper friendships with the men on the ward so laughter won't be so hard to get out of them, but today in class we talked about how McMurphy building frienships with others on the ward is going to end up almost harming him in the end. We read a quote where Chief brings up that McMurphy has no one to care about so he can do pretty much anything he wants without the fear of hurting others, but as we see him start to build relationships with the men on the ward, it is going to become harder for McMurphy not to care anymore. I bring this up because the relationships that McMurphy is creating might do both good and bad, good by evoking more laughter out of the men like you said Jesse, but bad because it will softer McMuephy(if you see that as bad). I wonder which one will play out to be more important...
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