Part 1 - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Part 1 (pages 1-127) 

each part consists of rising tension between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, culminating in a climactic battle. 

Part 1 - The fight over the basebell World Series 

Insinuation   Language   Role of women   Biblical imagery   Size  Sexuality   Humour 

p. 3 "black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts" = the way Nurse Ratched uses the black boys to control the men, through emasculation 

p.4 "hum of black machinery hate and death and other hosptial secrets...she's got that bag full of a thousband parts she aims to use in her duties today - wheels and gears," = machine imagery, represents 'the combine' Nurse Ratched represents the authority of the combine; she is the public face of an inhumane system. 

The Combine 

= microcosm of the world/America during the 50s 

= havester - cuts people down

= ultimate aim is to control and make people conform 

= control and conformity is achieved through fear, emasculation, and metaphorical castration (the Nurse metaphorically castrates the men through verbal emasculation) Fear comes from EST, psychopharmacuctical treatements, solitary warning of Taber (p.25, 37) Fear of humilation in the 'therapy' group, therapy in the book doesn't help, it is another way to conform the men through emasculation. 

p.4 "they think I'm deaf and dumb." = Chief Bromden is able to hear the secrets of the ward, or what he thinks the combine hums in the walls - side effect of his treatments. 

p.5 "looking out her window and making notes of what goes on in front of her in the day room" = metaphor of the physical barrier between the ward and the outside world, men are completed isolated 

p.7 "the bird safe as long…