Abby Hudrlik

Question 2:
     I believe Ken Kesey chose Chief Bromden to be the author was to get readers to see through the eyes of a mental patient. The perspective being from a patient instead of a nurse completely changes the way the story is told. If it was told from an outsider or a nurse's point of view, readers wouldn't think that Nurse Ratched is evil as depicted by Chief Bromden and McMurphy. By reading from the perspective of Chief Bromden, we as readers automatically are on the patient's side in the story and view Nurse Ratched to be mean and cruel. It adds more personality and introduces different types of people.
     Chief Bromden also faked being deaf and mute, so he got to know all of the characters better than anyone else in the story. The people believing he cannot hear a word he's saying, therefor trusting he won't have a clue as to what they're saying or what's going on. Bromden says it wasn't his choice to start acting deaf though. He sees the wrong doing going on in the hospital and Miss Ratched and caught on to it a while ago through his observing. He states, "McMurphy doesn’t know it, but he’s onto what I realized a long time back, that it’s not just the Big Nurse by herself, but it’s the whole Combine, the nation-wide Combine that’s the really big force, and the nurse is just a high-ranking official for them(Kesey 192). He's smarter than played out to be and his listening has paid off by giving him the information of the evilness of the "Combine." This is another reason Kesey chose Bromden as the narrator. He's smarter than he thinks and agrees with McMurphy.
    My opinion of Chief Bromden is that he is a lot smarter than he thinks or used to think. Him pretending to be deaf and mute was very clever for the situation he was in. He got to know secret information that no one else knew except himself. This gave him an advantage. I'm also proud that he finally built up some courage through McMurphy and was able to break free form the hospital.