Megan Stanford

1.) The narrator in the novel is Chief Bromden. He has been one of the longest staying patient in the hospital and has almost been there was long as Nurse Ratched. During the time there, he has acted like he was deaf and dumb. We know this because the author says, "There's not m-much else he can do, I guess. He's deaf" (Kesey 24).  Because of this, he is able to hear more information since others talk freely around them because they do not think he is listening. He also gets the job of sweeping while the faculty is having meetings, giving him even more information than other patients. We also know that he is an unreliable narrator because of his hallucinations. He will occasionally tell us something that actually does not happen and is just in his head.

I felt bad for Chief for most of the book. He was always the quiet one who didn't seem to fit in. This did have something to do with the way he presents himself, but it is still said to read. It fun to read how McMurphy began interacting with him more once he figured out that he was lying about being deaf. Chief was able to go on the fishing trip with the other patients and also worked to lift the control panel, which he did accomplish. However the ending of the book did change my opinion of him. It surprised me when he was the one control of hospital after McMurphy's incident with Nurse Ratched.  I was happy for him that he finally got out of his shell, however I did not approve of killing McMurphy. Even though McMurphy was a "vegetable" and he was really saving him, I do not believe anyone should kill anything.

2.) The author probably chose Chief to be the narrator to give the view of a patient in a mental hospital during this time. We see the side of the patients and how the faculty are treating them unfairly because one of the patients is telling the story. If a faculty member was telling it, we would see more of how crazy the patients are and how the nurses and doctors are really helping them. His perspective added a negative view towards the faculty. One example of this is when McMurphy wants to change the time of when they are allowed to watch television in order to watch the World Series. McMurphy tries get this change by a vote and begins rallying others: "How many of you birds will vote for me if I bring up that time switch again?" (Kesey 121).  As readers, we see that not changing the time as unfair because the patients are unable to watch the game. However, Nurse Ratched knows that a schedule is really important and changing it would hurt the patients.

In my opinion, Chief reminded me a lot like McMurphy. They both conned people, just in different ways. McMurphy would make them believe he was their leader when he really was just looking out for himself whereas Chief made them believe he was deaf. They both changed how the other patients viewed them which was different from the truth. I feel that McMurphy's arrival simply brought this aspect of Chief even more, which is why he was ready to take control of the hospital at the end. This is also why McMurphy could figure out the truth about Chief's hearing because they were so much alike.