The Death of McMurphy

pages 311-325/ July 30,2010

Reading Response #12

By the end of the novel, the reader can see, even though McMurphy says otherwise, that his body and mind is affected from all of the electrotherapy shocks that he has received. The men can also sense this change in him as well. They tell him to leave because they know what will happen if he does not leave, they know will become of him if he does not. Since McMurphy had arrived at the hospital the patients have become men, they are not “rabbits” anymore, and were pulled out of the fog that the nurse had spread through out the ward for many years. Although McMurphy has won many of the battles with the nurse, he cannot dodge the inevitable, even though he tries. After the attack, he is given a lobotomy. This causes him to become a vegetable. Bromden dignifies McMurphy by killing him at the end. I agree with what was done here. If he would not have killed McMurphy then the nurse could have used him as an example of what could happen. This gives her the power back that she lost. All the defying of the rules that the patients did was for nothing if McMurphy would not have forfeited his life. This may seem very brave for him to do but the other men view him as some kind of a god and he knew this. The Nurse used her ultimate weapon to destroy McMurphy.