Bromden seems to be simultaneously the most sane and most crazy patient in the ward. He pretends to be deaf, which gets him ignored by the staff and other patients. With the group in the hospital with him, I wouldn't want any attention either. He makes an intelligent and sarcastic comment on pg 129 that I think isn't one that a completely crazy person would make. One of the Disturbed ward patients killed himself by cutting his testicles off and bleeding to death. Bromden commented that all he had to do was wait, meaning that Nurse Ratched has such tight control over all of the men that none of them have their manhood anymore anyways.
On the other hand, Bromden had that fog hallucination that Justin blogged on in an earlier post. He later makes more references to the fog and how it feels safer than being out in the open. Feeling safe in fog is the first thing wrong with that, because not being able to see anything around you means you can't defend yourself. You're not the one in control. Every other book we've read so far this year has control as a minor theme. Frankenstein lost control of himself and created a monster, control conflicts were huge in Lord of the Flies, knowing yourself and controlling your life are part of growing up and the Bildungsroman novels we read, and Hamlet controlled the castle and his uncle through his crazy talks and murder.
But I suppose that not having to take control is better for these men. They let the nurse walk all over them and just go through the motions of living. It's easier to do that when people don't take you seriously anyways.
-Caitlyn Hines
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