Who are the Acutes in Cuckoo's Nest?

The Acutes are made up of patients who are seen to be "curable." These men include McMurphy, Harding, Cheswick, Billy, and others. As a group, they hang out together during the day and often play cards. It is this group, led by McMurphy, that challenges Nurse Ratched's authority.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on shmoop.com


Who are the Acutes and Chronics in the Cuckoo's Nest?

The patients are divided into two main categories: the Acutes, who are considered curable, and the Chronics, whom Bromden, himself a Chronic, calls “machines with flaws inside that can't be repaired.” The Chronics who can move around are Walkers, and the rest are either Wheelers or Vegetables.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on sparknotes.com


Who are the Vegetables in Cuckoo's Nest?

The Chronics: The name used for patients for which there is no hope. A large number of these are Vegetables, men who are so far gone they are almost brain dead. Chief Bromden is considered a Chronic, because he has been on the ward so long and everyone thinks he is deaf and dumb.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on bookrags.com


What does McMurphy bet the other Acutes?

McMurphy makes a bet with the guys that he can break Nurse Ratched without destroying himself. After his morning shower, McMurphy shows up in only a towel.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on shmoop.com


Who is the true villain in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

Nurse Ratched (full name Mildred Ratched in the movie, also known as "Big Nurse") is a fictional character and the main antagonist of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, first featured in Ken Kesey's 1962 novel as well as the 1975 film adaptation.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on en.wikipedia.org


What Happened To The Cast Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest



Is Nurse Ratched a psychopath?

In the book and the film of “One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, Nurse Ratched was not a psychopath, she was an unbelievably mean, sadistic person. The original Nurse Ratched's actions during the story show us that something terrible must have happened in her past to make her this way.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on seanpatrickdurham.medium.com


What is so evil about Nurse Ratched?

If McMurphy serves as a Christ figure, Nurse Ratched is the Antichrist. She represents authority, conformity, bureaucracy, repression, evil, and death. She enters the ward in the morning wearing a black cape reminiscent of a vampire, as if to suck the lifeblood from the patients.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on sparknotes.com


What is Nurse Ratched's one weakness?

When McMurphy attacks her and tears her shirt open in front of the men, he reveals her weakness—she's a woman after all. Big breasts don't lie.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on shmoop.com


What do the Acutes first bet on?

McMurphy further entertains the Acutes during breakfast by taking bets that he can shoot butter patties at the mess hall clock. Later in the morning, McMurphy asks Nurse Ratched if she can turn down the music in the ward.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on cliffsnotes.com


What was wrong with Billy bibbit?

Billy Stutters

Billy Bibbit's psychological problems manifest themselves as a stutter. Billy reveals in group therapy that he flunked out of college because he had to quit ROTC.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on study.com


What was McMurphy's mental illness?

Each film takes up specific gendered mental illnesses – Susanna is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, seven times more likely in women than men, and McMurphy with Anti-Social Personality Disorder, three times more likely in men than women.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on ht.journals.yorku.ca


What mental illness does Martini have?

Martini. Another hospital patient. Martini lives in a world of delusional hallucinations, but McMurphy includes him in the board and card games with the other patients.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on sparknotes.com


Why does Cheswick drown himself?

At one point McMurphy decides to fall in line when he learns his stay in the ward is indefinite and his release is solely determined by the Big Nurse. As a result, Cheswick drowns himself in the ward's swimming pool when he decides he himself will never escape the relentless Big Nurse.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on en.wikipedia.org


What is the real reason why the Acutes and the Chronics do not mix with one another?

What's the real reason the Acutes and Chronics dont mix? Its basic divide and conquer by Nurse Ratched; its easier for her to control them.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on cram.com


Is Chief mentally ill Why or why not?

By Ken Kesey

Chief Bromden is a Columbia Indian who suffers from schizophrenia. Although he plays a central role in the story, he is largely an observer. Chief is an interesting narrator because he is certainly not unbiased, and his mental illness can also shed doubt on his reliability.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on shmoop.com


What happens to Nurse Ratched at the end of the book?

Ratched ending

He escapes with the deranged Charlotte in Dr Hanover's old car. Ratched catches a glimpse of him on the road and realises he has become a danger to her life. The series then skips three years and now Ratched is living with Gwendolyn who is now on a path to remission.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on republicworld.com


Why doesn't Nurse Ratched let them watch the World Series?

McMurphy's next battle with Ratched concerns allowing the patients to watch the World Series. Because the games are telecast during the ward's non-regulation television viewing time, McMurphy requests that the time be altered. Ratched refuses at first, then allows a vote of the patients.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on cliffsnotes.com


Why does the fog make the chief feel safe?

The fog causes Chief to feel safe simply because it acts as an escape mechanism from the reality of the ward. When Chief slips into the fog, he is able to escape Nurse Ratched's torment and powerful rule and find solace due to the safety that the fog brings .
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on prezi.com


Why does Nurse Ratched keep McMurphy in the ward?

Ratched's actions indicate her clear-thinking, premeditated approach to dealing with McMurphy. She chooses to keep McMurphy on the ward to prevent him from attaining the status of a martyr. Moreover, she realizes that sending him off the ward would be tantamount to declaring defeat.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on sparknotes.com


Is Nurse Ratched the true villain of the story?

Ratched is a gruesome origins story featuring a diabolical performance from Sarah Paulson. But, says critic Luke Buckmaster, the entire premise of the show is wrong—because Nurse Ratched was never a villain.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on flicks.com.au


What is Nurse Ratched's first name?

And the actress playing the ultimate authority figure, Nurse Ratched, was Louise Fletcher. Now, almost half a century later, Nurse Ratched has been given a first name - spoiler alert, it's Mildred - and a backstory.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on npr.org


What does the red lighting mean in Ratched?

Red is often in the darker, more violent scenes of Ratched. Though it's never seen in the character's costumes — “[Ryan Murphy] didn't want red in clothes, other than to see blood at the hospital or lipstick on Mildred,” explained Guzzi — red was used to symbolize a loss of control in several scenes.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on cheatsheet.com


Did McMurphy get lobotomy?

McMurphy is given a lobotomy for his attack on Nurse Ratched. When he is returned to the ward after the operation, he is a vegetable. That same night, Bromden suffocates McMurphy with a pillow. He throws the control panel through a window screen and escapes from the hospital, hitching a ride with a trucker.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on sparknotes.com


Is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest a true story?

The novelist Ken Kesey based the character of Nurse Ratched, the villain of his 1962 novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,” on a real person—a nurse whom he once met while working the night shift in a psychiatric facility in Oregon.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on newyorker.com


How old is Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?

Louise Fletcher was celebrated for portraying Nurse Ratched in a more well-rounded light in the 1975 film adaptation. Fletcher told Vanity Fair in 2018 that she filled in her character's history, just for herself, sharing that she believed Nurse Ratched was a 40-year-old virgin who was “very turned on” by McMurphy.
Takedown request   |   View complete answer on time.com