One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Sitting in front of the screen, the patients sneak glances at Ratched. She and the rest of the staff make their way down the hall for a special, previously scheduled meeting to discuss McMurphy’s status. At an aide’s request, Bromden goes with them since he usually cleans the staff room during meetings. He fears they will suspect that he is not deaf since he raised his hand to vote earlier. As he cleans, Bromden hallucinates a green, poisonous slime that is a byproduct of the staff meeting.

Spivey opens the meeting, prepared to defer to Ratched, but she remains silent. Spivey invites the staff to comment on McMurphy’s behavior. Vying for Ratched’s approval, an intern questions whether McMurphy is insane, while another refers to him as a dangerous psychopath. The staff are just coming to an agreement that McMurphy, whom they have diagnosed with a negative Oedipal complex, should be sent to the Disturbed ward, when Ratched speaks up. She contradicts them, suggesting that McMurphy is not an exceptional case and that sending him away would only make him a “martyr” in the eyes of the patients. Instead, she plans to keep him in the ward and expose him as a self-interested “braggart and a blowhard” (137).