THE NARRATOR
In the film, Chief Bromden's character is heavily marginalized. Because he pretends to be deaf and mute, he does not provide this narrative technique used heavily in the book.
What is an internal monologue?
In the film, McMurphy is often portrayed as a roguish, humorous con man. In the book, Kesey wrote him as more of this.
What is violent and sinister?
The Big Nurse's full, ironically pleasant maiden name.
Who is Mildred Ratched?
McMurphy snaps and attacks Nurse Ratched after she refuses to take accountability for the suicide of this vulnerable patient.
Who is Billy Bibbit?
This author wrote the original 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Who is Ken Kesey?
Because of Chief Bromden's narration, his point of view in the book makes him an unreliable narrator. He experiences these, which are completely absent in the film.
What are hallucinations?
In the book, McMurphy actually tricks the patients into giving him this, whereas the film only shows him winning cigarettes.
What is their money?
he Big Nurse maintains order on the ward by keeping careful records in this item, which she uses as leverage during group therapy sessions.
What is the logbook?
After McMurphy is lobotomized, Chief Bromden ends his suffering and ensures McMurphy does not remain a shell of his former self by doing this to him.
What is smothering him with a pillow?
Because the film adaptation completely removed the first-person perspective of Chief Bromden, Ken Kesey took this extreme action regarding the finished movie.
What is vowed to never watch it?
In the ward, the staff uses this physical device, often hidden in the walls, to monitor and control the patients' minds and behaviors.
What is a hidden microphone or listening device?
In the book, McMurphy's past crimes include statutory rape of a young girl. The movie alters his backstory to make him more sympathetic by claiming the girl gave him a fake age. How old was the girl in the film?
What is 15?
When the Chief escapes at the end of the book, he heads toward the geography of this home state.
What is Oregon?
Kirk Douglas originated the role of McMurphy in this medium in 1963, before his son acquired the rights to produce the film version.
What is the Broadway stage?
While a heavy theme in the book, this concept/phrase is never mentioned in the film at all.
What is "The Combine"?
Visually, while the book describes Nurse Ratched with skin "the color of a soldering iron" and a harsh demeanor, the film alters her physical appearance to resemble this.
What is a baby-doll?
In the novel's final chapter, Chief Bromden hitches a ride to leave the hospital and heads in this geographical direction.
What is north (towards Canada)?
Ken Kesey filed a lawsuit against the film's producers because he was promised a percentage of the gross profits and was denied it. He claimed to have never received a dime for this reason.
What is a contract dispute (and Hollywood accounting)?
The Chief’s father had this traditional Indigenous name, which he gave up when he married the Chief's mother and took her name.
What is Tee Ah Millatoona? (Pine-that-stands-tallest-on-the- mountain)
While the book focuses on her as a metaphor for societal control, the film transforms Nurse Ratched into a quintessential depiction of this psychological archetype.
Who is the passive-aggressive tyrant? the villain?
Unlike the film's definitive escape, the ending of the book leaves the reader with a sense of uncertainty over whether Chief will succeed or succumb to this.
What is the dehumanizing outside world?