p. 146- 147 BV

Mc Murphy talks with the lifeguard p.146- 147

Context:
Mc Murphy has resumed power in the ward he believes the nurse isn’t tough enough to handle him. The patients go to the swimming pool.


Themes
• Control and manipulation - Nurse decides what is done and when the patients can leave, do what they are asked to do, play after the nurses rules- the nurse plays a fixed game

Characters

• Lifeguard- a victim of the nurses manipulation and control
• Chief- tends to see things in terms of literal metaphors
• Mc Murphy- tries to upset the routine- the black boys are intimidated by him- he never plays a game he knows he cannot win. He is trying to run the ward vs. the nurse

Symbols
• Cast on lifeguard: control of nurse and mental manipulation

Motifs (reoccurring symbols)
• Brainwashing
• Being committed

Paradoxes (seems impossible but is possible)
• Lifeguard was picked up for being drunk and disorderly - has been there for over eight years

Synecdoche
• Lifeguard stands for all patients - control of nurse, brainwashing

What drives the passage?
• Language- drugged gorilla- shows how the lifeguard is controlled by the nurse- the nurse runs a fixed game
• Imagery- the life guard doesn’t actually have a cast- he is so manipulated by the nurse
• Structure- one person talking and there is a new paragraph- the chief has switched from his life before the ward to observing mc Murphy-