The passage which illustrates McMurphy’s greatest triumph of the men showing that they are prepared to face society is stated as, “While McMurphy laughs. Rocking farther….in wave after wave after wave,” (249-250). In this quote, the men are on a fishing expedition and McMurphy begins to laugh freely which the patients followed, signifying that although being labeled as lunatics, laughter is the one thing keeping them sane. Their laughter portrays how they’ve gained freedom as they opened up, learned to laugh at themselves, each other, accepting the world as it is, for its flaws and its strengths, as it says, “part of them, laughing with them-and somehow not with them,” (250). Earlier in the novel, laughter in the ward was rare, as they were under Nurse Ratched’s control. …show more content…
He evolves the patients to a point where they can laugh at themselves and the world, displaying their assertion of independence and freedom from the nurse and other oppressive forces they may encounter in society. The patients understand that laughter is crucial to maintaining sanity, because sometimes, you have to simply must laugh the hurtful things off in order to cope with reality, as it says, “he knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy,” (250). They recognize importance of maintaining a balance between humor and experiencing pain as neither should be blocked out of your life, as it states, “he won’t let the pain blot out the humor no more’n he’ll let the humor blot out the pain,” (250). While they all laugh in harmony, the men gain their freedom, independence and masculinity as they finally escape the imprisonment of the ward for a moment, and become men again, ready to face