“...Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance…” (Kesey 250). When Randle Patrick McMurphy initially arrived at the psychiatric ward, with his laugh reverberating against the walls, uncertainty of his agenda reciprocated throughout the minds of the other patients. This uncertainty gradually evaporated once the patients realized that McMurphy only possessed one objective: to address the individual needs of the patients, regardless of the punishment. Through the previously mentioned quote, we viewed the expansion of Chief Bromden’s thinking beyond consequence. Before the presence of McMurphy on the ward, Bromden shriveled at the mention of pain and hardship. Nonetheless, McMurphy installed a sense of strength and acknowledgement within Bromden. …show more content…
Harding, an intelligent man, retained qualities that restricted him from comfortable social interactions: a lack of initiative, minute self-esteem, and a desire to always be correct. During the introductory Therapeutic Community, Harding’s lack of conduction glared as he tolerated “what [the] nurse and those other bastards did” (58). Rather than display his drive and question the reasoning behind the procedure, Harding accepted that the destructive questions are “solely for therapeutic reasons” (58), which allowed Nurse Ratched to retain her dominion over him. McMurphy combated Harding’s nonexistent resolve through two separate situations: the fishing trip and the party in the