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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Laughter Quotes

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“The air is pressed in by the walls, too tight for laughing.” (46) Bromden feels as if the hospital has an air of seriousness that is too heavy for the lightness that laughter brings. However, whenever McMurphey gets admitted to the hospital, he isn’t affected by the same pressure. He constantly laughs and tries his best to make the other patients around him laugh by cracking jokes. Everyone is amazed at the audacity he exhibits by laughing: a simple, yet taboo act. After some time has passed, some of the other patients are able to smile and chuckle; but it isn’t until McMurphey has more time to become an influence that they fully let loose. (102)
“I was born dead an’ life was hard.” (52) Pete says this the last time he loses control of himself. He wasn’t born a smart man and life had never been easy for him because of this. All his life he has been made fun of and treated differently for not being able to participate in the same activities that others have without experiencing more difficulty. He feels as if he was born into a losing battle that he couldn’t escape and he constantly mentions how tired he is. None of the the characters feel sympathy for him except for Bromden. Although he is a mental patient like the others, he expresses a level of understanding while narrating that the other characters don’t sympathize with. (116)
“She don’t lose …show more content…
It seems that every time the patients are one step ahead of her, she finds a way to push them two steps down. If she loses a battle, it doesn’t matter in the long run because she has nothing to lose. However, if a patient loses a battle, it’s just another piece of themselves that is forever lost to the Combine. Whenever McMurphy gets to the hospital, things start to change. The nurse starts to lose more than win, giving the other patients more motivation to keep better hold of the parts of themselves they have left.

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