Cuckoo's Nest Blog #2

I would say that McMurphy is getting the best of their rivalry. By the very end of the section, he's obviously started to bother her by first trying to watch the World Series and then by continuing to stare at the TV screen even after the Big Nurse has cut the power. It's apparent that he's gotten her goat due to the fact that "[they] can see the nurse's face get red and her mouth work as she stares at [McMurphy]. (pg. 124) When she yells at McMurphy for not working, "her voice has a tight whine like an electric saw ripping through pine". (pg. 125) The Big Nurse has lost her composure and is ranting to the patients about not doing their work while McMurphy is as calm as anything. I think this shows that he's winning the battle between them.

I'm not sure how I feel about the Chief. To me, he's still just the narrator, and a slightly unreliable one at that. His perception of the Big Nurse is heavily biased towards portraying her as villainous, which bothers me just a bit, but since I think the point of the story is to have us rooting for McMurphy this bias is excusable. However, I don't think he's outright lying to us about anything, it's his perspective that's skewed. The medicine messes with his head and gives us whole sections of the book that seem so disconnected due to the fact that they're talking about fog and whatnot. I don't think McMurphy's presence has changed the Chief's narration at all, but I do think his presence has changed his character, if only slightly. The scene where the Chief raises his hand to add to the vote towards watching the World Series on page 123 shows that he's not afraid of the Big Nurse and also that he's willing to lower his act of deafness ever so slightly in order to help McMurphy's cause, which he supports.

I'm rooting more for McMurphy, though I can see why one would root for the Big Nurse. By this point, he's tried so hard to get the nurse's goat and to get the other men rallied together against her tyrannical rule that I think he deserves to win. He's very persistent in his efforts, which is admirable.