Character of Chief Bromden

1129 Words5 Pages
The Charater of Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Chief Bromden, a tall American-Indian mute is the central character that symbolizes the change throughout the text and also throughout society. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest uses this character that is subject to change as the narrator event though his perceptions cannot be fully trusted. Initially the ward is run as if it was a prison ward, but from the moment the brawling, gambling McMurphy sets foot on the ward it is identified that he is going to cause havoc and provide change for the patients. McMurphy becomes a leader, a Christ like figure and the other patients are his disciples. The person who is objective to listen to his teachings at first is Chief Bromden (often called Bromden), but then he realizes that he is there to save them and joins McMurphy and the Acutes (meaning that they have possibility for rehabilitation and release) in the protest against Nurse Ratched, a bureaucratic woman who is the protagonist of the story, and the `Combine' (or society). Chief Bromden hallucinates the fog machine and Air Raids. They represent his mental clarity, it comes when he is less stable and recedes when he's more coherent. That is the first noticeable change by Bromden because of the receding hallucinations when McMurphy enters the ward; McMurphy usurps his power to change through charisma. By chapter 7 there is a small but subtle change to Bromden, he decides to go to sleep without taking the little red capsule, it seems as though he wishes to follow McMurphy. McMurphy is not taken in, by the `Combine' so Chief Bromden thinks by not taking the capsule he can perhaps escape the `Combine' and its power. Although he has a rather gruesome dream, whereby he sees one of the other patients, Blastic, being hung up on a hook and cut open. He thinks Blastic

More about Character of Chief Bromden

Open Document