Welcome to Ms. Lamp’s sample IOC!!

Starring: Ms. Lamp

Written by: Ms. Lamp

Directed by: Ms. Lamp

Produced by: Ms. Lamp

Dedicated to: Ken Kesey, without whom this video would not be possible. Literally. The whole thing is an analysis of his book. So thanks, Kiester!

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30 / This scramble of action [MV1]holds for a space, a second there on the sea—the men yammering and struggling and cussing and trying to tend their poles while watching the girl; the bleeding, crashing battle between Scanlon and my fish at everybody’s feed; the lines all tangled and shooting every which way with the doctor’s glasses-on-a-string tangled and dangling from one line ten feet off the back of the boat, fish striking at the flash of the lens, and the girl cussing for all she’s worth and looking now at her bare breasts, one white and one smarting [MV2]red—and George takes his eye off where he’s going and runs the boat into that log and kills the engine. [MV3]
While McMurphy [MV4]laughs. Rocking farther and farther backward against the cabin top, spreading his laugh out across the water—laughing at the girl, at the guys, at George, at me sucking my bleeding thumb, at the captain back at the pier and the bicycle rider and the service-station guys and the five thousand houses and the Big Nurse and all of it. [MV5]Because he knows 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[MV6]. He knows there’s a painful side[MV7]; he knows my thumb smarts and his girlfriend has a bruised breast and the doctor is losing his glasses, but he won’t let the pain blot out the humor no more’n he’ll let the humor blot out the pain.
I notice Harding is collapsed beside McMurphy and is laughing too. And Scanlon from the bottom of the boat. At their own selves as well as the rest of us. And the girl, with her eyes still smarting as she looks from her white breast to her red one, she starts laughing. And Sefelt and the doctor, and all. [MV8]
It started slow and pumped itself full[MV9], swelling the men bigger and bigger[MV10]. I watched, part of them, laughing with them—and somehow not with them. I was off the boat, blown up off the water and skating the wind with those black birds[MV11], high above myself, and I could look down and see myself and the rest of the guys, see the boat rocking there in the middle of those diving birds, see McMurphy surrounded by his dozen people[MV12], and watch them, us[MV13], swinging a laughter that rang out on the water in ever-widening circles, farther and farther, until it crashed up on beaches all over the coast, on beaches all over all coasts, in wave [MV14]after wave after wave.
Guiding Questions:
•Content question: What is a dominant motif in this passage, and how is it significant? Laughter as freedom – signif b/c it represents a turning point in the men – sign of things to come. Laughter personified, took on life of its own, just like the men will start to do. Adds to theme of novel – people have the right to think for themselves, question authority, and control their own lives no matter how different they may be
•Technique question: How does the author use the structure of his/her sentences to mirror the emotion/intensity of the scene? Starts off w/ long, rambling sentence – one whole paragraph! Next para starts w/ super short sentence – sudden shift in structure as well as action in the scene. Things changed when McM laughed. Lots of fragments starting line 20 – not sure of signif?
  1. Intro (VERY BRIEF background – only what’s relevant)
  2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  3. Ken Kesey
  4. Counterculture
  5. Written as reaction to:
  6. Experiences as an orderly in mental health facility
  7. Experiences w/ societal oppression in the 60s (free thinker)
  8. This extract
  9. Occurs when men on the ward were on their first fishing trip
  10. Things were going awry – chaos ensuing
  11. McM (hero and Christ figure of the novel) begins to laugh
  12. Significance
  13. When McM laughs, changes everything; turning point for men
  14. Despite the Combine’s attempt to control the men on the ward, they can take control and be their own men
  15. This scene is them taking back their freedom
  16. Representative of Kesey’s view that people should question authority and think for themselves.
  17. Motif of laughter
  18. Transition: Kesey illustrates the importance of individual freedom by developing the motif of laughter throughout the passage.
  19. Words “laugh” and “humor” Lines 10, 11, 14, 18, 19, 24, 28 – must be important if he repeated it that much
  20. Important b/c the first thing McM did on the ward when he was admitted was laugh – Brom thought it was odd b/c he hadn’t heard a real laugh in years (sad face)
  21. Juxtaposition of laughter/pain
  22. McM starts laughing after everything is going wrong
  23. Line 14 (“because he knows…”)
  24. Ironic line b/c after all, the pts were deemed as “crazy” by society/hospital/combine/whatever
  25. Laughter is saving them men here (fitting that McM is the one starting this; he is the savior, after all)
  26. When everyone is laughing, McM is surrounded by “his dozen people” – symbolic of disciples
  27. Laughter in this case is a metaphor for freedom – no one can take away someone’s right to laugh – McM reminds the men of that.
  28. Line 17 – “he won’t let the pain blot out the humor any more’n he’ll let the humor blot out the pain.” (LET – McM has control over his own laughter, his own decisions, his own life)
  29. Laughter personified & takes on a life of its own – line 23, Kesey writes “it started….”
  30. The same thing is happening with the men
  31. Brom sees himself fly above the men like a bird (another symbol of freedom)
  32. Laughter goes out in waves until they crash into the shore
  33. Waves keep going and going until they hit a force to stop them (Big Nurse? The Combine?)
  34. Sentence structure
  35. Transition: As the men transform as a result of this laughter, so does Kesey’s sentence structure.
  36. Extract begins with a one-sentence paragraph that takes up 9 lines
  37. Long, rambling sentence reflects the chaos and confusion of the scene; everything is happening at once, and the fishing trip is quickly becoming a disaster
  38. Sudden shift
  39. Line 10 – “While McM laughs.”
  40. Few things going on here
  41. Men fighting with their poles, swearing, Candy’s chest is sliced from the fishing line, lines are tangled, fish slapping on the boat, and more
  42. All of that is separate from, “While McM laughs.”
  43. He stands apart from the men (ties in to Christ imagery – something special about him)
  44. So it makes sense that Kesey separates his sentence from the other paragraph – uses his paragraph break to separate the laugh from the hectic action of the scene
  45. Also makes sense that the first sent of that para is so short – brings all the disorder/confusion to a halt once McM laughs.
  46. As the characters begin to transform, so does the sentence structure – line 19 begins series of sentence fragments.
  47. Almost as if one by one the men are changing right before Brom’s very eyes.
  48. Last para – picks up momentum and sentences are again longer and more smooth
  49. Correlates with wave metaphor (sentences more fluid in this para, like waves/water) – last line “and watch them, us – cadence to the line that mirrors the momentum of the laugh, and thus the change in the men.
  50. Conclusion
  51. In summary, Ken Kesey uses this scene as a climax in the novel (at least the climax of part 3). His use of laughter to represent every individual’s basic freedom serve to support the novel’s main argument that every person should be in control of his/ her own life.

[MV1]The whole scene revolves around a scramble of action

[MV2]Smarting = stinging; painful

[MV3]Wow, this whole paragraph is one ginormous sentence – run-on mirrors the chaos that is going on on the boat. Kesey using sentence structure to mirror the intensity of the scene

[MV4]But then there’s this one short sentence to start the next para. Signifying some sort of change? Stop the chaos of the moment?

[MV5]Laughing at everything – long list of things McM laughed at; all negative things. Juxtaposition of laughter & pain (antithesis…conflict…BN vs. McM, Inside vs. Outside, sane vs. insane, etc.

[MV6]“plumb crazy” – ironic b/c they’re supposed to be mentally ill. Yes the pts are the most sane of all

[MV7]there’s a painful side to everything

[MV8]Whole paragraph full of sentence fragments. hmmmm

[MV9]Laughter personified

[MV10]Size metaphor – shows up a lot throughout the novel. Laughter = freedom = size. Confidence building – major turning point for the men and in the novel. (also signif that the fishing trip is the only time the men are on the Outside)

[MV11]Brom sees himself as a bird – birds are symbols of freedom. He’s flying free over the boat & the rest of the men.

[MV12]Christ imagery – disciples (followers) – shows impact McM has had on the men

[MV13]First “them,” then “us.” Brom starting to see himself as belonging

[MV14]Waves don’t stop until they hit something – McM has started something big (will this wave crash into Big Nurse??)