One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Post #3)

“’No. You’ve got more to lose than I do, my friend.’
Harding’s grinning again, looking with that skitterish sideways look of a jumpy mare, a dipping, rearing motion of the head. Everybody moves down a place. Martini comes away from the X-ray screen, buttoning his shirt and muttering, ‘I wouldn’t of believed it if I hadn’t saw it,’ and Billy Bibbit goes to the black glass to take Martini’s place.
‘You have more to lose than I do,’ Harding says again. ‘I’m voluntary. I’m not committed.’”

I couldn’t believe this when I read it. Maybe I just couldn’t understand why anybody would want to hide from other people. If I had been treated like the characters in this book then I would have checked myself out the second the nurse started mistreating me. Even if I didn’t possess the courage to live out in society, then I would check myself into a different ward somewhere else. However, this part did seem to wake up McMurphy from his quietness. McMurphy also can’t see why any man would voluntarily check himself into a place like this, so he decides to start sticking up for the other guys again. I think by doing this McMurphy is trying to give the other guys some courage, and enough to make them realize that they can go out of the ward. He also is trying to make them see that they would be ok by themselves. I am glad that McMurphy is back and ready to make the Nurses life hard again because the book was a little slow without these events. I also hope that this time around McMurphy will succeed in giving the guys some backbone, instead of giving up because he is committed and not voluntary.