Scrutinizing The Sticky Ending

The bittersweet ending to this novel lead to me to reflect on the sad fact about the balance in the world and how some things must worsen for others to improve. This unfortunate fact became evident at the end when McMurphy dying for his cause provided the only way for Bromden to actually become free. This whole poetic ‘one person dying for another’s rebirth’ aspect struck me the wrong way at first when I read the ending, but the more I sat on it, the more I realized the truth in this sad fact. Without McMurphy giving his life to inspire courage into the patients, Bromden would have never gained the bravery to leave and venture out into the world again.

The idea of restoring balance again through McMurphy’s death and failure contrasted with Bromden’s ‘birth’ and success actually strangely relates to an experience I had at work today. As a waitress in a nursing home dining hall, I get the perk of talking to the residents and hearing about grandkids, life stories and relationship problems in addition to their normal issues with the soups and desires for new flavors of ice cream daily. Today I had the section of the dining room where Mr. Swank, a man whose wife fairly recently left Hamlet for the hospital, sits to eat dinner. After clearing his dish and setting down his usual pie and ice cream in front of him, I asked him in the habitual way how he was, and he then looked up at me through his oversizes glasses and answered in a more alert and honest way than normal, “Good, how are you?”. This may seem small and insignificant, but it made me pause a little because this does not depict his normal response to my usual question. Though it sadedens me a lot to admit, I feel that Mr. Swank almost has improved in his independence and his activity level in the nursing home has heightened in his wife’s absence. I feel that this is exactly the same situation that occurs at the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as Bromden finally improves and moves on once McMurphy unfortuantely exits the picture. Sometimes for one person’s situaion to improve, such as Mr. Swank’s or Chief Bromden’s, another person’s must worsen, such as Mrs. Swank’s or McMurphy. Though I hope that Mrs. Swank becomes healthy and returns, comparing this situation to the novel helped me to remove my anger and unrealistic hope for a happy end to the book, and accept the conclusion through realizing the truth in it.