Becoming a Chief

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest contains various characters that grow and change throughout the story but perhaps the most evolving one is that of Chief Bromden that matures from a deaf dumb Indian into a strong knowledgeable chief.

Chief is introduced in the novel as the narrator and he describes himself as a tall Native American that has refused to speak for over ten years. He claims that this lets him have a little more control, he can always be one step ahead, listening into secret conversations while pretending not hear a thing. The chief has a point but as an audience we are able to identify that he does this because he feels weak. When chief feels he loses the little control he has, he enters a state of mind described as “the fog” which appears to make him loose control and completely black out. These fog moments are caused when he is forced into doing something he doesn’t like by the staff  a good example is when he is force to shave at the beginning of the novel. The author uses the fog to show the readers the weakness his character feels and therefore establish the chief as tall weak chief.

The weakness the chief feels can be associated to that of Dave Lizewski in the film adaptation of the classic comic book series Kick-Ass.  Dave is a young teenage comic book fan whose dream is to become a super hero. But as the chief, Dave lacks both courage and will power to fight the powers of evil. Dave and the Chief both find the strength to grow through outside characters, Dave uses his online fans and his friends Big Daddy and Hit Girl while the chief has McMurphy to push him.. With the help of McMurphy the Chief starts believing that he’s really strong and powerful, he even starts talking again, something he though of never doing again. While Dave starts feeling powerful again enough to stand up against thieves with knifes. This character growth in both works hints the same: people need someone to push them into becoming strong. Without this pushing force most of us remain as what writer Chuck Palahniuk describes as “trapped at the present moment”. But what these authors are saying is not just wait for someone to gain strength, the strength is there we just have to find it.