Some questions to help prompt our thinking on this topic: How do you define freedom? What are different kinds of freedom? How does Chief Bromden change in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?
Over the course of Ken Kesey's novel, McMurphy leads Chief Bromden to freedom in more ways than one. As the novel is written from Bromden's perspective, we get to see how he views the world, as well as the effect McMurphy has on him. Aside from leading Bromden to physical freedom from the ward, I think it is also important to examine how McMurphy helps free Bromden's mind.
Let's start at the beginning. Bromden begins as an observer. He pretends to be deaf and dumb and is therefore labeled as a chronic. Bromden believes we are all parts of the Combine, and the broken parts are sent to the hospital to be fixed and wired back into the machine. Bromden does not want to be a part of this, so he pretends that he can't talk or hear. He thinks this is his only resistance.
Enter McMurphy, who is so larger than life that he shakes up the status quo on the ward. He questions Nurse Ratched's control and inspires change. McMurphy starts to give Bromden hope. Bromden reveals to McMurphy that he is not deaf. This is the first time Bromden has spoken in years. Thus, this is the first small act of freedom that McMurphy helps Bromden achieve. McMurphy promises Bromden to help make him "big" again.
McMurphy gives Bromden a physical taste of freedom through the field trip. McMurphy signs Bromden up to go fishing, allowing him to spend some time away from the confines of the ward.
While McMurphy laughs. Rocking farther and farther backward against the cabin top, spreading his laugh out across the water—laughing at the girl, 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. 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.
The next time Bromden is subjected to electroshock therapy, he fights "the fog." McMurphy has inspired Bromden to fight for himself. He remembers parts of his childhood and his life before.
The party is another way McMurphy gives Bromden both a taste of freedom and a bit of hope that he can overcome the Combine.
As I walked after them it came to me as a kind of sudden surprise that I was drunk, actually drunk, glowing and grinning and staggering drunk for the first time since the Army, drunk along with half a dozen other guys and a couple of girls—right on the Big Nurse's ward! Drunk and running and laughing and carrying on with women square in the center of the Combine's most powerful stronghold! I thought back on the night, on what we'd been doing, and it was near impossible to believe. I had to keep reminding myself that it had truly happened, that we had made it happen. We had just unlocked a window and let it in like you let in the fresh air. Maybe the Combine wasn't all-powerful. What was to stop us from doing it again, now that we saw we could? Or keep us from doing other things we wanted?
At the end, McMurphy's lobotomy has a huge effect on Bromden. Bromden suffocates McMurphy's vegetative body, in a way freeing him from the comatose state. Bromden has become big again. He breaks out of the ward and escapes, fleeing to Canada and the place he grew up.
I ran across the grounds in the direction I remembered seeing the dog go, toward the highway. I remember I was taking huge strides as I ran, seeming to step and float a long ways before my next foot struck the earth. I felt like I was flying. Free. Nobody bothers coming after an AWOL, I knew, and Scanlon could handle any questions about the dead man—no need to be running like this. But I didn't stop. I ran for miles before I stopped and walked up the embankment onto the highway.
We see how Chief Bromden changes from beginning to end. At the start, he lives out his life quietly on the ward. At the end, he pursues his freedom. This is all because of McMurphy. McMurphy's presence on the ward sparks this journey for Bromden.
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