Bromden to Chief Bromden

 Cagey. Foggy. Secluded. Futile. Are the adjectives that symbolized Bromden. Words that provoked:  uncertainty, misery, and the complete illustration of an unrecoverable human being. But with Mcmurphy´s "fox ability to make a quick dollar..." Change becomes a daily factor in Chief´s life.

Chief Bromden throughout the beginning of the novel is depicted as the insane of the insane. He hides from his fears, he lets the tyranny and medications get the better of him. The fact that he poses to be deaf and dumb, signifies the lack of will, not only on behalf's of the Chief: but on behalf of the whole ward to dignify themselves against Miss Ratched´s treatment. Not even Cheswick and Harding started talking the talk until Mack came into the picture. In addition, not even the information he narrated was reliable at the beginning, but once Mack starts getting momentum on his "revolution", the clarity of Chief´s ideas become evident.

Once Chief reveals desire, change is evident. The Chief discloses his hunger to go on the fishing trip(179), he finally shows the reader that he has emotion, that really has some sort of pursuit: a goal. Even though he ends up not signing himself up that day due to his fear of unmasking his "deafness", the reader connects with Chief. But as Macmurphy states several times in the novel, paraphrasing: "power is not present without laughter." The word laughter symbolizes an emotion, something that is close to impossible to portray without words. The most essential change that needed to happen to chief was to speak, to finally engage in a conversation where he conveys his thoughts, his beliefs. On page 186, after giving in to Macmurphy comedy. Besides talking, he finds himself on the verge of laughing, the key to power. One shouldn't take the fact that Chief talks as the most important but the fact that the Chief laughs, he finds something funny, almost as though he finds a sense to life.

The reader then starts to see a pattern, when everybody laughs, they're invincible, such as the parts in the gasoline station, the fishing trip. The laughter gives a sense happiness, a sense that produces power. But at this height of the novel, Chief has changed indeed but hasn't acted alone. He hasn't had the drive to act on his own drive. Not until he finds himself being taken advantage of by Mack, he then does something that had never happened before: he acts on his own anger. He stomps off to be alone, he cries, thus showing that Chief can lift the panel, expressing colossal strength, but his tears show expression. Both attributes are used by Kesey to construct the image of the new Chief, a normal human being.

The Chief finally reaches the peak of his evolution with the suffocation of Mack and his escape.(281) He acts on his criteria, on his beliefs, and on his experience to dignify Mack. He suffocates him creating a Hero, and a villain out of Big Nurse. He then escapes, not like Mack was going to escape, he escapes with a plan in mind, he foresees his future and embraces the present.

Confident. Free. Ambitious. Happy.