One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest (Part III)

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

McMurphy knows exactly how to do this and gets the other patients to agree with him also and listen to him. McMurphy comes to their rescue, when the gas station attendant tries to intimidate the patients and the doctor into accepting services they do not want, by showing them how their stigmatized identity as mental patients can be used to their advantage. They can inspire fear in others by exaggerating their insanity instead of being made to feel afraid. He tries to break this cycle of conformity and having everything obey by the rules. He sees these men differently just as he sees himself and wants to help them. McMurphy tries to teach the other patients another way to cope with the outside world, without using an approach of total conformity. However, when they arrive at the docks, they are too nervous to answer the insults of the seamen without the support of McMurphy. Once they are out to sea, McMurphy refuses to step in and aid the patients. He leaves them to manage things for themselves, and, to their surprise, they find they do not actually need his help. McMurphy’s ways actually work and teach the men a way to not only work together to stand up for each other, but be independent and not let anyone talk badly about them. With the help of McMurphy, they begin to see themselves as men, not as feeble mental patients. When the patients return to the docks, they realize that they have proven something to themselves and to the outside world, and the seamen are impressed by their large catches from the sea. This shows how McMurphy helps the men move one step further into their recovery and shows them that there’s other ways to deal with the outside world.