One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

1. What psychiatric symptom does the narrator, Chief Bromden, experience?

A) a deep and abiding depression

B) tremendous, unquenchable rage

C) insects crawling under his skin

D) a fog that forms all around him

2. Of what larger entity does Bromden believe the hospital is a part?

A) a nightmare he calls “the Scream”

B) a conspiracy to kill unusual people

C) a Combine that forces conformity

D) a Creature with 100-foot tentacles

3. How does Bromden describe the story he tells?

A) It is the truth even if it didn’t happen.

B) It is a hallucination within his own mind.

C) It is a fiction he wrote as part of his therapy.

D) It is a tale Mack told that Bromden wrote down.

4. What is Nurse Ratched’s ironclad rule?

A) Everyone must be kind to others.

B) Everyone must follow the rules.

C) No one may criticize another patient.

D) No one may complain about the staff.

5. What does Nurse Ratched believe about McMurphy?

A) He is a psychopath.

B) He is a manipulator.

C) He is a schizophrenic.

D) He is a paranoid.

6. When McMurphy talks of rebelling against Nurse Ratched, what warning does Harding give him?

A) She can punish him with electroshock treatments.

B) She can have him remanded to a standard prison.

C) She can have him spanked publicly by an orderly.

D) She can withhold his food rations for several days.

7. What physical symptoms does Bromden pretend to have? (short answer)

8. What bet does McMurphy make with the other patients? (short answer)

9. After McMurphy wins a pile of cigarette packs while gambling with the other residents, what does he do with the cigarettes?

A) He lets the residents win them back.

B) He sells them back to the residents.

C) He throws them all into the trash.

D) He blows smoke in Ratched’s face.

10. How does McMurphy learn that Bromden isn’t really deaf?

A) He whispers a joke that makes Bromden laugh.

B) He suddenly shouts at Bromden, who winces.

C) He tells a sad story, and suddenly Bromden is crying.

D) He warns that a staffer is coming, and Bromden looks up.

11. What does Bromden dream that comes true?

A) that McMurphy escapes but gets caught

B) that Ratched is pregnant by a patient

C) that the chief doctor is an embezzler

D) that patient Blastic dies during the night

12. What does Bromden do when he sees the fog?

A) He remains unmoving in it.

B) He tries to navigate through it.

C) He panics and screams a lot.

D) He hides in a broom closet.

13. McMurphy and others sit down to watch the World Series, but Ratched turns off the TV’s power. What do the patients do in response?

A) They throw their chairs at the nurse’s station.

B) They break the TV and toss it out the window.

C) They sing obscene songs led by McMurphy.

D) They remain seated, staring at the blank screen.

14. For what activity do Dr. Spivey and McMurphy agree the floor’s extra room should be used? (short answer)

15. When McMurphy bets he can lift a heavy object and then fails to do so, what does he say? (short answer)

16. Bromden senses dark purposes coming from the staff meeting. How does he react?

A) He hides in a broom closet until the meeting is over.

B) He hallucinates green ooze coming from the room.

C) He feels overwhelmed by fog and stands stock still.

D) He cleans the room afterwards, working especially hard.

17. Some staffers want to move McMurphy to the Disturbed ward, but Ratched thinks this would be unwise. Why?

A) It would make McMurphy into a martyr.

B) It would make the Disturbed ward crazier.

C) McMurphy should instead be put in solitary.

D) McMurphy should instead get more meds.

18. What does the pool lifeguard tell McMurphy that changes his behavior?

A) Ratched can be cooperative if complimented.

B) Ratched decides when McMurphy will be released.

C) Ratched secretly has a crush on McMurphy.

D) Ratched has a weakness for chocolate desserts.

19. Harding, who is secretly gay, receives a visit from his wife. How do they get along?

A) She complains about his friends, while he corrects her grammar.

B) They’re surprisingly affectionate, and she agrees to visit more often.

C) They don’t speak but just sit together, as if communing silently.

D) She brings flowers, but they make him sneeze, and she cries.

20. McMurphy breaks the glass at the nurse’s station while retrieving a cigarette. How does he explain this to Nurse Ratched?

A) He has been having nightmares.

B) It was payback for the TV blackout.

C) His cigarettes need to breathe freely.

D) The glass was so clean, he didn’t see it.

21. Harding asks McMurphy for his views on Harding’s wife, but McMurphy snaps at him. What does McMurphy say later to Harding to explain his sudden temper? (short answer)

22. Why has Harding committed himself to a long stay at the hospital? (short answer)

23. When the nurse’s station glass gets replaced, what does McMurphy do?

A) He breaks it again, offering the same excuse.

B) He makes a point of cleaning it every day.

C) He never visits the nurse’s station again.

D) He twice scrawls an obscenity on it.

24. McMurphy gets a pass to take patients on a fishing trip to the ocean. How does Ratched respond?

A) She warns residents that McMurphy has a record as a murderer.

B) She cancels the trip because McMurphy didn’t fill out the right form.

C) She offers a competing trip to the woods with a lake for swimming.

D) She posts news clippings that describe the dangers of the ocean.

25. McMurphy gives Bromden a pack of gum. How does Bromden respond?

A) He chews all of the gum at once.

B) He starts crying and can’t stop.

C) He speaks, saying, “Thank you.”

D) He starts laughing and can’t stop.

26. Instead of “two sweet old aunts” as chaperones for the fishing trip, who shows up?

A) a drunk ex-Marine pal of McMurphy

B) a sex worker named Candy Starr

C) a gambler who owes McMurphy a favor

D) a kid who isn’t old enough to drive

27. At the gas station, what does McMurphy do?

A) He robs the station, then uses the money to buy gas.

B) He tells the attendant to bill the psychiatric hospital.

C) He drives the bus away without paying for the gas.

D) He asks the attendant, a cute woman, to join them.

28. The boat captain won’t let them aboard without the proper papers. How does McMurphy resolve this?

A) He bribes the captain to look the other way.

B) The patients agree to clean the boat on its return.

C) The patients agree to give any catch to the captain.

D) He distracts the captain and launches without him.

29. Why does McMurphy invite patient George Sorenson to lead the fishing trip? (short answer)

30. The patients catch several fish, but how does Bromden do? (short answer)

31. What does Ratched do while McMurphy is away from discussion group?

A) She tries to learn from the patients about McMurphy’s next plans.

B) She stresses to the patients that McMurphy is basically selfish.

C) She warns the patients that aiding McMurphy is punishable by electroshock.

D) She tells the patients that McMurphy is spying on them for her.

32. For what reason are Bromden and McMurphy sent to the Disturbed ward?

A) Ratched claims they’re planning a patient revolt.

B) Ratched accuses them of assaulting her in her office.

C) They defend George in a fight with hospital aides.

D) They throw a heavy control panel through a window.

33. On what condition does Ratched offer to cancel McMurphy’s electroshock treatments?

A) He must pay for the windows he broke.

B) He must promise never to get into a fight.

C) He must agree to forfeit his cash assets.

D)  must apologize for his misbehavior.

34. Nurse Ratched blames McMurphy for Billy’s death. How does McMurphy react?

A) He urges Dr Spivey to fire Ratched.

B) He tries to strangle Nurse Ratched.

C) He escapes the hospital but is caught.

D) He bargains for electroshock and release.

35. McMurphy returns to the ward in a wheelchair, face expressionless, his brain lobotomized. How does Bromdon react?

A) He retreats into his fog for several months.

B) He cares for McMurphy till he dies a year later.

C) He strangles McMurphy as an act of mercy.

D) He kills Nurse Ratched in a vengeful rage.

36. After his electroshock treatments, what happens to Bromden’s fog? (short answer)

37. What symptom of Billy’s disappears right after his date with the prostitute? (short answer)