"Whatever it was went haywire in the mechanism, they've just about got it fixed again. The clean, calculated arcade movement is coming back: six-thirty out of bed, seven into the mess hall, eight the puzzles come out for the Chronics and the cards for the Acutes . . . in the Nurse's Station I can see the white hands of the Big Nurse float over the controls" (Kesey 170).
This passage is presented to us as its own individual section in the novel. Sequentially, this passage follows when McMurphy stops trying to fight against the head nurse because he learns that he's committed to this institution while the other Acutes have the chance to leave. Since his arrival, McMurphy has been testing Nurse Ratched's patience with his rude and outspoken attitude, inability to take much seriously, and crude sense of humor. When he finds this out, he suddenly stops, and as author Ken Kesey writes in the aforementioned passage, things almost systematically go back to normal.
Through Kesey's diction in the passage, we're given an idea of how systematically the mental hospital runs. With precise word choice, such as "mechanism," "clean and calculated arcade movement," and most importantly "hands . . . float over the controls," we can tell Kesey wants us to see the institution's daily process as clean as clockwork. It runs smoothly and systematically like machinery.
One could tell by Kesey's syntax in this passage that he meant for it to sound exhausted and habitual (much like clockwork). Through use of precise alliteration in the use of the sharp "c" sound ("calculated arcade movement is coming back"), one could say that Kesey wanted his speech to sound quick, sharp, and precise. In fact, it gives a sort of clockwork effect. Through use of non-specific, casual, and procedural tone ("Whatever it was went haywire . . .", the sequential order of what happens at what time), one could say this gives a sort of exhausted and stuck-in-a-rut feeling. Kesey makes the reader feel like he or she has known this procedure as long as the novel's narrator, Chief Bromden.
As far as symbolism goes, one could picture the head nurse as the "puppet master" over the institution. She has everything in a clean, organized procedure and is almost controlling the patients through this procedure. As insisted by the last lines of the passage where it reads, ". . . white hands of the Big Nurse float over the controls," one could infer that the nurse is the operator or conductor of this "mechanism" the narrator mentions.
Essentially, Kesey styles this passage to make the reader know and feel that things are falling back into an exhausting order almost as by clockwork, controlled by the hands of the Head Nurse. The use of alliteration, tone, and precise diction, one is able to infer this.
One could tell by Kesey's syntax in this passage that he meant for it to sound exhausted and habitual (much like clockwork). Through use of precise alliteration in the use of the sharp "c" sound ("calculated arcade movement is coming back"), one could say that Kesey wanted his speech to sound quick, sharp, and precise. In fact, it gives a sort of clockwork effect. Through use of non-specific, casual, and procedural tone ("Whatever it was went haywire . . .", the sequential order of what happens at what time), one could say this gives a sort of exhausted and stuck-in-a-rut feeling. Kesey makes the reader feel like he or she has known this procedure as long as the novel's narrator, Chief Bromden.
As far as symbolism goes, one could picture the head nurse as the "puppet master" over the institution. She has everything in a clean, organized procedure and is almost controlling the patients through this procedure. As insisted by the last lines of the passage where it reads, ". . . white hands of the Big Nurse float over the controls," one could infer that the nurse is the operator or conductor of this "mechanism" the narrator mentions.
Essentially, Kesey styles this passage to make the reader know and feel that things are falling back into an exhausting order almost as by clockwork, controlled by the hands of the Head Nurse. The use of alliteration, tone, and precise diction, one is able to infer this.
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