ar at all, which means never trying new things or gaining new experiences. I learn by going where I have to go, though seemingly optimistic still suggests by the words, “have to” that, like the patients, this person learns things about life by being forced to go places and not making his own decisions. The line, “What falls away is always. And is near” can be fitted to the patients beliefs that when things happen they always happen that way and can not be changed or happen differently in any way. The poem and the patients alike give you a sense of conformity and dullness, but there is a hint of hope and optimism in both as well. In the poem two questions are asked, the first being what is there to know and the second being who can tell us how. These questions show that the door is still open to for someone to come in and answer these questions and therefore change this person’s outlook on life. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest this person is McMurphy. He came into the ward with a cocky swagger and the patients on the ward looked at him like a misfit of their strictly set society. McMurphy automatically wages war on the nurse and the strict guidelines for living that she has instituted in the ward. McMurphy questions why the inmates must brush their teeth at a specific time and when he gets an unsatisfactory answer he uses soap powder to brush his teeth instead of toothpaste, which is locked away. With this act he sent a message to the patients. He questioned authority and the patients began to realize that there was more to life than what they knew from the ward. McMurphy really made them understand what learning from experience meant when he tries to lift a huge control panel even though he knows he can’t. He shows the patients that even if you fail you still gain experience from what you have done and that is what truly makes you a person. Once the men realize this, McMurphy is ...
