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We read that book in high school English class before the movie came out. It was a great book but a lousy movie.
Critic John Simon pointed out that in the book, after Big Nurse shamed Billy Bibbitt into committing suicide, McMurphy walked up to her and tore open her nurse’s uniform to expose her huge maternal bossom, meant to humiliate her, as if to say “ don’t you have a heart”. Psychiatric nurses are not supposed to shame their patients into committing suicide, they are supposed to prevent them from committing suicide. McMurphy believes a nurse being female should be warm, nuturing, protecting, like a mother. Big Nurse was a monster. There was no nurturing, no protecting, just control.
The movie miscast McMurphy with Jack Nicholson, and miscast Big Nurse with skinny, flat chested...what’s her name? Louise Fletcher.
In the book, McMurphy gets lobotomized for tearing a uniform, which is an injustice....no due process...just torture.
In the movie, Jack Nicholson’s McMurphy responds to Big Nurse shaming Billy Bibbitt into committing suicide, by strangling her with intent to murder her, it takes the whole staff to pry his hands off her neck. When McMurphy is lobotomized for being violently insane, it does not seem as unjust...and McMurphy’s actions do not seem so reciprocal or understandable. He just wanted to see Big Nurse’s breasts in the book....he was a coarse character who chose mental hospital to avoid prison. .....but to Ken Kesey, Big Nurses bosom represented the maternal, the warm and nurturing.....which is the real reason why grown men find themselves attracted to and staring at female breasts.....ie, there is a child inside who remembers being nursed. Females also admit to staring at other female’s bosom, because they once also were babies nursing at their mommy’s breasts......but because of political correctness, males are supposed to feel ashamed of noticing female breasts, and women who notice female breasts are taught to believe it makes them gay or bi.