“You know what I’m talking about, Harding. Why didn’t you tell me she could keep me committed in here till she’s good and ready to turn me loose?” (166). From the moment McMurphy walked into the ward and declared himself ‘bull goose loony’, he has been trying to get Nurse Ratched’s goat. Since then, the nurse and McMurphy have been ‘battling,’ each trying to assume power. Up to this point, it looks as though McMurphy is on top, due to the TV incident. A shift in power is made when McMurphy learns he is committed. Being committed means that he can’t leave the ward until Nurse Ratched says so. If he continues to fight with her, he will never leave. Because he now knows that the nurse holds his fate, McMurphy decides to back off from rattling her.
“You have more to lose than I do,” Harding says again. “I’m voluntary. I’m not committed” (167). McMurphy learns for the first time that he is one of the only patients who actually is required to stay. Not many of the other patients need to be in the ward. They are all just too scared to face reality and they can’t cope with society’s rules. Each one has a particular reason for being in the ward, but none are actually because they are ‘nuts.’ McMurphy tells them to take advantage of life and leave, but no one listens.
”I’m sure sorry ma’am,” he said. “Gawd but I am. That window glass was so spick and span I com-pletely forgot it was there” (172). Moments before McMurphy broke the window, the patients were at their group meeting. Nurse Ratched expected this to be her final victory over him and establish her rule. Instead, McMurphy stood up for the others in the ward by punching the window “by accident” and taking cigarettes. He finally learned the consequence of not standing up for something (when Cheswick died, he realized it). Also, the window was a symbol of the nurse’s barrier from the ward. McMurphy just broke the barrier between her and the patients.
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