Is Chief sane?

Is Chief sane?

From his appearance, it would seem that he isn't. That is why people think he is dumb and deaf. Not only would he have to act the part, he would have to look the part. By all perspectives, he belongs in the mental institution. But, little do they know, that he is not dumb, nor deaf. Chief opens up and reveals his true abilities to McMurphy. More importantly, the ability to hear and speak. They have been suppressed for 20 odd years. He was even unsure how he was going to handle the situation, since it has been so long. Now that people are aware of his true nature, does he belong there? From our point of view, he seems perfectly sane. But is he actually? Would someone sane purposely pretend to not be able to hear, not to talk, only to avoid conflict? He went out of his way to.

There are no wrong answers to this. Perhaps his desire to avoid conflict was a testament to his mental state of mind. He didn’t want to cause any problems. Maybe he was so worried that he made the sane decision to pretend to be deaf and dumb. Others would say that he is insane. Why would any sane man do such a drastic measure, for any reason? His actions do are pretty insane to most people. Maybe he’s not only doing it to avoid conflict, but to gain exclusive knowledge from Big Nurse and others. But without speaking, how would he ever use this information?

Now how does this relate to society and to myself?

Have you ever knowingly done something to yourself to change your perceived image? Like, buy a brand of clothing or shoe that’s in style? Or do something that makes you look smarter (i.e.: read books, wearing glasses, etc) just so people think you’re smarter? That’s no different than Chief doing things to pretend he’s deaf and dumb. Have you ever done something to avoid a particular conflict? Maybe your friend was rude to you, and instead of telling him\her your feelings, you avoided the conflict by not saying anything. Let me just say that this happens in every relationship\friendship. Our reason may be to maintain the friendship, or to totally avoid the conflict which would follow.

McMurphy and Chief are similar in some ways. They both have pretended to be something they truly aren’t, but have both ratified the situation by now acting like their normal self. And just like them, we also pretend to be things we aren’t. If McMurphy and Chief are able to stay true to themselves, can we? Is it possible to have original thoughts and traditions, or will we always conform to society to be who we aren’t?