One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Suicide or Accident
While you are reading, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there is a dilemma where Cheswick, a patient at the mental hospital, dives into the pool and does not come up. Some readers may imply that he committed suicide. Others believe that it was merely an accident.
What I believe is that Cheswick committed suicide. My reasoning for this is that before he dove into the pool, Cheswick said, “I wish something mighta been done, though” (Kesey 151). If I was there, I would take it that Cheswick was threatening his life and was going to commit suicide. Another reason that I believe that Cheswick committed suicide is that he did not want to go back to the Disturbed ward. He was afraid that he would do something wrong and he would be sent to the shock room again. He committed suicide to avoid that. Another reason to believe that Cheswick committed suicide is that when the lifeguards finally released him, they saw that his fingers were rapped around the drain like he was gripping it to stay underwater.
For those of you that believe that Cheswick did not commit suicide, I totally disagree with you. Most of the events that occurred to Cheswick could lead to possible suicidal attempts. Cheswick actually completed his task by gripping the drain until he drowned himself.
This is a confusing part in the book and can cause a lot of dilemma between both sides of the argument, like in my group. Mason and I believe Cheswick drowned himself on purpose, while Tori and Amy believe that it was just an accident that caused his death.
By Craig Noe