Chief Bromden's Worldliness

As I read the first section of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, the intelligence of the first-person narrator, Chief Bromden, thoroughly intrigued me. I found multiple examples of situations where I thought it was unnecessary for him to live in an insane asylum. Primarily, his usage of abstract similes to compare events that occurred in the hospital with allusions to real life sparked my skepticism. Immediately, the Chief describes the “eyes glittering out of the black faces” and compares them to “the hard glitter of radio tubes out of the back of an old radio” (3). The mechanical diction “radio tubes” indirectly characterizes Bromden as knowledgeable of electronics and prone to observe distinct details like “the hard glitter.” Does he have skills as a mechanic? Could he be preforming a service in the real world by fixing broken radios? Furthermore, he determines that the nurse swells up and becomes “as big as a tractor” which gives light to the fact he worked on a farm at some point in his life (5). Could he enter the work force on a farm, where extreme mental acuteness is not needed, instead of rotting away on tax dollars in a hospital room? Finally, Bromden intelligently compares McMurphy to “a car salesman or a stock auctioneer” which brings forth the fact that Bromden experienced the slyness in both professions and understands the tactics both an auctioneer and salesman use (13). I am convinced if society allowed Chief Bromden to test his skills in the real world, a successful businessman would emerge solely due to his knowledge of many different situations and people.