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Hyperbole
Definition of Idiom
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the words in the phrase. For... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on a literal interpretation of the... read full definition
An idiom is a phrase that conveys a figurative meaning that is difficult or impossible to understand based solely on... read full definition
Part Three
Explanation and Analysis—McMurphy's Hands:
In Part Three, when the men go on McMurphy's fishing expedition, they have an altercation with some men at a gas station. McMurphy uses dramatic irony and an idiom to intimidate the gas station attendant:
He put his hands up in the guy’s face, real close, turning them over slowly, palm and knuckle. “You ever see a man get his poor old meat-hooks so pitiful chewed up from just throwin’ the bull? Did you, Hank?”
He held those hands in the guy’s face a long time, waiting to see if the guy had anything else to say. The guy looked at the hands, and at me, and back at the hands.
The gas station attendant first doesn't want to help the men because he believes they are patients at the mental hospital. Then, when the doctor lies and says they are not patients but rather a work crew, the attendant begins playing mind games. He tries to offer far more expensive services than the men first requested. He is attempting to intimidate the doctor into admitting that he is a liar. McMurphy responds by posturing as an even more dangerous patient than he really is. He claims that he has killed a man with his bare hands. When the attendant calls his bluff and accuses him of "throwing the bull" (i.e. being all talk and no action), McMurphy shows him his cut-up hands. He lets the man think that the injury came from an act of extreme violence. Bromden and the rest of the men know that McMurphy injured his hands trying to lift the control panel, not killing someone. They are all in on the joke McMurphy is playing on the gas station attendant.
The dramatic irony in this moment is funny. McMurphy plays it not only to intimidate the gas station attendant but also to amuse the other patients. Rarely do they get to have the upper hand in a power exchange. He shows them how even when they are being treated as less-than, they can use humor and inside knowledge to empower themselves. The flip side of this inside joke is that McMurphy shows his nature to the other patients. He is apt to bluff to get his way. As Nurse Ratched eventually points out to the rest of the patients, McMurphy bluffs all the time to win money off the rest of them. McMurphy eventually loses some of the men's trust because of his bluffing, but eventually he goes down in everyone's book as the martyr who taught them how to get power within a system that tries to keep them down.
Related Themes:
