What Just Happened?

So was I the only one who was completely caught off guard by Harding’s comment “ I’m voluntary. I’m not commited’” (194)? The moment creates situational irony, because the majority of the patients in the institution, who are being tortured, are voluntary. I definitely paralleled McMurphy in his confusion “‘why do you stand for it?’” (195). It is really difficult for me to grasp why these men choose to endure the inhuman treatment of this institution. It pains me to find that the only response to this questioning was “‘did you ever have people laugh at you?’” (195). I think that it is truly horrible that society was so cruel to these men that they had to go to the extreme of putting themselves into a mental institution just to escape the mockery. I think that Kesey really shines a spot light on the flaws of man here, how as a rule we rarely accept those who are different from us. As odd as it seems, I am more disappointed with society now than I was when I had thought that all of the men were committed by society. For, society has driven them into the shelter of a cold cell instead of respecting that these men, like all men, are flawed.