There are many recurring motifs and images in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. A very important reason is laughter. Following the motif of laughter throughout the novel, it is primarily associated with McMurphy and power/control. McMurphy teaches the patients to laugh again and with laughter the company loses control and the patients regain their power. On McMurphy's first day on the ward, seconds after entering the room and taking a good look at all the patients, he lets out a loud laugh that almost makes the walls shake. Bromden, the narrator of the story, tells us that it is the first laugh he has heard in years (Kesey, 12). Bromden also tells us that McMurphy's laugh is very different from the PR guy's fake laugh: McMurphy's laugh is real and genuine. McMurphy immediately caught Bromden's attention and captivated her even more with his thunderous laughter. This is the first laughter the reader encounters and already we can see its healing powers. As the story continues and McMurphy's influence on the patients strengthens, the reader sees other occasions where laughter heals. With McMurphy's loud, thunderous laughter dominating the ward, the patients begin to laugh too. Their laughter seems awkward at first - forced, faked - but nevertheless they are laughing, and whether the patients, or Bromden, realize it, this fake laughter begins to heal them. McMurphy's laughter as he heals patients is disturbing the Big Nurse. and his black boys. Bromden states that laughing must be the only thing that keeps McMurphy from falling captive to the group's power: "He's safe as long as he can laugh" (Kesey, 117). His laughter is a big inconvenience for... half of the paper... him for this too. While McMurphy is punished, the rest of the men slowly begin to leave the unit. Laughing at Miss Ratched's shocked face, the men had their wives pick them up, or one day they simply went to check. The Big Nurse, using what little power she had left, gave McMurphy a lobotomy. With McMurphy unable to laugh and the eyes that were once full of life and energy now drained, Bromden does his hero one last favor: he suffocates him and escapes the ward that same night. McMurphy's energy ran out as he distributed it to all the patients. He did his best not to show it, and fought until the end not to show his tiredness, but the fact is that patients took his energy, without knowing it, and improved themselves, allowing them to be free. of the combine and escape Miss Ratched's control.