Who narrates the events of the novel?

• A. Nurse Ratched
• B. Chief Bromden
• C. Randle McMurphy
• D. Dale Harding

Answer: (B)

The events are presented from the inside perspective of Chief Bromden, a patient on the ward, using a first-person voice. Because Bromden pretends to be deaf and mute, his observations bubble up from his own experience inside the hospital, shaping how everything is described—the power structures, the routines, and the conflicts between authority and individual—and his foggy, sometimes unreliable inner world colors what the reader takes as “reality.” This means we see Nurse Ratched, McMurphy, and Dale Harding through Bromden’s eyes, as he interprets their actions and motives rather than telling the story from an outside, objective stance. Nurse Ratched isn’t the teller of events; she’s the figure whose control Bromden critiques and whose influence on the ward we witness through his narration. McMurphy drives the action, but his exploits and their consequences are framed by Bromden’s narration, not told directly by McMurphy. Harding’s character matters to the plot as Bromden perceives him, again through Bromden’s own narration rather than a separate narrator. So the best answer is Chief Bromden, because the novel unfolds as his memory and observations filtered through his personal consciousness.