3. In what ways do the men change on the fishing trip? What change does the Chief observe in McMurphy on the way back to the hospital?

The fishing trip itself is a transformative event for the patients. It is a conversion for the men, for they return from their journey changed, now worthy of respect because they seem more sane than insane. The hecklers at the docks no longer mock the patients upon their return from fishing. While McMurphy and the trip itself are agents of the change, the transformation is also due to the patients' physical freedom from Nurse Ratched's control. Freed from her domineering policies, these men do have their own abilities to make their own choices; they can achieve the sense of self-worth that she denies them.