Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo 's Nest By Ken Kesey

McMurphy is at constant odds with Nurse Ratched, the antagonist of the story; she represents the anally fixated dictator. She has established system believed to find sanity by adjusting the patients to the outside world standards. Nurse Ratched tries to shape the patients not in their own image but an image that she sees all people should act. It is believed that what the Nurse is doing is helpful to the acute’s actually suppressing their individually. In the novel they are multiple power struggles between the Big Nurse and Randle Patrick McMurphy on Nurse Ratched side, she is trying to hold order among the ward to conform McMurphy. However, McMurphy acknowledges the way she runs the ward is not right and it is actually suppressing the acute’s masculinity and self-confidence. In one section Chief Bromden acknowledges why he believes McMurphy is so strong is because he is what he is. “I’d think he was strong enough being his own self that he would never back down the way she was hoping he would.” Nurse Ratched may have a hard time trying to make McMurphy conform but she has ease making the rest conform to her standards. These are the supposed standards that the patients believe they need in order to be accepted in society. However, they are the supposed beliefs that the majority of people believe in order to strive socially. It is not only the Combine’s Ward that there a sense of missing identity there is also. Compared to the society that humankind occupies, people

The oppressor, or antagonist, of the story is Nurse Ratched, or the Big Nurse. Her methods of oppression, including attempts to emasculating the men in the medical ward, is the foundation of the work. The nurse uses her power to manipulate the patients as well as members of the staff in the hospital. Since she is in charge of the entire ward, she runs it with an iron fist while concealing her feminism and humanity behind a patronizing façade. As the story progresses, Nurse Ratched loses some power over the patients with the introduction of a new patient on the ward, Randle McMurphy. As McMurphy continues to fight her oppression, her façade breaks down and falls apart as she loses control.

Other patients on the ward begin to stand up to Nurse Ratchet and her rules. For instance, Cheswick hollers “ Rules? Piss on your fucking rules, Miss Ratched!” (Forman One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Film). A momentary outburst from Cheswick is an indicator that McMurphy has been able to model a sense of indignance at all of their treatment, and this is now being emulated by other patients through their behaviour towards Nurse Ratched. Another instance of patients talking down to Ratchet is when Sefelt states “Maybe he'll just show Nurse Ratched his big thing and she'll open the door for him.” (Forman One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Film). In this statement the use of sexual language is about empowerment. This makes reference to the possibility that McMurphy holds the key to their liberation from Nurse Ratchet’s control through his capacity to dominate her both sexually and otherwise. His ability to stand up to her and challenge her has captured Sefelt’s

After leaving the hellish work farm where he serving his prison sentence, McMurphy arrives at the ward, which is exponentially more dull and drab in comparison. The impact of his arrival at the ward is seen instantly. The enthusiasm and energy he brings to the ward is so uncharacteristic, that even some of the Chronics, who are longstanding patients that have become “machines with flaws inside that can’t be repaired,” show some life (Kesey 10). In his typical westernized fashion, McMurphy arrives at the hospital with the aura of “a frontier

In Ken Kesey’s book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there were two main characters that were in a battle to have the majority of control over the ward. Throughout the story, they engaged in different acts of stubbornness to see who could display the most power and which of the two could stand their ground the longest without giving in to the other. These two characters were: Randle McMurphy, a new patient who was determined to change the ways of the ward, and Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of the asylum who preferred to have complete control over everyone and everything.

Nurse Ratched, the ward supervisor, personifies the forces that seek to control the individual by subduing their right to think and act for themselves. She acts as a dictator who is constantly manipulating her patients to gain an advantage over them. Because Nurse Ratched supervises a mental hospital, she is expected to tell her patients what to do, but “the novel suggests that Nurse Ratched goes beyond mere supervision and instead seeks to rule all elements of the patients lives” (“Oppression in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”). Nurse Ratched and her staff dehumanize the patients, and this eventually causes the patients to become broken inside.

As a man who pretends to be deaf and mute, Bromden is considered to be a relatively unbiased character, yet he even displays strong feelings of hatred towards Nurse Ratched, proving just how evil she is. As Nurse Ratched enters the novel for the first time, she brings with her a noticeably ominous atmospheric change with, “A gust of cold,” (4) that represents her complete control over every aspect of the mental ward, even the weather. At the pinnacle of Kesey’s totalitarian society, Nurse Ratched represents the tendencies of an oppressive government or what Bromden calls, The Combine. For example, she suppresses the patients’ free will because regardless of the patients actual sanity, she is undeniably in control of their fates at the hospital. Besides McMurphy, the majority of the patients could leave on their own, but Nurse Ratched has been able to brainwash them into thinking that they are not suited to assimilate with others outside of the ward. Billy Bibbit says to McMurphy when he asks why they do not leave, “You think I wuh-wuh-wuh-want to stay in here? You think I wouldn’t like a con-convertible and a guh-guh-girl friend? But did you ever have people l-l-laughing at you? No, because you’re so b-big and so tough!” (162-163). Just like an oppressive government, Nurse Ratched convinces its people that they are worthless so they never feel powerful enough to retaliate. Like an alcoholic, Nurse Ratched needs her fix of power that makes her drunk and

There are many situations in which Nurse Ratched exhibits control over her patients, by treating them as subordinates, humiliating them and de-masculinizing them without concern for their well-being. She uses control to withhold simple privileges, such as being able to watch a baseball game on the television, tub privileges and their right to have possession of cigarettes. It seems she actually derives satisfaction from this through hints of smiles, which are so seldom seen. This only brings about anger and hostility in the patients because of the way she treats them: like children instead of men. This is put best when one patient, Charlie Cheswick (Sydney Lassick) says, “Rules? Piss on your fucking rules, Miss Ratched! ... I ain’t no little kid! When you’re gonna have cigarettes kept from me like

Ratched has complete power over all patients, including their curfew, possessions, punishment, etc. Her might and authority is instilled within the minds of the inhabitants of the ward, leaving no one to challenge her. However, her tight grip over every nook and cranny of the ward and its inhabitants dissipates when McMurphy comes in. He is accustomed to doing whatever he wants while higher powers attempting to restrict his actions. The thoughtless actions of McMurphy could be seen as a catalyst for nurse Ratched’s resolute demonstration of power and authority. His disobedience starts to influence others, and in turn chips away her power as can be seen with the patients gradually easing up. As time goes on, McMurphy's constant breaking of the mold eventually shatters Ratched’s tolerance, causing her to act with an iron fist. With McMurphy’s final act, the choking incident, she finally snaps and abuses her authority and power to the maximum. After the ultimate disobedience, McMurphy unrightfully gets lobotomized as revenge. With this lobotomization, Ratched demonstrates the ultimate use of her power: the power to take away life. McMurphy is officially classified “unstable”, even though he is seen as perfectly normal by the doctor. Nurse Ratched’s power allows her to “help” him by lobotomization. Her power is so terrifying it inspires Chief, who was

McMurphy and the big nurse argued about the radio volume. Nurse Ratched refused to down

Regarding Miss Ratched, she seems to show signs of passive-aggressive behavior throughout the book. This behavior adds to her manipulative ways and contributed to the decrease of the patients’ progress (mental/physical state). Passive-aggressive behavior is used to maintain control and power because it’s a way for her to not display any signs of weakness. Miss Ratched, also known as the Big Nurse to the patients, fights hard to remain as the top authority figure in the Ward due to her thirst for power. To maintain the control over the men, she emasculates them, stripping them of their masculinity, in various ways to prevent the chance of an uproar against her. For instance, after a group meeting regarding Harding’s problem with his wife’s breasts, the patients attack Harding. In response, McMurphy provides an analogy of a pecking party to the current

McMurphy tried to challenge her power and failed, but it was interesting because when he damaged her vocal cords she lost some of her power. So there I found that it's not really what Nurse Ratched does to scare these people they are really influenced by her voice. An allusion would be like sirens from greek mythology or the snake in the Garden of Eden. Her voice and words are her most dangerous weapon for she can make these men confess to acts of wrongdoing they did not commit.

From the early stages of the novel, it is apparent that McMurphy will be a consistent thorn to Ratched’s side. “‘that is exactly what the new patient is planning: to take over. he is what we call a ‘manipulator,’ Miss Flinn, a man who will use everyone and everything to his own ends’” (Kesey 27). In this scene, the Nurse displays a concern for McMurphy’s assertive behavior and believes that he is here to gain control of the men of the ward. Nurse Ratched is certainly very distraught at McMurphy’s entrance and his dominating stance seen throughout the ward by both the faculty and the patients. The Nurse is aware that it is possible for McMurphy to gain influence, admiration and control over the other patients of the ward, which would lead towards McMurphy gaining enough power to threaten Ratched. It is strongly suggested that the Nurse is unused to one patient trying to assume control over the others, causing her to become somewhat doubtful of her power and opening up areas that could be attacked. For example, McMurphy is able to perform a task so unusual when he leads the men to watch a blank television screen, causing the Nurse to lose her temper and stability. “‘You’re committed, you realize. You are . . . under the jurisdiction of me . . . the staff.’ She’s holding up a fist, all those red-orange fingernails burning into her palm. ‘Under jurisdiction and control―” (Kesey 144). When

When McMurphy finds out that he is one of two patients that are involuntarily committed to the hospital, it makes him realize that he alone is fighting for his freedom, and the others have been repressed by Ratched to the point of being afraid to rebel against her or simply leave. McMurphy fights until the end to free these men of their emasculation even if it

McMurphy is a gambling Irishman and convict, who grows tired of laboring at the Pendleton prison farm. To escape prison life, he feigns insanity and gets himself involuntarily committed to a mental hospital in Oregon. He tries to bring about a change at the hospital, for he does not like the fact that grown men act like "rabbits" and are scared of the Big Nurse. He tries as hard as he can to "get her goat", by not doing the duties he is given. He also ironically ends up serving as a