In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Why Does Chief Bromden trust,

Meaning that he would believe that the patients following rules prior to McMurphy’s arrival and showing respect for the staff of the ward is what led to order in the institution for so long. After his arrival this no longer applied, as McMurphy showed no respect for the staff, especially Nurse Ratched, who he often had many negative exchanges with. He also would not follow the rules as the other patients would, and challenged them in an attempt to change them, rather than showing respect and following them. This lead to the initial order of the institution being put to an end. However, McMurphy’s actions had caused the deterioration of the ward and the mental state of the patients in many other ways.

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

Both Randle McMurphy and Nurse Ratched did not rest to bring out their own methods to influence the patients. McMurphy displayed his method of rebellion by actually gathering some patients and fleeing from the hospital. He showed them something they would never forget by setting them free and letting them see what was outside of the frugal hospital. After the unexpected fishing trip, Nurse Ratched realized she was losing her control on the patients. They began to think for themselves and realize that they were being cheated. Clearly, the group meetings were not successful because the topics Ratched chose were too personal. When the nurse insisted Billy to reflect on his first suicide attempt Cheswick frantically exclaimed, “Why do you force him to talk about that?” Instead of displaying empathy and compassion to Billy, she pressured him into discussing it. Nurse Ratched needed a way to restore order and punishment was the only way. She knew McMurphy had gained the patients’ respect which was something she had never achieved. McMurphy brought something to those patients that Nurse Ratched could not contribute, and that was gratitude for life.

Throughout the novel, he is also shown to be caring for the other patients in the ward. He wishes them to stop being fearful, wanting them to take a stance for themselves and rebel against the ones oppressing them. This attitude dedicated to helping his fellow inmates is shown as early as the beginning, where McMurphy does his best to try and rile a laugh from the other patients who have had the laughs chased out of them years ago. One of the older patients, Harding, tries to explain how they are all rabbits in this world, how they must submit to the wolves for they have no power to stand up against them. However, McMurphy violently rejects this idea, telling him, “You’re no damned rabbit!” (58). McMurphy constantly tries to convince the other patients to stand up for themselves. This becomes most prominent near the end of the novel. After the suicide of a fellow inmate, McMurphy acts and attempts to strangle the nurse, knowing that by doing so will result in repercussions for him. As Bromden watches, he thinks, “We couldn’t stop him because we were the ones making him do it...it was our need that was making him push himself slowly up from sitting...it was us that had been making him go on for weeks” (274-275). Bromden realizes that the way McMurphy was acting was primarily for their sake, for the sake of all the other inmates who looked towards McMurphy as a sign of

In Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoos’s Nest, McMurphy is the protagonist. Kesey throughout the book has depicted McMurphy of trying to pull the patients “out of the fog.” Bromden’s perception of McMurphy’s attempts to drag them “out of the fog” is showed when he states, “There’s no sense in it, any fool can see; I wouldn’t do it on my own” (Kesey 142). This takes place when McMurphy is trying to get the chronics to vote for the time of watching TV to be changed. Although this is before Bromden realizes he voted because of his own free will, Bromden sees McMurphy’s attempts to pull them “out of the fog” as troubling, as it will increase tensions between the patients and Big Nurse. McMurphy perceives his attempts to pull the other patients “out of the fog” as vital, this is show when he is trying to get the chronics to vote for the time change to watch TV and he says, “‘One of you guys for cryin’ out loud! This is where you get the edge, don’t you see that? We have to do this…’” (Kesey 142). As the only one in the hospital that is different and still actually laughs, Mc Murphy still has his individuality and sees the control that the Big Nurse is keeping over the patients. In recognizing this and the dehumanization that the other patients have gone through, McMurphy constantly tries to pull the patients “out of the fog,” seeing that Big Nurse will have no power if they all retaliate against her. At the end of part one, McMurphy is shown with success of pulling the

McMurphy then had everyone sit down and he was acting as a sports commentator and commentating the World Series as if they were all at the game. “And we're all sitting there lined up in front of that blanked-out TV set, watching the gray screen just like we could see the baseball game clear as day, and she's ranting and screaming behind us. If somebody’s of come in and took a look, men watching a blank TV, a fifty-year-old woman hollering and squealing at the back of their heads about discipline and order and recriminations, they'd of thought the whole bunch was crazy as loons (134-135)”. This is an example of a power struggle between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy because he rebelled against her when she was trying to exert her authority. McMurphy is dangerous to her rule because he inspires rebellion to the other

In the end McMurphy loses his life in the fight to change the system, but he left a substantial impact on the hospital and the policies of Nurse Ratchet. His fight to change the system was well worth it because of the positive change it brought to so many patients. Before his ultimate death, McMurphy does win some major battles at the ward. From battle to battle against the system, McMurphy leads his lost chronic soldiers beyond enemy lines and toward safety. Even after being smothered from his command position, it was as if he had never left their side. For the path he paved was much to large to be coverup with the leaves left by Big Nurse. By following McMurphys footsteps, the squad finally found the light within society, and stepped into it with open arms and wishful smiles. No longer were they under the control of the system and its rules. he had broken free from the routine, and in the end, changed the world as they knew it. It is evident that it 's very difficult to change the system, but it is possible. The right type of character and personality is a big help when you are trying to achieve success in fighting the system. In order to make a true difference you have to keep on trying and fighting. Even if you just change a small area of the system, the majority of the time it is well worth the fight. In this novel the main character was successful in changing some aspect of the system. To him, the corruption unfair practices, and indecencies were enough. Something

When McMurphy first enters the ward he is joyful and full of energy but Chief notices that “at first … he’s making everybody over there uneasy … with the big wide-open laugh of his” (15). The other patients are uncomfortable with McMurphy’s personality. This shows a motif of machines because Nurse Ratched has control of the patients and she makes them feel like little children. Towards the middle of the book, the reader begins to see how McMurphy has been struggling mentally: “He cuts to shuffle again, and the cards splash everywhere like the deck exploded between his two trembling hands” (155). The author uses imagery to portray how McMurphy is struggling to help the other patients. At the beginning of the book McMurphy could shuffle the cards with ease but now he struggles to keep his hands from trembling. McMurphy says, “Tell me why. You gripe, you bitch … how you can’t stand this place, can’t stand the nurse … and all the time you ain’t committed” (161). Here the reader sees how McMurphy finally feels about all the complaints the men give him. The reader gets some negative diction with words like “bitch,” and “can’t”. Most of those words show how a person does not feel like they have the power to do something about a problem. Towards the end of the book, Chief notices that McMurphy’s head “slumped over with his head hung … it was just as hard for him to stand straight as it was for

Finally, all this came together to institutionalize every individual in the hospital. Everything that the patients were expected to do became norms, and things went of control when these established rules were not followed. McMurphy tries to defy everything and lost to it in the end by pretty much becoming permanently institutionalized by the lobotomy. You were to follow the rules or be punished. Nearly every patient was already institutionalized before McMurphy came along, the went completely off the chain when McMurphy sneak alcohol into the hospital. One of them lost their virginity and it broke him. He couldn't handle the thought of that freedom, being an adult and being afraid of Nurse Ratched telling his

The moment McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched is the moment she loses all her power and the patients no longer fear her anymore. When she returns to the ward after her attack, Bromden remarks “…in spite of its being smaller and tighter and more starched than her old uniforms, it could no longer conceal the fact that she was a woman” (Kesey, 1962, p. 320) symbolizing that Nurse Ratched’s exposure to the male patients ultimately destroyed her strength and deemed her to nothing more than a simple woman. When she tries to resume her role as the dominating head nurse, most of the patients have either checked out of the institution or moved to a different ward. She no longer had the power she used to have in order to control her ward, and by the end of the novel, Chief Bromden manages to gain the courage to finally escape the

McMurphy was a so called a psychopath rite when he first arrived to the ward. Things really came alive when he arrived he immediately took over the ward.Even though everyone in the ward was scared and afraid of Nurse ratchet.Everyone was scared to get electroshock therapy or lobotomy session because it was all up to Nurse Ratchet,so of course no one wanted to get on her bad side until Mcmurphy arrived to ward and everything changed because he was the only so called rebel to stand up to Nurse Ratchet.Since none of the patients had confidence to stand up for themselves he then standed up for the patients and started to push the limits on Nurse Ratchet by telling her to turn on the tv so all the patients could watch the world series,and makeing

You’re no crazier than the average asshole out walking around on the streets.” this shows his courage and willingness to take leadership to decide what he thinks is best for all the patients and that is freedom. Furthermore, the patients were able to follow upon McMurphy’s goal to escape from the Nurse and made him and the patients winners over the Nurse because they got what they were looking for which is freedom. Finally, McMurphy’s long term goal was met while Nurse Ratched’s long term goal failed to meet her expectations. For comparison, McMurphy’s goal since getting into the hospital was to ensure every patient got their share and freedom including him because he believes they were all capable of integrating back into society; Nurse Ratched’s goal was to isolate McMurphy and the patients to prevent them from achieving freedom back into society.

Courage and leadership are two traits that most heroes have in common. The moment McMurphy steps into the ward, it is obvious that he is not an ordinary man. He takes charge inside the group right away by saying, “So you better take me to your leader and we’ll get it straightened out who’s gonna be boss around here” (Kensey 23). Seeing the Big Nurse affected by McMurphy’s presence is what slowly gives the others a sense of hope

Ken Kesey's use of symbolism in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest transforms the novel and the hospital within the novel a microcosm of society, a battle between the sane and insane, the conformist and the non-conformist. Randle McMurphy's arrival influenced the lives of almost every person, whether patient or employee. Whether or not his motives and actions were moral or good-hearted is difficult to conclude, however. On one hand, he undoubtedly saved the patients from losing their souls, so to speak, to Nurse Ratched and her ward. Without him, they would not have been able to stand up for themselves or grow a sense of self-appreciation and competence. On the other hand, there was a price to

After realizing the position Ratched has put him, McMurphy’s exuberant nature deteriorates, thus conforming with the other patients. Ratched uses McMurphy’s conformity as an advantage since the patients no longer see him as their “saviour”. This eventually results in Cheswick’s death as “[he] waited for McMurphy to back him up, all he got was silence” (172), which leads him to resort to suicide as “McMurphy [didn’t] stand up for [them] any longer…” (173). With McMurphy no longer in defiance, Ratched is free to exert her jurisdiction on him, as McMurphy was constantly challenging her authority. The challenge McMurphy presented and Ratched’s determination to extinguish the “threat” he posed, portrays the importance of Ratched’s position in the hierarchy. Moreover, her resilience to demean McMurphy’s reputation in front of the rest of the patients, demonstrates how she recognizes that her power could easily be stripped away from her. Overall, this recognition displays how Ratched acknowledges the fortunate position she occupies and the precarious balance of power within the institution. Additionally, the long term effects of a dominating woman is present in Chief Bromden’s behaviour. Throughout the novel, Bromden was under the guise of being deaf, which enabled him to be overlooked by the majority of the staff. This fabricated appearance could be traced back to Bromden’s mother who played an