One Flew Over The Cuckoo 's Nest By Ken Kesey

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

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

Power fundamentally drives Kesey’s book. One character who embodies power is Nurse Ratched. Despite her seemingly innocuous “baby doll” face, the nurse is able to manipulate it to her use. With her smooth yet manufactured appearance, she is programmed to be obsessed with order. At the peak of her regime, she is likened to a spider, the anarchic symbol of malice, with her omnipotent network of wired aroma of pristine and sovereignty, frightening all those who work for and subject to her. The nurse is able to bend time at her own will—everything is relative to her—and to induce mind control by regulating medication and fogging patients into thinking of her as a “sweet, smiling, tender angel of mercy” and handling log book, a collection of evidence

Through time, the relationships in the ward blossomed into brotherhood. An alliance against Miss Ratched was formed, so that they could all protect themselves from her wrath and punishments. McMurphy uses his masculinity and his sexuality to overcome her dominance over the ward. By pushing her temper to it’s limits, the patients become more confident and outgoing, they ultimately learn to become men. “So she really lets herself go and her painted smile twists, stretches to an open snarl, and she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling too big a load” (Kesey 5).

Nurse Ratched manipulated the patients by making the patients believe that they had no power. The patients believe that “[They’re] not in here because [they] are rabbits—[they’d] be rabbits wherever [they] were—[they’re] all in here because [they] can't adjust to our rabbithood. [They] need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place," (Kesey 64). The author uses the phrase, “[They] need a good strong wolf like the nurse” to exemplify that Nurse Ratched had brainwashed them with the idea that they are subjective to her because she has power over them. The patients believe that they must depend on Nurse Ratched, therefore they wouldn’t think to revolt against her. Because of this the patients are subjective to her power and afraid to speak against her. Because they don’t realize that they had their power taken away from Nurse Ratched, McMurphy was able to use it manipulate their opinions about the nurse. McMurphy reveals that Nurse Ratched is one of the “people who try to make you weak so they can get you to toe the line, to follow their rules, to live like they want you to. And the best way to do this, to get you to knuckle under, is to weaken you by gettin’ you where it hurts the worst,” (Kesey 60). The author uses the word “weak” in order to exemplify the how Nurse Ratched’s power can be

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

The conflicts in Ken Kesey’s book, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” seemed to surround the concept of having the power of authority in the wrong hands. In the eyes of Chief, a patient who pretended to be deaf and mute, we saw McMurphy, an insane imposture only there to relieve himself of jail time, battle against the control the head nurse, Nurse Ratchet, had over the patients in the asylum. As McMurphy’s struggles clashed between his own personal gains and facilitating those patients were too deranged to help themselves against Nurse Ratchets evil hold. Nurse Ratchet used her authority and the patient's weaknesses to dominate their mentality through intimidation. McMurphy worked to corrupt her ways and withdraw from the demeaning dominance

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, was a very successful novel which was impactful on the world in the past, and still is today. Ken Kesey, a big believer in individuality and the freedom to be oneself, brought new meaning to the world of psychiatry that changed treatments forever. This book didn’t just affect American society, it had a global impact. All around the world there are people that are admitted into mental institutions, and this book changed treatments in these facilities. The novel also raised awareness of the psych ward culture in which this book took place.

The first pivotal stage that Nurse Ratched crosses is her “Refusal to the call”. Nurse Ratched’s “Refusal to the call” is not letting McMurphy express his ideas during group discussions and turns the situation at hand towards McMurphy. There are three instances that occur in the novel where Nurse Ratched tries to turn the attention toward McMurphy so he doesn’t get the other patients in the ward, to outbreak. First, Ratched brings up McMurphy’s records during a conversation after McMurphy had made

Although Nurse Ratched holds an occupation associated with traits of compassion and nurture, in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, the author reveals Nurse Ratched's actual malicious character. Specifically, when McMurphy and Harding are debating the ethics of the group meeting McMurphy calls Nurse Ratched "a bitch and a buzzard and a ball-cutter" (58). Here, the author implies that Nurse Ratched emasculates the patients by relentlessly preying on their weaknesses like a buzzard. Because Nurse Ratched is in a position of power she is not afraid to exploit the patient's flaws by attacking their weak points. By emasculating the patients, Nurse Ratched hopes to make the patients feel "weak so [she] can get them to toe the line, to follow [her] rules, to live like [she] wants them to" (57).

Many times throughout one of Ken Kesey’s most famous novels, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the book uses animals as symbols to represent the story’s plot. The animals usually relate to individual characters and their current struggles within the story. Animal imagery provides us with great insight to the themes that Kesey is trying to have us explore, and is a very good tool that the reader can use to help better understand and relate to the characters.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, the antagonist of the novel, Nurse Ratched, a former army nurse, represents the oppressive, dehumanizing, and emasculating machine known as the “Combine” that is modern society. Nurse Ratched holds complete control over every aspect of the ward, and maintains her power by manipulating the patients with their own fears and the threat of cruel treatment such as shock therapy. Nurse Ratchet’s hunger for power shows her true, destructive self that serves to bring for the shortcomings of the patients and eventually leads to the suicide of two acutes. Overall, the author expresses that this technique of military discipline and cruel treatments used by Nurse Ratchet, who is a cog of the “Combine,” is outdated and inhumane.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest guides the audience through the story One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest guides the audience through the story of the fictional protagonist Randle McMurphy. McMurphy is an incarcerated convict who pleads insanity hoping for a transfer to a mental ward. Unbeknownst to McMurphy the cosy prison time he imagined is found to be, not only a physical prison but a prison of mentality. The main antagonist, Nurse Ratched, rules this mental prison with an iron fist, but the newly admitted McMurphy soon opposes her. The two fight for the influence of the ward’s mental prisoners, however, during McMurphy’s battle for control, he feels within himself a strong

In the novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, written by Ken Kesey, it shadows the vast journey and relationships of Randle McMurphy, A testy patient newly equipped into the psychiatric ward. The second McMurphy came into the mental institution, he brought a sense of life and resilience to many of the patients in the ward, it was inevitable the McMurphy was their leader and that he was gonna change the dark cloud of personas surrounding the patents. As the story proceeds the members in the ward get more in tune to McMurphy and his goals; the patients discover that he is their christ figure in which showing them purpose in their life has been stolen away from society. McMurphy has affected everyone in the ward and by “Everyone” means everyone: includi Ms. Ratched, also described as The Big Nurse. Also the so called doctor, Doctor Spivey, and also a neighbor in the facility, chief bromden. Despite the occurring events in the ward, it goes to show the powerful impact Mcmurphy had on patients, from when he was transported to the ward til the time of his tragic death. Mcmurphy changed more than their liveliness, he changed the mindset of their strongest critic, their self proclaimed image of themselves. As the book comes to a close, Randle Mcmurphy whose image was only to cause havoc and be psychotic patient in the beginning, by the end, he had actually been their saving grace. No treatment nor pills could have done what Mcmurphy accomplished in the ward in a short period of

compels each man to compete against each other to fight ruthlessly to the top of the social hierarchy, instead of working together to ensure the well-being of each and every man. Kesey’s main theme, that man is inherently cruel to other men, is crystallized throughout the entire plot, as scenario after scenario clearly depicts the orderlies’ and Nurse Ratched’s apathy, at times even joy, in the face of forcing the ward’s patients through barbarous and tortuous procedures such as electroshock therapy, daily dehumanizing abuses, or crushing each patient’s