One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Analysis

Every work of literature – whether long, short, humorous, or frightening – enables all readers to experience a certain set of emotions from the passages within the text; but what do these emotions imply? In How to Read Literature Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster clarifies that these reactions closely associate with symbolic meanings. He specifies how “every reader’s experience of a work is unique” in order to explain that almost everything stands as a symbol and carries various ideas – depending on the reader’s emotional interpretation (Foster 110). Foster also mentions the concept of intertextuality in which pure originality is impossible, thus resulting with authors influencing one another. Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest stands

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.

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.

The nurse, Miss Ratched is undoubtedly a villain from most reader’s perspective, but there is much more to being a villain that simply being a “ball-cutter” on the surface. In fiction, typically a villain is someone who follows a certain set of motives in order to gain what they are trying to achieve. Whether this is money, power, or something they just do for the sake of the act, all villains possess a motive. Though the reasons behind her actions are not explicitly clear in the novel, it is obvious that one of Nurse Ratched’s main motives is the implied fact that she wants to break down the men in her ward. The reason behind this is that she wants to degrade and force them into the mould of not only society’s, but her own twisted imagery of the way a person should look and act as well. The nurse is an established authoritarian figure in the novel, and presents herself in such a way that her patients not only fear what she may do to them on any given day, but merely her presence as well. She keeps the men sedated with drugs they may not ask about, abuses them and manipulates them with her words and the power of suggestion, and makes self-admitted patients feel as though they are too “sick” to sign themselves out. Out of all the heinous acts she commits in the novel, one of the most villainous is probably the group “therapy” sessions she holds. The men

In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the lead protagonist, Randle McMurphy, changes over the course of the novel because of the characters that he meets and the effects they have on him. Originally, McMurphy was selfish, disrespectful, and inconsiderate, but then he forms closer bonds with the other characters and they change him and the way he views other people. The characters in the mental hospital struggle with conforming to the dictator in the ward, Nurse Ratched. McMurphy comes into the hospital as a way out of a prison sentence and tries to teach the patients that they need to stand up for themselves and do what they believe is right.

In this book written by Ken Kesey, the main character is a man named R.P. McMurphy who tricks people into thinking that he is a psychopath. To McMurphy, the asylum is a get out of jail free card, which quickly turns out to be something else entirely. However, one vital aspect of this book is the way in which it addresses and provides insight upon several contemporary issues relating to the American healthcare system, by illustrating the ways in which our modern healthcare system has improved and grown in the last five decades. This includes the following areas of healthcare: the need for a healthcare reform, the lack of healthy doctor-patient relationships, and the murky definition of mental illness.

(E): In this excerpt from the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, the Big Nurse, Nurse Ratched, excerpts her authority among all the patients by demoralizing them without even speaking or using her voice. Nurse Ratched is called a “ball cutter” in the book and she is called that for a reason, she breaks down every man’s dignity and pride and makes them follow her orders. Nurse Ratched uses this technique of keeping control without any verbal command to subdue her patients into thinking that she has all the power and control.

Both men, McMurphy and Luke were turned into examples, much like Jesus Christ and left behind a legacy. Luke at the prison was cool without a doubt, motivating all the prisoners to follow his lead which attracted attention of the authority who believed that Luke had to be dealt with since he was getting out of line and also taking the other prisoners with him 'Thats my darling luke, grins like a baby bites like a gator' we see here in this qoute that dragline was one of many whose heart Luke won, dragline calls him 'darling' which shows how much luke is loved by his fellow prisoners and what a huge impact he has had on their personality. When McMurphy started popping the bubbles of the 'rabbits', making them realize that they had been ripped

Motives are the most common source of an outcome, leading individuals to every action that occurs. Every decision made by an individual is influenced by some sort of motive, whether it is physiological, social, or personal. Ken Kesey presents to the reader the inspiration behind the characters course of action in the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, resulting in the change of heart from Dr.Spivey and Randle McMurphy. The impact from other individuals often alters the reasoning for an action. Doctor Spivey originally supported Nurse Ratched’s actions, but Mcmurphy influenced him to make decisions based on the needs and wants of the patients. Mcmurphy inspires the men to voice their opinion and builds their confidence up, so that they can take on the Nurse. Nurse Ratched does not agree with the men, so she does everything in her power to eliminate the men's masculinity in order for her to keep the ward running like she desires.

“A success, they say, but I say he’s just another robot for the Combine and might be better off as a failure…”(17).

"This world belongs to the strong, my friend...The rabbit accept its role on the Earth and recognize the wolf as the strong. In defense, the rabbit becomes frightened and elusive and dig holes and hides when the wolf about. It knows its place. It most certainly doesn't challenge the wolf"(Excerpt from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey). In the book Speak the author uses a bunny rabbit to symbolize how vulnerable Melinda is throughout the book and a wolf to symbolize how Andy is a grim beast in Melinda's eyes. Melinda uses a bunnyrabbit to describe how she feels whenever Andy encounters her. Andy is described like a wolf all throughout the book by

This is what we see what we see Nurse Ratched do to her patients. She’s established very early on as a daunting authoritative figure, who guarantees her grip on all her psyches through the use of emasculation. Her words callously cutting into the egos of all the patients. Furthermore Nurse Ratched displays a clear dislike in all things unsavory.”Get your hands off my window you’re staining it” (Kesey 89). This is another trait that is vital to her characterization, as the ideal antagonist in the narrative, tidiness. Now this may seem unimportant until you take into account the setting of the story. A lifeless white mental ward devoid of personality. These are traits Nurse Ratched shares with the setting. Adding to that is the twisted mindset of mental health at the time the novel was written , where lobotomy was common. Instead of dealing with the flaws of a colorful personality society deemed it easier to just remove the source of all the passion. Nurse Ratched is the actual personification of this mindset, wholeheartedly believing that she helping the patients by removing them of the ailments that make them who they are . Her twisted mindset leads to her perpetually castrating male patients in hopes of ridding them of their troublesome emotion, her approach actually causing more harm than good. Nurse Ratched’s most obvious pacification is displayed through her interactions with Billy,

Thesis Question: How do Ken Kesey’s ventures described in Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and the 1960’s countercultural context in which Kesey lived manifest themselves in his allegorical novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?

The author of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Keasey, received his inspiration for the book while volunteering at a veteran's hospital. This is where he was first introduced to LSD. The moment he tried it, he became addicted, and began experimenting on himself with the drugs, observing the effects. The novel deals with the tyrannical rule of head Nurse Ratched in a mental hospital somewhere in Oregon. She runs all business and daily life in the asylum to her every whim and rules the ward by fear and manipulation. This has gone on for as long as the narrator, Chief Bromden, can remember. However a new patient, Randle McMurphy, enters the hospital and begins to wreak havoc upon the system

Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a creation of the socio-cultural context of his time. Social and cultural values, attitudes and beliefs informed his invited reading of his text.