One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Analysis

Hospitals are meant to help some people heal physically and others mentally. In the novel One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey published in 1962, readers are introduced to a mental hospital that has goals that do not align with helping people. Within the hospital, characters with varied personalities and opinions are intermixed with three main characters playing specific roles with supporting characters close by. With the characters’ motivations, themes develop such as the emasculation of the men in the hospital by an oppressive nurse. Symbols, such as laughter and the “combine”, are also pertinent to themes as the readers watch the men transitioning from being oppressed to being able to stand up for themselves causing change in hospital policy.

The men stand up against Nurse Ratched for the first time when they join McMurphy by sitting in front of the blank television screen even when told they cannot watch the baseball game. For the first time, the men are independent, “watching the gray screen just like [they] could see the baseball game clear as day” while Nurse Ratched “rant[s] and scream[s]” behind them (Kesey). Imagery and descriptive words reveal Nurse Ratched’s anger, describing her voice as “an electric saw ripping through pine” (Kesey). The boys still join McMurphy despite the enormous fit the Nurse is throwing which reveals the trust and inspiration McMurphy has given to them already. Because of McMurphy, Chief Bromden transforms from a shy, lurking shadow into someone that feels the need to take action. In the beginning of the novel Billy Bibbit states that Bromden is “scared of his own sh-sh-shadow” and that he is “just a bi-big deaf Indian” (Kesey). However, Bromden is faking being unable to hear and actually narrates the entire novel from his point of view. McMurphy realizes that he can hear and builds up his confidence which will eventually inspire Chief Bromden to put McMurphy out of his misery and escape the ward himself. The trust Bromden puts into McMurphy builds their relationship which proves to be pertinent in the end. Billy Bibbit’s confidence is also

The 1960’s was a period of great dissatisfaction from people who felt their rights were being violated. Millions of Americans, young and old, black and white, came together to fight against racial discrimination and protest the Vietnam War. The government suppressed the southern black population the right to vote, while sponsoring a war in Vietnam that was widely unpopular. Reflecting the anti-establishment movements of the 1960’s, Ken Kesey wrote One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It has since become an American classic for its themes of rebellion and nonconformity against an over controlling authority that does not respect individualism and humanity.

In Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, the nurse Miss Ratched is a fine example of a realistic fictional villain. Possession of three key components is essential in identifying what makes Miss Ratched a villian. Motive is what drives the villain to commit the very acts that allow them to be considered evil in the first place, and often drive their entire being as a character. While they must possess motive, they must also have a sense of morals that coincides with their motives (typically evil, or distorted) and follow their moral compass in a way that often causes trouble for those around them. Additionally, a villain is frequently associated with their opposite; the hero who combats them. Kesey’s character perfectly aligns with these three categories of what makes a villain, and it is unquestionable that she is the villain of the novel.

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.

The way Nurse Ratched controls the inmates and punishes them using electric shock therapy symbolizes how McMurphy is trapped. This feeling of entrapment leaves McMurphy in a continuous battle to gain back his freedom from Nurse Ratched. According to McMurphy, “we must pursue freedom at any cost, even if that cost is death.” Along with gaining freedom, Chief Bromden shows characteristics of the second theme, heroism. Throughout the book Bromden pretends to be deaf and dumb. This symbolizes how he feels hidden and different compared to the world he is living in. As the novel continues he becomes greedy for freedom and eventually rises up to his biggest fears when he suffocates Nurse Ratched. Once Nurse Ratched is out of the picture, Bromden breaks the window and escapes from the hospital. The idea that Bromden was able to remove the control panel and use it to break the window, symbolizes his true strength and how he can accomplish anything after running “through” his freedom.

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.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, the climax occurs when Nurse Ratched, the antagonist, forces the men who return from the boating trip to shower, causing a violent melee that leads to the book’s resolution. McMurphy, one of the protagonists in the story, arranges a special boating trip to let the other men in the ward have a sense of happiness and independence. As Nurse Ratched discovers that the men interact with a prostitute, she furiously demands the men to cleanse their bodies. George expresses his disapproval of the nurse’s demand due to his phobia of cleanliness, and McMurphy and Chief Bromden physically fight the nurses as a part of their protest. In the end McMurphy and Chief Bromden relocate to the Disturbed Ward for their extreme behavior: “They kept talking like that, to cheer us up and make us feel better, about what a fight, what a victory—as the Big Nurse helped the aides from Disturbed adjust those soft leather cuffs to fit our arms” (234). The main theme of the novel, the overthrowing of authority comes to a close, and Nurse Ratched finally captures McMurphy, the man who encourages the rest of the patients to resist her oppression. This climatic scene contributes to the resolution: the weaker party, or the patients, win by proving their point of intolerance towards authority, yet Nurse Ratched remains the ultimate person in control. Shortly after the incident, Nurse Ratched metaphorically and literally sucks the life out of McMurphy with

As one is experiencing a life of alienation and loneliness, they may being to act uncontrollable while rebelling against their surroundings, one loses themselves as they feel different than everyone present. Alienation can force an individual to spiral into an abyss of nothingness, nonetheless if one allows others to reach out and inspire than it is possible to break away from the alienation and loneliness. Chief Bromden from the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, is an Indian who was institutionalized for insanity and is considered a chronic in the ward as he is “too far gone” to be healed. Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye, written by J.D Salinger is a lying, rebellious teenager sent away by his parents to a private school as they are unable to handle Holden’s behaviour. It is evident both experience alienation as their stories progress and actions taken, however the individuals present in their lives motivate changes in the outcomes of these dynamic characters.

Cheswick’s suicide signals to McMurphy that he has unwittingly taken on the responsibility of rehabilitating the other patients. However, after protecting Big George from the cruelty of Ratched’s aides, McMurphy is sent to Disturbed for electro-shock therapy. The weight of his obligations to the other begins to wear away his strength and his sanity. Nevertheless, McMurphy arranges a fishing trip for himself and nine other patients. He guides them through the process of dealing with the hostility of the outside world and sets the stage for Billy Bibbit to lose his virginity by arranging a data between him and Candy Starr, a prostitute from Portland.

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

Bromden has been undergoing changes since McMurphy has arrived to the ward. For many years, Bromden has been hiding, posing as deaf and dumb person so he can ignore and be ignored. However, McMurphy’s arrival in the ward awaken Bromden’s senses, almost forcing Bromden to reconnect with reality.

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

Characters like Billy Bibbit, who is too timid, with a speech impediment and Harding who is a closet homosexual and was less avert in sexuality were seen as having mental problems, and were committed to the asylum. McMurphy demonstrated the treating of these patients like normal people, helped them to become more in line with society then Nurse Ratched’s rules and group therapy meetings, or pecking party as Chief Bromden would call it. Chief Bromden was a Native American and wasn’t insane until he was institutionalized and withdrew himself from everyone else pretending he was deaf and dumb to protect himself. Ken Kesey’s message here with Chief Bromdens silence, was to portray the natives of the time having no voice in the country and to show the controlling and manipulative manner of Nurse Ratched that emasculated and de-socialised these grown men.

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