One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Fog Analysis

Bromden describes Nurse Ratched as a machine due to her strict, mechanical way she runs the entire ward. She imposes a rigid schedule that she is reluctant to change. Even though McMurphy received a majority vote, 21 out of 40, to change the TV schedule, Nurse Ratched disregards the last vote because it happened after “the meeting [is] closed” (Kesey, 124). Bromden views the fog as just another machine in the asylum. Just like the other machines, it's aim is to control the patients and destroy the natural impulses. In the case of the fog machine, it is to destroy the urge to seek out

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 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is about the power structure of a mental ward from the perspective of a patient, Bromden. The story takes place during the 1950's in Oregon. Many of the patients on the ward are not necessarily insane however do not fit in with pre established societal norms and have chosen a life away from these norms. The men who are voluntary have given in to the staff and follow them like sheep, however, the men who are committed need controlling according to society so they were sent to the ward. The head nurse, Nurse Rached, of the ward keeps control using her staff that has been picked out over years of meticulous selection. The staff under Rached's orders keep control of the patients

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 book, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” is a story about the exploits of the struggling patients of a psychiatric ward, an overbearing nurse, and a vulgar but lively new admission. Within this particular story, Kesey implements thematic elements in the story. These elements are known as motifs in which gives the story a deeper meaning including the characters as well. Three motifs are used to influence the reader’s understanding of the story which are the fog, the religious Christ aspect, and people as machines. Throughout the novel these elements are heavily noticed and do provide such deep meaning to the characters and story. With this in mind this makes the story more of a true experience.

Chief Bromden experiences the fog in times of terror-stricken moments; where reality of strict rules and routines are upon him by Nurse Ratchet. When these moments arise he goes into the fog, stating: "You had a choice: you could either strain and look at other things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself... Being lost isn't so bad." (pg. 113-114). Chief feels safe in the fog, he lets it become a shield of blindness when he needs to escape the truth. An example of this is near the beginning of the novel; the first confrontation of the fog. Chief had to get shaved, he hides in the mop closet petrified of what they were going to do. Once they caught him in the closet and were

In the next stanza, the poet describes “A figure walking towards cloaked in blue/ Beeping/ Tubes/ Needles.” The poem addresses the routinely and monotonous aspect of being in the hospital for long periods of time. It is a critique of the biomedical model and how the hospital system is created where patients are tended to by multiple doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals. The patients and healthcare professionals are unable to form a relationship that consists of what Kleinman describes as “empathetic witnessing” (Kleinman). Therefore, detachment between patient and health workers is developed and established, to which the patient cannot recognize or know the people assisting them. In addition, Grealy discusses this in her earliest accounts and appointments with doctors. She states that there is a layer of “condescension” and is an “endemic in the medical

Power and control are the central ideas of Ken Kesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest. There are examples of physical, authoritative and mechanical power in the novel, as well as cases of self-control, and control over others. Nurse Ratched is the ultimate example of authoritative power and control over others but R.P. McMurphy refuses to acknowledge the Nurse’s power, and encourages others to challenge the status quo. The other patients begin powerless, but with McMurphy’s help, learn to control their own lives. Many symbols are also used to represent power and control in the book, such as the ‘Combine’, ‘fog’, and the imagery of machines.

Nurse Ratched and Big Brother have many similarities in their deeds - they are able to constantly monitor others and execute their powers. The actions of the nurse towards her patients are crude and inhumane. The big difference, however, between these two leaders lie in the achieving of their goals. While Big Brother manages to get his aims realized, Nurse Ratched is deprived of it, by the brave actions of the patients. The patients try to deprive her of feeling of being a dominant dictator. Both, Big Brother and Nurse Ratched seem to be powerful leaders, and integral part of a system, their unconditional control causes a negative impact on a person’s mind.

The story comes from Kesey’s own experiences working on the Graveyard shift as an orderly at a Mental Institution, where he witnessed the Bureaucratic workings of the Institution and looks at the struggle for Power and Control

“A common and important perennial weed of grassland, and a common impurity of grass seeds.” (Gill and Vear, 1980)

Our perspective of a stranger whom we’ve never met nor seen, but only heard of through the mouth of the enemy’s opinion, will inevitably align with the only version of the story we’ve heard. This sort of bias is found in Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with Nurse Ratched’s depiction through the narration by Chief Bromden. The reliability of Bromden’s perspective is questionable, as it is his interpretation of the world, rather than what it actually is.

Ken Kesey’s book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is a multi-faceted work incorporating many thematic elements. One of the most easily addressable themes is that of freedom and its limitations placed upon the characters in the novel. Many types of freedoms are addressed ranging from the tangible and real to the perceived and implied. The setting primarily takes place in a mental hospital on a locked ward which limits the characters’ physical freedoms. The characters are constantly coerced and demeaned by the antagonist Ms. Ratched which limits their mental freedoms. Beneath all is a subtext of sexual repression which is constantly fought against by McMurphy. Individually,

“Fog is simple a cloud on the ground.”(156 Hess) There are four different types of fog; radiation fog, advection fog, upslope fog also called orographic fog, and evaporation fog. The fog found in San Francisco Bay area is called advection fog. Advection fog forms when the air becomes chilled by ocean temperature. The reason San Francisco is almost always foggy is due to the air and ocean temperatures are very different. The more in depth definition of advection fog would be “when warm, moist air moves horizontally over a cold ocean current. Air moving from sea to land is the most common source of advection fogs.”(156 Hess)

The mountain at night, during an eruption, will appear as an ominous beast with glowing red eyes. There is a thick fog rolling right above your head that allows the street light to put out an eerie orange glow on the surrounding cityscape. This fog carries a pungent sulfur-infused scent from the eyes of the beast. Nothing can be heard from the towering creature, but the streets of the city are filled with sounds of locals that seem, unfazed with the pending doom lurking in the background. Daylight brings a new face to the assumed beast, luscious vineyards, orchards, and greenery climbing halfway up the mountainside give off a nurturing vibe. Also, the red eyes seem to fade in intensity, almost as if the beast sleeps during the day. Locals can be heard conversating about the