Power In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's N

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

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.

In modern day society, individuals are influenced by strong superiority figures their whose dominance stems from internal power. Authority can often lead subordinates to rebel and seize control; therefore ability to obtain power is exceptionally difficult. A rivalry for rigid power is seen in the literary piece, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The limited dominance is shifted fluidly between Nurse Ratched and Randle McMurphy, and finally designated to Chief Bromden. Although Nurse Ratched exercises initial control over her ward, Randle McMurphy attempts to disobey her authority through defiance, and ultimately the power shifts into Chief Bromden’s final control in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

In Ken Kesey’s book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there were two main characters that were in a battle to have the majority of control over the ward. Throughout the story, they engaged in different acts of stubbornness to see who could display the most power and which of the two could stand their ground the longest without giving in to the other. These two characters were: Randle McMurphy, a new patient who was determined to change the ways of the ward, and Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of the asylum who preferred to have complete control over everyone and everything.

McMurphy is at constant odds with Nurse Ratched, the antagonist of the story; she represents the anally fixated dictator. She has established system believed to find sanity by adjusting the patients to the outside world standards. Nurse Ratched tries to shape the patients not in their own image but an image that she sees all people should act. It is believed that what the Nurse is doing is helpful to the acute’s actually suppressing their individually. In the novel they are multiple power struggles between the Big Nurse and Randle Patrick McMurphy on Nurse Ratched side, she is trying to hold order among the ward to conform McMurphy. However, McMurphy acknowledges the way she runs the ward is not right and it is actually suppressing the acute’s masculinity and self-confidence. In one section Chief Bromden acknowledges why he believes McMurphy is so strong is because he is what he is. “I’d think he was strong enough being his own self that he would never back down the way she was hoping he would.” Nurse Ratched may have a hard time trying to make McMurphy conform but she has ease making the rest conform to her standards. These are the supposed standards that the patients believe they need in order to be accepted in society. However, they are the supposed beliefs that the majority of people believe in order to strive socially. It is not only the Combine’s Ward that there a sense of missing identity there is also. Compared to the society that humankind occupies, people

After leaving the hellish work farm where he serving his prison sentence, McMurphy arrives at the ward, which is exponentially more dull and drab in comparison. The impact of his arrival at the ward is seen instantly. The enthusiasm and energy he brings to the ward is so uncharacteristic, that even some of the Chronics, who are longstanding patients that have become “machines with flaws inside that can’t be repaired,” show some life (Kesey 10). In his typical westernized fashion, McMurphy arrives at the hospital with the aura of “a frontier

As soon as McMurphy arrives on the ward, he challenges Nurse Ratched’s abusive regime in hopes of restoring humanity and the rights of the individual. It didn’t take long

Both Taber and the men view Nurse Ratched as a counselor of their decisions, a mother. In fact, he tells the others, “This is Miss Ratched. I chose this ward because it’s her ward. She’s, girls, just like a mother. Not that I mean age but you girls understand” (37). The way that Nurse Ratched’s ward functions is by her manipulation of the men through the use of pills and lobotomy as demonstrated on Taber. Thus, why he was dismissed, the men are set up to believe in conforming or are dehumanized enough to conform to Nurse Ratched’s authority in order to be prepared for the real world. However, Taber previously rejected her pills, “He still isn’t ready to swallow some-thing, he don’t know what is, not even just for her” (34). This action-made decision influences the progress the patients make as individuals as they follow his footsteps. The men realize they can follow their own decisions and although few are afraid of her authority some chose to rise against her along with McMurphy, “ dragging them out of the fog till there they stand, all twenty of them, raising not just for watching tv, but against the Big Nurse, against her trying to send McMurphy to Disturbed…” This is parallel to the attitude presented by Taber, when he refused to take the pills, and ignored the Nurse’s request, making him metaphorically influential of the

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

Power is not inherently a bad tool, but it is when it is placed into the wrong hands. When or if it is placed in the wrong hands, it can corrupt the holder. Even if they do not have bad intentions, the power may corrupt them into using it for bad intentions. The quote stated by Machiavelli, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” is true because too much power can corrupt an individual’s thoughts and this can be proved through the book One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest written by Ken Kesey, and also the “Stanford Prison Experiment” which was conducted by Philip Zimbardo.

This quote shows how Nurse Ratched is reminding the patients that they all have a mental illness and they are not “normal” people. A lot of the patients begin to question the ruling of Nurse Ratched. When they speak up about how they feel, she implies that they are rules for therapeutic reasons. She wants them to follow the orders and not question her command in the ward. The nurse makes the patients feel worthless and hopeless, which is a

was also the one who enabled the patients to use the tub room for card games,

Ratched has complete power over all patients, including their curfew, possessions, punishment, etc. Her might and authority is instilled within the minds of the inhabitants of the ward, leaving no one to challenge her. However, her tight grip over every nook and cranny of the ward and its inhabitants dissipates when McMurphy comes in. He is accustomed to doing whatever he wants while higher powers attempting to restrict his actions. The thoughtless actions of McMurphy could be seen as a catalyst for nurse Ratched’s resolute demonstration of power and authority. His disobedience starts to influence others, and in turn chips away her power as can be seen with the patients gradually easing up. As time goes on, McMurphy's constant breaking of the mold eventually shatters Ratched’s tolerance, causing her to act with an iron fist. With McMurphy’s final act, the choking incident, she finally snaps and abuses her authority and power to the maximum. After the ultimate disobedience, McMurphy unrightfully gets lobotomized as revenge. With this lobotomization, Ratched demonstrates the ultimate use of her power: the power to take away life. McMurphy is officially classified “unstable”, even though he is seen as perfectly normal by the doctor. Nurse Ratched’s power allows her to “help” him by lobotomization. Her power is so terrifying it inspires Chief, who was

Though she smiles a lot and talks sweetly, she’s not a kind or charming woman; instead she is a woman with a strong will for control. She pursues power with intensity and is very successful at getting people to do what she wants. Nurse Ratched has the ability to present a false superficial self, and she has complete and total control over the ward and her emotions at all times. This exemplifies that the mechanistic and oppressive forces in society build up through the abuse of power and dishonesty by authoritative figures. (Lead in) “Manipulative to the core, the only thing that really matters to Ratched is her desire to control everything around her- the environment, the staff, the patients” (Novel For Student 224). The abuse of power and authority cause individuals to be broken. Explain how the outside quote integrates into your thesis and your quotes from the book. The narrator says, “What the chronics are - or most of us - are machines with flaws inside that can’t be repaired, flaws born in, or flaws beaten in over so many years of the guy running head-on into solid things that by the time the hospital found him he was bleeding rust in some vacant

When McMurphy came to the institution, he was seen as being a problem. This is because he was going against Foucault’s argument of being docile. He did not want to conform to that. McMurphy soon realized that many of the patients were in the institution voluntarily, which caused for him to become more disobedient. He always tried to go against the nurses by telling the patients that they aren’t lunatics. He would consistently break the rules by trying to change the routine, by taking the patients fishing, teaching them to play basketball, and by sneaking in alcohol and girls during the hours of dark. Foucault would say that McMurphy was an anarchist rather than a conformist.