Quest In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

wo of the most prominent conflicts in the story are issues arising from person vs. person (Randle McMurphy vs. Nurse Ratched) and person vs. self (Dale Harding and Billy Bibbit.) Of the two topics, the arising issues between patient McMurphy and Mrs. Ratched seems to prompt for the largest problem. From the moment that McMurphy was admitted to the psychiatric ward, there was tension between him and Nurse Ratched. Upon his arrival, McMurphy established that he wanted to know who the “bull goose looney” (most influential man among the patients) was so that he could overpower him and gain power. Nurse Ratched seemed to disapprove of his thirst for power from the beginning, fearing that he may disrupt the flow of her ward. The tension between the

Randle McMurphy, the protagonist, is introduced to break down the nurse’s oppressive ways. McMurphy, a con man who was sentenced to a work farm, was diagnosed as a psychopath and sent to the mental hospital, which he much preferred. Serving as a savior figure to the patients of the ward who have already been battered by the Big Nurse, McMurphy causes interference to the nurse’s control. He supports the men as they are ridiculed in meetings and supports their attempts to change policy. Although he does help other patients, he first looks out for himself. He cons the patients out of their money and then follows the nurse’s rules for awhile because of the threat of being kept on the

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

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

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 the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey makes many allusions to McMurphy as a Christ-like figure. As the story progresses the religious references increase and become more evident. Any character can be a Christ figure, “where you find them, and as you find them. If the indicators are there, then there is some basis for drawing the conclusion” (Foster, 2003, p.123). Throughout the novel McMurphy’s actions parallel the actions of Christ. From the beginning it was clear McMurphy was different from the other patients. As his visit prolonged, McMurphy began to care for the patients much like Christ cared for his followers. In order to depict this similarity, Kesey used foreshadowing, events, and feelings.

Later, many of the staff and patients leave, and Nurse Ratched returns but can no longer speak, and McMurphy is in a vegetative state after he is forced to have a lobotomy for attacking Nurse Ratched. Chief ends up smothering McMurphy to put him out of his misery and later

Chief Bromden is the narrator of the story, which furthers the readers instinct that he is an observer. The Chief is an Indian, who is strong and tall. He physically is one of the strongest characters. The Chief manipulated the system, in order to stay under the radar. He pretended to be “deaf and dumb.” This gave the Chief a heightened advantage over the other wards. Faculty spoke freely infant of the Chief because they thought he could not share the information. Kesey demonstrated the staff did not find Chief Bromden a threat early in the novel, “They don’t bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets…they think I’m deaf and dumb.” (Kesey 1) This gives the Chief more power than any other patient. He knows many secrets of the

Chief Bromden, the son of a Native American beget and a pale parent, center of the attention by refer the real and imaginary humiliations he suffers at the manpower of the African-American fermary assistants. While their usage of him is allow, spite the fact that he is physically much larger than they are, Chief testify a better dread of Big Nurse, Nurse Ratched. The Nurse is recognized as a woman of immense divinity and direct, who is sharp for uncompassionate, shape-alike efficiency is oblique by her spontaneously endowed big and manipulative heart. Despite her government, the paranoiac-schizophrenic Chief think her to be in benefit of the ward, a large mechanized table that bum behind the rampart and possession of the hospitable, controlling

The plot of the story is Bromden’s worldview is subjugated by his fear of what he calls the Combine, a huge conglomeration that controls society and forces people into conformity. Bromden pretends to be deaf and dumb and tries to go unnoticed, even though he is six feet seven inches tall. The all-male mental patients are divided into Acutes, who can be cured, and Chronics, who couldn’t be cured. They are controlled by Nurse Ratched, a former army nurse who runs the ward with harsh, mechanical precision. Randle McMurphy arrives as a transfer from the work farm; Bromden senses that something is different about him. McMurphy swaggers into the ward and introduces himself as a gambling man. Bromden suffocates McMurphy in his bed, enabling him to die with some dignity rather than live as a symbol of Ratched’s power. Bromden, having improved his immense strength that he had thought was gone during his time in the mental ward, but escapes from the hospital by breaking through a window.

When McMurphy finds out that he is one of two patients that are involuntarily committed to the hospital, it makes him realize that he alone is fighting for his freedom, and the others have been repressed by Ratched to the point of being afraid to rebel against her or simply leave. McMurphy fights until the end to free these men of their emasculation even if it

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.

She believes him to be an ordinary man and that he will eventually settle down. Nonetheless, McMurphy continues to do all he can to annoy her. Throughtout the story, the two battle against each other, seeing who will give in to who first. Everything is rather harmless until and inmates party rolls around. McMurphy smuggles in prostitutes to help out the inmate, Billy. When the nurse found out what had been going on she was furious. Billy ended up slitting his throat and bleeding to death. McMurphy was in real trouble with the nurse this time. To retaliate he tore open Nurse Ratched uniform. As a result, McMurphy is taken away and give a lobotomy. When he returns, he has been changed into a vegetable. His Indian friend known as Chief Bromdencannot bear to see his friend in such a state, and ends up smothering him to death to save him from such a miserable existence. However, he escapes to freedom after that. Ironically, dead Mcmurphy had given this man a new life.

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