Social Control In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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.

McMurphy can also be considered a tragic hero. Although he could almost always take control of a situation and never let the combine get the best of him, he could not always control his temper. It was the one think that could get him in trouble because Nurse Ratched could not punish him with electric shock therapy unless he had an outburst. The best thing that McMurphy could have had in the hospital was patience and a calm temper because the only weapon Nurse Ratched had was to try to frustrate him. Since she has ultimate power on the ward, she could do anything she wants and make any rules. For instance, when the patients wanted to watch the world series and they clearly had a majority, she didn’t let them because she wanted them to know that she has authority

In Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the patients in a mental institution are put through a restorative treatment in order to follow the line and fit into society. McMurphy, he who breaks boundaries inspires the rest of the patients to live their lives when they are slowly giving up their struggle for life, to rebel against the authority of the Big Nurse and her undermining attempts to get them to submit to her power and rules. Uniformly disturbing the principal at Welton Academy and a group of determined parents attempt to conform the lives of their children to the ideals of society in the movie Dead Poets Society. The students follow the new ideas brought on by a teacher only to learn of the obstacles that face them. A romantic non-conformist, McMurphy and Keeting who challenge the system and its leaders in turn becoming the ultimate sacrifice, brings them to a new vision. They inspire the oppressed and give them confidence to be successful like Bromden and Todd or to reject reality and fail like Billy and Neil.

     Mcmurphy was the one who started making people laughing in the ward. When he first came into the ward he was cracking jokes and shaking everybody’s hand. (p.16)

Throughout the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” you see many examples of status hierarchy, depersonalization, adjustment, and institutionalization. These patients are subject to anything people in charge tell them to do. Adjusting to the system is very hard, especially when you are surrounded by others with different minds.

McMurphy learns that involuntarily committed patients cannot leave the hospital without staff approval. Therefore, he cannot leave at the end of his six months sentence, but when Nurse Ratched says he can and he begins to submit to her authority. However, by this time, he had become the leader for the other patients. Their sanity, their claim to manhood lies in the balance. Cheswick, dismayed by McMurphy’s surrender, commits suicide.

The power struggle is significant because it represents bureaucracy in society. Nurse Ratched uses her power to oppress and dehumanize the patients, while patients like McMurphy rebel and challenge her power because he’s ruled by it. This struggle shows how the mental facility is like society or “the combine”. There are many instances where Nurse Ratched exerted her power over the

McMurphy is a man bound to change the ward not only to benefit his sanity, but all the other patients who have lost theirs over the years from the tactics used by Nurse Ratched. He is being forced into being what others think he is, in order for the patients to recognize themselves through his actions. He gives them the ability to regain their power that was lost from Nurse Ratched, and even though McMurphy has a choice to obey the rules, instead he is rebellious and the voice of the patients. That being said, McMurphy has the responsibility to continue to give them hope in order to help them. He pushed the patients to fight for what they want. For instance, McMurphy states “But I tried though. “Goddammit, I sure as hell id that much, now

During the movie One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, there were several instances of status hierarchy, Adjustment, depersonalization, and Institutionalization. A Status hierarchy symbol is the nurses station and a fall of status hierarchy was when Nurse Ratchet got her nurses cap back dirty at the end of the movie. They show adjustment in the movie with the lack of letting them watch the world series. Some of the ways ward depersonalized the patients was by rationing out the cigarettes after Mac's gambling stint, wearing the same clothes, taking medication at a set time, and the extreme of Mac's Lobotomy. Institutionalization is shown where Mac finds out that a lot of the ward is in their because of free will.

In the end McMurphy loses his life in the fight to change the system, but he left a substantial impact on the hospital and the policies of Nurse Ratchet. His fight to change the system was well worth it because of the positive change it brought to so many patients. Before his ultimate death, McMurphy does win some major battles at the ward. From battle to battle against the system, McMurphy leads his lost chronic soldiers beyond enemy lines and toward safety. Even after being smothered from his command position, it was as if he had never left their side. For the path he paved was much to large to be coverup with the leaves left by Big Nurse. By following McMurphys footsteps, the squad finally found the light within society, and stepped into it with open arms and wishful smiles. No longer were they under the control of the system and its rules. he had broken free from the routine, and in the end, changed the world as they knew it. It is evident that it 's very difficult to change the system, but it is possible. The right type of character and personality is a big help when you are trying to achieve success in fighting the system. In order to make a true difference you have to keep on trying and fighting. Even if you just change a small area of the system, the majority of the time it is well worth the fight. In this novel the main character was successful in changing some aspect of the system. To him, the corruption unfair practices, and indecencies were enough. Something

Although he is so different from everyone else in the combine, that doesn’t stop him from being fearless. Instead of hiding from the black boys like Chief, McMurphy goes out of his way to bother them. He does the exact opposite of Chief, he won’t back down from anyone. Therefore, McMurphy inspires all of the other patients on the ward because of how confident he is of being different. He is a man on a mission to take down Nurse Ratched and won’t let anyone stand in his way although such a thing is unthinkable to all of the others on the ward. He commands the respect of his peers through his unthinkable actions. In fact, Chief praises him so much that he thinks of him as some inhuman figure when he asks, “How can McMurphy be what he is” (Kesey, 161) rather than asking, “How can McMurphy be who he is.” Seeing McMurphy as something higher than humanity says a lot about how unique and unafraid he is of everything that sets foot in his

She forces the patients to complete household chores such as cleaning the hallways and the bathrooms, chores that a woman would typically complete in a male dominated society. When McMurphy arrives to the ward, he immediately tries to take Nurse Ratched’s power away from her by defying all of her rules and leading the other patients to go against her as well. Bromden states, “The big nurse tests a needle against her fingertip. I’m afraid—she stabs the needle down in the rubber-capped vial and lifts the plunger—that is exactly what the new patient is planning: to take over.” (Kesey, 1962, p. 27), symbolizing that even in a female dominated ward, a male should still be the head of the ward.

In the film, McMurphy remains the noncomformist person he was, up until his lobotomy. However, in the book, Chief observes McMurphy’s short attempt to conform to Nurse Ratched’s rules. He notices the growing distrust of the other patients towards McMurphy and his increasing sadness as he senses his own doom.

For example, Chiefs beginning to play basketball is a major accomplishment on the part of McMurphy. His constant encouragement finally drove Chief to play. Another example is the group discussions. McMurphy tried to incorporate everyone into these discussions simultaneously. This can be seen when he rallied everyone’s support to try to convince Nurse Ratchett to let them watch the World Series on television.

Background to the story: The story was written in the beginning of the sixties, in the USA. It reflects the feeling of the youth at the time. They felt misunderstood by the adults and tried to change the system. The rebelled against authority of all forms. They wanted to think for themselves, instead of being directed towards the conformistic society. McMurphy's battle stands as an example for the struggle against a dogmatic form of authority.