The Wrath of the Big Nurse in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950's Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this was set in, the 50's, 60's where McCarthyism was dominant. Furthermore, it has great symbolic value, representing issues such as the American struggle of freedom and conformity. This essay shall discuss the ‘setting' & its significance towards Ken Kesey's "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.

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.

This belief has made her incredibly sure of herself and given her confidence with the unruly patients. Chief Bromden is observing the Big Nurse and through her expression he creates this picture in his mind of a robot, which oversees every movement, thought, and word said. Since she is described as a robot, I imagine the nurse to be cold and have a metaphorical mask over her face at all times. In order for her to maintain her value of order in the hospital, she must show no sign of affection or love in her behavior. If she were to grow too attached to a patient, the smooth order of the hospital would turn erratic because the patients could do whatever they want and receive little punishment in return. I predict that the nurse must not be married or have any children, because she behaves so frigid and her actions are script-like. If she were to have a family, the BIg Nurse would sometimes show pity or kindness to the patients. The quote contains both imagery and simile, because the nurse is compared to a robot, and the narrator describes how the nurse keeps an eye on everything in the ward. The Big Nurse is like a robot because Chief Bromden believes her to control everything that is happening in the hospital, similar to a machine. In addition, the imagery in the quote depicts the nurse with wires shooting out and sending constant signals, another indication of her power over the

​Red haired, rowdy, and raunchy are three words to describe the crazy, infamous McMurphy, while the Nurse is a prude, prideful and frigid ruler who is power-hungry over the mental institution. These two mixed together lead to a cunning war of dominance in the hospital. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is a 1962 novel by Ken Kesey depicting the patients at an Oregon psychiatric hospital and how the of the patients and staff change when a new patient, Randle McMurphy arrives. From McMurphy 's devious schemes to manipulate the system to get what he wants, to the Nurse sabotaging his friends ' opinions of him in order to gain the upper hand, this superiority struggle has a definite winner at the end of the novel: McMurphy. McMurphy wins this battle with the Nurse because although he died at the end, he still overcomes and finds ways to manipulate Nurse Ratched 's harsh rules and regulations throughout the book, and leaves an effect on Ratched and the ward that proves the influence and power he had over all of them.

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.

The story One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey describes a 1950’s Oregon mental hospital that is administered by a cruel and abusive nurse named Miss. Ratched was inspired by Kesey’s own experience observing patients in a mental hospital. The 1950’s were a time of increasing social change and development culminating in movements such as the civil rights and sexual revolution movements of the 60’s. The novel ties sexual liberation to personal freedoms and shows that being able to manage one's behavior and choices is a sign of independence. In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest Ken Kesey persuades us to share the same worldview through use of language and perspective, showing us the importance of freedom and the impact of society on what freedoms we allow ourselves to have.

Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a unique fiction novel about oppression and rebellion in an American 1950’s Mental Hospital. In this highly distinctive novel, setting definitely refers to the interior, the interiors of the Institution. It also refers to the period this novel this was set in, the 50’s, 60’s where McCarthyism was dominant. Furthermore, it has great symbolic value, representing issues such as the American struggle of freedom and conformity. This essay shall discuss the ‘setting’ & its significance towards Ken Kesey’s “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

Although Nurse Ratched holds an occupation associated with traits of compassion and nurture, in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, the author reveals Nurse Ratched's actual malicious character. Specifically, when McMurphy and Harding are debating the ethics of the group meeting McMurphy calls Nurse Ratched "a bitch and a buzzard and a ball-cutter" (58). Here, the author implies that Nurse Ratched emasculates the patients by relentlessly preying on their weaknesses like a buzzard. Because Nurse Ratched is in a position of power she is not afraid to exploit the patient's flaws by attacking their weak points. By emasculating the patients, Nurse Ratched hopes to make the patients feel "weak so [she] can get them to toe the line, to follow [her] rules, to live like [she] wants them to" (57).

1962 was known as the freedom summer, which developed the fight for civil rights among black people in the US and worldwide. This historical setting of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest influenced the ideologies throughout the inscription of this novel. Ken Kesey developed his conceptual ideas of isolation through the setting of the characters. These concepts are developed through the protagonists, B Randle Patrick McMurphy and Nurse Ratchet. McMurphy challenges all aspects of rules and regulations within the psychiatric ward. McMurphy’s rebellion forces the reader to observe his understanding of insanity. The ward is a metaphor of a social statement being made by the author, perceiving society as the same as the ward; controlled, under authority and McMurphy is an example of chaos, change, and hope for the patients within the ward itself. “I hide in the mop closet and listen, my heart beating in the dark, and I try to keep from getting scared, try to get my thoughts off someplace else-try to think back and remember things about the village and the big Columbia River” , (chapter 1, lines page, 121, line 23). McMurphy’s actions throughout the novel are foreshadowed thus positioning the reader to question if he’s truly insane “And the third boy mutters, "Of course, the very nature of this plan could indicate that he [McMurphy] is simply a shrewd con man, and not mentally ill at all." Chapter 2, Line.1, .Page 32-37).

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a controversial novel that has left parents and school authorities debating about its influence on students since its publication in 1962. The novel describes the inner workings of a mental institution, how the patients are emasculated and mistreated by the terrifying Nurse Ratched, who will go to any length to control them. But in comes McMurphy, a criminal who chose to go to an asylum rather than serve physical labor; he disrupts the order of the hospital with his big personality and loud opinions, undermining the authority of Nurse Ratched and encouraging the patients to live their own lives, until he too, is silenced forever by authority. With his novel, Ken Kesey paints society as an oppressive

     The one that flies over the cuckoo's nest is the giant, allegedly deaf-mute Chief Bromden. In Ken Kesey's original novel, Chief narrates the story, providing evocative images of an all-powerful bureaucratic 'harvesting machine' fostering functionalist social integration: a combine that would process out individuality, thus creating compliant individuals (the exaggerated representation of this in the film's ward is a microcosm of society at large). Those who did not conform would be relegated to a correctional facility for repair or removal.

Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a first hand account by the narrator about several weeks inside a hospital's ward for the insane. The narrator, Bromden, recounts, “ I been silent so long now it’s gonna roar out of me like floodwaters and you think the guy telling this is ranting and raving my God; you think this is too horrible to have really happened, this is too awful to be the truth! But, please. It’s still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. Bu it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.”(page 8). The book is a testament of major character transformation, following characters that transform from detached and constricted individuals to individuals who relearn how to think for themselves and tap into their natural desires. The

“People don't want other people to get high, because if you get high, you might see the falsity of the fabric of the society we live in.” This quote by Ken Kesey embodies his view of society in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest. He depicts the modern society through Nurse Ratched, a strong authoritarian figure, that embellishes the nature of society. Nurse Ratched is notorious in her endeavors to control the men and uses her power to regulate the men. In this domain the beams of society cause the men to shrink from individual freedom that is reawakened with McMurphy, who teaches the men to be bold in the face of society. In Kesey’s work he highlights several major ideas about society. He illustrates the repressive nature of society that causes men to conform to boundaries. Further, he depicts how society rejects those who are deemed defective in the system. Lastly, he also illustrates how society is a major cause of shame and indignity. Thus, Kensey delineates the nature of society as being repressive, selective, and a cause of diffidence.

Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is a creation of the socio-cultural context of his time. Social and cultural values, attitudes and beliefs informed his invited reading of his text.