Themes Of Conformity In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Chief Bromden is the main character in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Chief Bromden, also know as “Chief Broom” is mentally ill in a mental ward. Chief suffers from Schizophrenia, lack of identity, and oppression. Chief Bromden changes throughout the novel by coming out of his fog, becoming aware of his surroundings, and even leaving the mental ward with the help of his friend Mcmurphy.

People worry too much about reaching society’s standards that they forget to be themselves. People get caught up trying to fit into categories in society. Society has people separated into groups where they have similar styles or looks. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a children's literature drama by Ken Kesey expresses his criticism of society by telling the story of what went on in the hospital ward. The patients in the ward have this problem, the idea of reaching

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.

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 film One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest demonstrates the struggle between conformity and individuality. Mac McMurphy the main character represents individuality and rebellion against authoritative control. He does not let Nurse Ratchet control him and tries to convince the other patients in the ward to stand up for themselves and not let her push them around. He tries to show them that they are men not children and that Nurse Ratchet is not the boss of them. He helps them rediscover their manly hood by taking them fishing and teaching them how to play basketball.

Another theme in the novel is machinery taking over. Throughout the novel, Chief talks about implants and monitoring devices placed throughout the hospital. In his “visions'; he pictures the Big Nurse as various types of machinery, “So she really lets herself go and her painted smile twists, stretches to an open snarl, and she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside the way you smell motor pulling too big a load.';

Merriam Webster defines conformity as- “action in accordance with some specified standard or authority”. As it is a type of influence that involves change in belief or behavior in order to fit into a group. Where in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, conformity is a matter of life or death. In the novel and in life, conformity is viewed as an easy way to shape into society's mold. Societal expectations are shaped by the so called “Combine” a mysterious and in the dark figure that is view as the puppeteer of the way society functions. In the Novel, Chief Bromden a long time patient at a psychiatric ward is the first to recognize the Combine and its powers. At the same time that this novel was written, the society of the 1950s was being challenged by a group known as the beat generation who wanted to reject and challenge the stringent norms that the majority deemed as appropriate and necessary. While many members of society supported the beliefs of conformity, in many ways the need for “societal-misfits” was vital to secure a community where all people would have a voice. While many did their best to challenge the Combine, in the end the Combine would prevail, but the ideas of those who spoke out would resonate with others. The Combine is an unstoppable force fueled by conformity, but Ken Kesey explains that the only way for progress in the novel (and society) is for a McMurphy type of character to challenge the Combine.

By carrying out the Combine?s orders and imposing a matriarchal system, the Big Nurse has the ability to systematically dehumanize the patients and suppress their individuality. In Group Meetings, the men are forced to talk about personal experiences, a method Big Nurse claims is therapeutic but is actually very humiliating. Billy Bibbit talks about his first love who his mother disliked. Billy?s relationships with women seem to be the root of his problems. Nurse Ratched worsens the situation by ?grinding (his) nose in (his) mistakes? instead of helping him work through his problems (59). The patients let the nurse manipulate them in fear of the consequences of her wrath, and consequently are shamed, weak, and defenseless men. Even the Chief, the biggest man, has become a person so weakened by his society that he loses his ability to speak against the cruelty that surrounds him, ultimately leaving him powerless. The men are victims of their society and lose all their self confidence and individuality as a result of being pressured to conform.

It is with this paranoid rambling that the reader meets Bromden. As the first chapter progresses we witness more instances of his troubled mind and his way of describing people as part machine, part human. Nurse Ratched is the called "the Big Nurse," by Bromden. His description of her is an example of his ability to link people with machines. "She slides through the door with a gust of cold...(the) tip of each finger the same color as her lips. Funny orange. Like the tip of a soldering iron. Color so hot or so cold if she touches you with it you can't tell which." (Pg. 4 Kesey). She has the ability, in Bromden's mind, to increase her size. She, "blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big you can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling too big a load." (Pg 5 Kesey). These descriptions of humans who are made part machine, part human allow the reader to get a clearer understanding of Bromden's illness. This, I believe, is a positive aspect of the novel, however there would seem to be, at least one, negative aspect to Kesey's choice of narrators.

Throughout early 20th century, many Americans gained a feeling of superiority by being a part of the majority and by conforming to the customs and standards of the more powerful and wealthy majority, which happened to be the white, Anglo-Saxon and protestant people at the time. This conformist attitude that lasted throughout the mid-20th century not only had an effect on just the white majority; it also had an effect on minorities such as the African-American community and, as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey and Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko have illustrated, the conformist attitudes of the mid-20th century have even affected the Native Americans and not in a positive way, as both novels had negative attitudes towards conformity and both novels showed how Native American communities were affected in the early 20th century by the conformist trend.

As depicted in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, is that when individuals take responsibility for themselves or others, both parties can overcome circumstance and conformity. However when an individual becomes too dependant, there may be devastating effects. Furthermore, all those involved can live truly fulfilling lives without fear of the consequences. To illustrate, the entirety of men on nurse Ratched’s ward give up who they are, simply to fit into her puzzle without a hitch; yet when McMurphy enters the ward and changes the ward, “for the sake of disruption” (pg 27) the patients come back around to sanity. Ultimately, McMurphy has intentionally become “bull goose looney”(pg 19) and, therefore, taken responsibility for the ward.

Individualism is to a halcyon drizzle as being under control is to a mighty thunderstorm. In the novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, the rambunctious Randle McMurphy sets fire to the rain by opposing the will of the majority, or in this case, the Combine and Nurse Ratched. Individualism is a social theory that aligns with the freedom of actions for individuals, rather than complying with the somewhat dictatorship of Nurse Ratched and the mental ward. Nurse Ratched uses group therapy sessions to her advantage because she utilizes the rule of suggestion to unmask the patients’ profoundest insecurities, which prevents them from rebelling against her. The patients’ weaknesses fuel her superiority and power over them. Throughout this novel, McMurphy portrays dominant aspects in his personality in order to challenge conformity in the ward to promote being who one wants to be, and he teaches the other patients a lesson on how to stand up for themselves.

society, as well as sanity vs. insanity are greatly expressed through the characters actions and events in the novel, as seen from a patients eyes. Randle McMurphy, the main character of the novel portrays the theme of the individual against society through his dealings with Nurse Ratched and the hospital. “The main action of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest consists of McMurphy's struggles against Nurse Ratched. Her ward at the hospital is a society in itself. McMurphy challenges the rules from the beginning” (Malin 224). The effects of the battle between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched is expressed in the reactions of both characters, as well as the changes brought to the ward. “But she stops. She was flustered for a second there. Some of the acutes hide grins, and McMurphy takes a huge stretch, yawns, winks at Harding” (Keasey 45). The individual vs. society theme is clearly displayed here though McMurphy's struggle against the rules of the asylum, and against the rule of Nurse Ratched. This represents a a man, or individual, fighting for his own rights when faced with the views and obstacles forced upon him by a tyrannical society with strict guidelines. The second major theme in this novel, tied to the individual vs. society, is the theme of insanity vs. sanity. “Sanity vs. insanity is a topic that is established by society itself, set by public values and rules on what normalcy should be and what insane should be qualified

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.

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.