In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey there are multiple instances in which the protagonist’s values and integrity are tested. Randle McMurphy, a tall and boisterous redhead, is committed to an insane asylum where he meets Nurse Ratched, who is also known as ‘The Big Nurse’, and Chief Bromden, and Billy Bibbit among other adult men on the ward. McMurphy is an outgoing new patient who makes it his mission to ‘break’ Nurse Ratched’s strict and overbearing rule over the ward without getting lobotomized, having electroshock therapy, or sent up to the Disturbed Ward. McMurphy’s values are repeatedly challenged when Nurse Ratched, a sadistic bulldog of a woman, attempts to get a rise out of him in various ways. She calls him by the wrong name on purpose, and yet he maintains his morals, and remains in control. In addition, McMurphy’s moral code or values are put to the test when The Big Nurse, again, attempts to set Randall off. She makes an effort to make the other doctors take McMurphy up to the undesirable Disturbed Ward, and still he keeps his values. McMurphy’s code of conduct was …show more content…
The nurse’s claims are stated when she says, “I’ll admit that my first thought when I began to recognize Mr. McMurphy for the disturbing force that he is was that he should most definitely be sent up to Disturbed.” Until, she contradicts this statement when she adds “We have weeks, or months, or even years if need be. Keep in mind that Mr. McMurphy is committed. The length of time he spends in this hospital is entirely up to us.” Seeing that he is trapped, McMurphy is anxious and struggles to remain calm, cool, and collected with the idea that the nurse may punish him severely with either option she has
2. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, Kesey uses images of machinery to compare to Big Nurse, Miss Ratched, and the black boy because of the control they maintain in the ward and destroy the patients individuality. As Chief Bromden, the narrator, is thinking about over the years with Miss Ratched, he describes, “I see her sit in the center of this web of wires like a watchful robot, tend her network with mechanical insect skill, know every second which wire runs where and just what current to send up to get to the result she want” (Kesey 29). Miss Ratched is conveyed as a robot by the Chief with how she controls and knows how to control the ward and the people in it.
In novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, a leader organizes a group of mental patients and rebels against the figurehead of the broken institutional system of the mental hospital. McMurphy pushes The institutions rules of order, bringing out the evil in the situation. Bromden, due to his bias narration, misconstrues Nurse Ratched as the antagonist where, in truth, she falsifies this by trying to maintain order and by ultimately seeking the best for her patients. Kesey chooses Bromden as the narrator, by doing this, he introduces an element of skepticism for the audience as Brombden opposes the institution.
In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, The patients went to the ward voluntarily where they thought they would feel free, but at arrival they find that Nurse Ratched has full control over them. Nurse Ratched and her other leading woman use fear to keep control over and manipulate those trapped inside to keep them from acting and thinking on their own. Nurse Ratched is power hungry and feeds that power with being able to have the last say and the
A role model lives on through those whom he or she inspires. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, McMurphy recognizes his powerlessness and decides to build Chief’s physical and emotional strength so he can be the new symbol of hope for the ward. McMurphy instills his own character traits of courage, tenacity, and hopefulness in Chief to carry on his legacy after his treatment drains him of those qualities.
Although they are too afraid to defy Big Nurse, they can live though McMurphy and still experience the thrill of it through McMurphy. Since he is a maverick, he never gives in to the system. Nonetheless, he is often rash in many decisions, just like his first love. The headstrong mentality prompted him to attack Big Nurse without much forethought after she blames Billy’s death on him. Without thinking of the consequences, he chokes her and rips the front portion of her dress off just like he jumped into his first love without thinking about the long run.
Nurse Ratched was very controlling and wanted complete power. This caused many of the patients to rebel and break loose from her control. McMurphy lead the ward in this uprising. From brushing his teeth too early to sneaking prostitutes into the ward, he shows Nurse Ratched that she cannot rule him. This story reminded me of Malala Yousafzai and her retaliation against the Taliban.
Is precisely expressed through Nurse Ratched and McMurphy’s relationship and their effect on the patients in the ward. Nurse Ratched is the antagonist in the book, she is the authoritative figure to the men in the institution and she is determined to continue to abuse her power over the men and remain in control. She emasculates the men in different ways to rid any chance of rebellion, Harding, remarks, “we are victims of a matriarchy here” (Kesey, 16). A few ways she emasculates men are by using public humiliation and embarrassment against the patients to exposes their greatest insecurities, controlling the direction of the conversation and the questions asked throughout a therapy session, but by also manipulating the patients to turn on each other so they remain occupied rather than work together to rebel against her.
The Process of Becoming Sane An individual’s struggle toward understanding and awareness is the traditional subject for the novelist. In an essay, apply this statement to one novel of literary merit. Have you ever awakened from a deep sleep and had no conception of where you were or what anything around you was? The analogy of having a foggy head explains what it is like to not be able to comprehend the aspects around you.
McMurphy placing in the mental ward In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, a man by the name of Mr McMurphy is incorrectly inducted into a mental ward. A mental ward is a facility that houses people who have a psychological disorder. A psychological disorder is a mental disability characterized by patterns of thought, emotion, or behavior that are maladaptive, disruptive, or uncomfortable for the person or the people around them. The people who run the mental ward do not believe that McMurphy is insane, nor does McMurphy himself.
The author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey, presents the ideas about venerability and strength by using his characters and the way they interact with each other to establish whether they are a submissive or a dominant, tamed or leading, venerable or strong. Kesey uses strong personalities to show the drastic difference between someone who is vulnerable and someone who is strong. Nurse Ratchet is a perfect example of how Kasey presents the idea of strength over the venerability of others (the patients). Keys also exhibited vulnerability throughout characters such as Chief Bromden and his extensive habit of hiding himself in all means possible from Nurse Ratchet. Another idea presented by Kesey is a character’s false thought on what
In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, one can say that McMurphy’s tragic flaw is his ego of thinking he can win any situation with his charm. When McMurphy walks into the combine, he instantly charms the patients when he shakes everyone's hand. Any circumstance that is a task to McMurphy’s distinguished character, he will dissident against. In the mental ward, the controlling, devious Nurse Ratched delivers that precise test.
In the novel, McMurphy attacks the nurse brutally and attempts to kill her, “doctors and supervisors and nurses prying those heavy red fingers out of the white flesh of her throat as if they were her neck bones, jerking him backward” (Kesey 319). Also, the narrator shows mercy towards McMurphy by smothering him in his sleep, “and scissor the kicking legs with mine while I mashed the pillow into the face. I lay there on top of the body for what seemed days. Until the thrashing stopped” (323).
The way he doesn’t take things seriously shows that he most likely believes that he is better than everyone else on the ward, although he is one of the only ones committed. When the patients get to visit the pool, McMurphy meets a patient from the Disturbed ward who he can relate to because he is also committed. The patient was picked up for something trivial, but has been there for “eight years and eight months” (171). After realizing that being committed meant that how long he stays is up to the head nurse and doctor, McMurphy’s entire demeanor changes from rebellious to submissive. He finished two months on the work farm and only had four more months until he would be released.
By weakening McMurphy’s power in the ward, she creates an environment where can continue to thrive in her power through the systems she has set in place. However, Nurse Ratched’s plan does not succeed and McMurphy is allowed to proceed with his fishing trip. He continues to undermine the nurse’s authority to the point where he physically assults her after she blames Billy’s death on him. His actions give Nurse Ratched an opportunity to give him the ultimate punishment, a
At the end, the protagonist is surgically operated to make him mentally deranged. The nurse and the department were certain that McMurphy was faking insanity, but they agreed that he was dangerous. The nurse, in spite of discharging him, kept him on the premises to undo the wave of excitement he brought to the asylum