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Teila Winburn

Mahoney

AP 12 Literature

3/17/10

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

By: Ken Kensey

In the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, authorKen Kensey expresses how society uses oppressive social pressure to force conformity upon those who do not adapt to society’s rules and conventions. The novel reflects on a world where independent spirits are considered flawed individuals, labeled mentally ill, and sent for treatment.The hospital in which people are sent is not about healing, but about dehumanizing and manipulating the patients until they are weak and willing to play the game of the institution under the rule of Nurse Ratched. The use of perfunctory imagery represents modern society, also while showing sexual domination bywomenand false diagnosis of insanity.

The patients are divided into twosections in the ward. The Acutes arethose who are considered curable, and the Chronics, whom Bromden the narrator of the story, calls “machines with flaws inside that can’t be repaired.” The Chronics who can move around are Walkers, and the rest are either Wheelers or Vegetables. Some Chronics are patients who arrived at the hospital as Acutes but were mentally crippled by excessive shock treatment or brain surgery. It’s a common practice in the hospital, yet it has been outdated in many of the other institutional hospitals.

Chief Bromden has been a patient in Nurse Ratched’s psychiatric ward for many years. He pretends to be deaf and dumb; as a result, he overhears all the secrets of the ward, and is barely noticed by anyone despite his physique because he keeps to himself. The main indications of his illness are paranoia and frequent hallucinations. His paranoia is often justified, for the fact that the patients are treated barbarically. But his hallucinations though are hard to comprehend, metaphorically reveal his deep, intuitive understanding of his surroundings. The fog machine represents his state of mind—he is overmedicated and is too fearful to face the crude reality beyond the fog. The fog machine also represents the powerlessness of the patients, who are encouraged and sometimes forced by the staff to stay hidden and not get involved with anything that might be going on. Bromden conceives of society as a huge, oppressive mass that he calls the “Combine,” and he sees the hospital as a factory for “fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhoods and in the schools and in the churches.” (Kensey 40)

Randle McMurphy is a new patient in the ward, claiming that he requested a transfer to the hospital to escape being imprisoned.His file peruses the fact that he was arrested for statutory rape. From the file the doctor reads, “Don’t overlook the possibility that this man might be feigning psychosis to escape the drudgery of the Work Farm.”Immediately upon his arrival, McMurphy challenges the ward with his exuberant vitality and sexuality, which are directly opposed by the nature of the hospital. With the help of McMurphy, Bromden is beginning to see himself as an individual with free will; his recognition that the fog blankets the entire ward is an ironic indication that his own fog is beginning to lift. In fact, he begins to get the other patients to open up and express there individuality without fearing Nurse Ratched; “I mean—hell, I been surprised how sane you guys all are. As near as I can tell you’re not any crazier than the average asshole on the street—” (Kensey 63)

“To tell the pure truth and the court ruled that I’m a psychopath. And do you think I’m gonna argue with the court? Shoo, you can bet your bottom dollar I don’t. If it gets me outta those damn pea fields I’ll be whatever their little heart desires.” (Kensey 18)

There is some quarrel over whether McMurphy is actually crazy or sane. From the moment McMurphy enters the ward, he starts to brag about how crazy he is. In a conversation between McMurphy and Harding, they both try to prove who is crazier: “Mr Bibbit, you might warn this Mr. Harding that I’m so crazy I admit to voting for Eisenhower.” “Bibbit! You tell Mr. McMurphy I’m so crazy I voted for Eisenhower twice!” “And you tell Mr. Harding right back…that I’m so crazy I plan to vote for Eisenhower again this November.” (Kensey 20) When the reader reads more into the book, they start to realize that McMurphy’s makes himself seem a lot crazier than he actually is. Though McMurphy does do some crazy things, the truth about his insanity is never proven.

Nurse Ratched is the antagonist in the book. She is the head nurse and for the most part is in charge of most of the institution. She is the type of lady that has a short fuse. Anyone who rubs her the wrong way, she will put in place. Nurse Ratched runs her ward on a very austere schedule, making sure that she controls everything that goes on with utter percision. Ratched increases the patients discomfort as a way of building up her own power. Ratched selects her aides for their intrinsic brutality and her staff for their submissiveness.

“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 a motor pulling too big a load.” (Kensey 5)

Bromden begins to realize his surroundings as he is looking out the window. The hospital is in the countryside, symbolizing the broadening of his perceptual capacity under McMurphy’s effect. He watches as animals interact with man-made creations. This scene of nature versus machine inflects a lot on the situation occurring within the hospital’s walls. The animals with the exception of the dog belong entirely to the wild in the undomesticated world. The car represents the overpowering, mechanized modern society. Bromden notes that the dog and the car are headed for “the same spot of pavement.” This basically impliesthat when the dog encounters the car, the larger machine which is the car will dominate. This image signifies that when one tries to defy modern society, one runs the risk of experiencing eradication rather than victory.

Bromden begins to attain self knowledge through the influence of McMurphy. He begins to remember things that happened to him as a child, this shows how McMurphy is helping Bromden to open up. He feels himself becoming stronger as he talks to McMurphy. Bromden’s decision to talk to McMurphy shows a friendship and a trust that has been formed between the two of them.

The fishing trip presents a major shift in the patient’s behavior. Firstly before showing up to the spot where they went fishing, they made a pitstop at the gas station. When the gas station attendant disrespected the patients, McMurphy saves them by showing how their identities as mental patients can be used to their advantage. Instead of feeling afraid, they can now daunt others by emembellish their insanity. After setting out for sea, McMurphy tests the patients by refusing to help them once they are out on their own. To their surprise, they actually don’t end up needing McMurphy’s help. This is when they start to see themselves as men. They didn’t only prove to themselves that they could be independent but to the seamen, showing them the extraordinary fish that they caught.

McMurphy goes out of his way to make sure he is getting irritates Nurse Ratched. Finding that messing with her is entertaining to the other patients.After realizing that the staff holds the authority in deciding when he will be released or if he is ever going to be released, McMurphy begins to conform to the hospitals rules. When McMurphy transforms back to his old ways, but he no longer relies on humorous nettling as his weapon in this rebellion. McMurphy’s strength becomes less mental and more physical. Breaking the window is his first act of violence, which is far more serious than his comical jabs. Moreover, the glass, that is kept so spotless that it is almost invisible, represents the control Nurse Ratched has over the patients; it is so deviously subtle that they sometimes forget it is there. By breaking the glass, McMurphy reminds the other patients that her power over them is always present, while simultaneously suggesting that their knowledge of her power renders that power is breakable.

George, a character in the book and also a friend of McMurphy’s and Bromden, has a phobia regarding cleanliness and begs the aides not to spray him with their cleaning products. McMurphy and Bromden get into a fistfight with the aides to defend George, so Ratched sends them to Disturbed. Nurse Ratched tells McMurphy that he can avoid electroshock therapy by admitting he was wrong for getting into a fight. He refuses so Ratched sends him and Bromden for the treatment. All of this doesn’t seem to faze him at all; in fact he voluntarily climbs onto the table. Bromden, however, is afraid and struggles mightily. During the treatment and afterward, Bromden experiences a rush of images and memories from his childhood. When he regains consciousness, he resists the fog and works to clear his head. He knows that this time he “had them beat,” and he is not subjected to any more treatments. McMurphy, however, receives three more treatments that week. He maintains an unconcerned attitude about it, but Bromden can tell that the treatments are affecting him.

The novel correlates to the movie The Green Mile. McMurphy, as well as John Coffey (main character in The Green Mile) are trapped not only physically but mentally. Society finds these two men, unfit to be given the right to take care of themselves. Physically, McMurphy and Coffey are trapped behind bars, living day by day with the knowledge that they cannot escape the life in which they are currently living. And mentally, both are in places where they are not able to express their individuality without being punished for it. Both characters are falsely labeled, McMurphy being identified as insane and Coffey being branded as a murderer.

McMurphy molests a young girl and is sent to prison but then is transferred into a mental institution after “causing trouble”. Coffey as well is sent to prison, not only for molestation but also for the homicide of two young girls. When McMurphy attacks nurse Ratched, he is lobotomized resulting in severe brain damage, transforming him into a vegetable. Coffey is on death row and gets electrocuted for the crimes he did not actually commit.In civilization, people are punished or considered defective if they do not play the rules of the government. In many cases, not only in the book but in real life, you find that people are unlawfully labeled for actions that shouldn’t define an individual’spersona.

McMurphy’s self-sacrifice begins when he undergoes the electroshock treatments due to his ongoing rebellious behavior. McMurphy is belted to a cross-shaped table, an obvious allusion to a crucifix. This Christ imagery suggests an imminent death imposed by McMurphy’s faith, and he even compares himself to Christ when he asks whether he gets to wear a crown of thorns. “Anointest my head with conductant. Do I get a crown of thorns?” (Kensey 270). Although Bromden feels strong enough to withstand the effects of the electroshock; McMurphy weakens under the repeated treatments. Realizing now that McMurphy will never be the same, Bromden takes action, putting him out of his misery by suffocating him with a pillow. Bromden finally begins to feel that his victory over the hospital is complete. He is no longer ruled by his fears or his past, thanks to the help of McMurphy.“One flew east, one flew west, one flew over the cuckoo’s nest . . . goose swoops down and plucks you out” (Kensey 272).

Works Cited

Kensey, Ken. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. New York: The Viking Press. 1962. Print

King, Stephen. The Green Mile. New York: Pocket Books. 1999. Print