Reflections on "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest".

by Stuart Fernie

For me, "Cuckoo's Nest" is concerned principally with the place of the individual in
society and the means by which certain elements of society seek to impose order and
exercise control, sometimes at the expense of the individual's (mental) health, but
certainly at the expense of independence and freedom.
The hospital of the film/book is society in microcosm, with the patients displaying (or
representing) problems in coping with life and the pressures they feel in the exercise of
their social functions. However, it also represents the ways (discreet and quite
indiscreet) in which "society" applies pressure on the individual to conform to what is
regarded as the "norm" in terms of behaviour and attitude.
An essential point to note is that the story is not concerned with so-called "lunatics".
These men have not lost their minds - they are simply having difficulty in coping with the
problems and pressures thrown at them by society. As such they inspire pathos,
sympathy and compassion. More importantly still, we could all succumb to similar
pressures and end up in a similar position.

Behind the outwardly caring and helpful facade of (mental) health care lies a subtle and
widespread attempt to enforce compliance and acceptance of authority. This is achieved
not just through the clear manifestation of physical discipline and control, but also (and
more effectively) through the use of "therapy" in which the analysis of a problem not
only assumes the very existence of, and responsibility for such a problem, but actually
promotes and aggravates it as patients reflect and brood on their problems, doing
nothing to diminish them and instead blowing them out of all proportion.
Into this centre comes Randall Patrick McMurphy (are we to read significance into the
initials RPM?), a highly sociable free spirit who seems to offer an alternative to inwarddwelling reflection in the form of socialisation. He treats his fellow inmates as equals, is
not judgmental (beyond displaying human and perfectly understandable frustration),
accepting his new friends for what they are and offering them the chance to forget their
problems, or at least to keep them in proportion as he involves them in one defiant
scheme after another.

In contrast, Nurse Ratched is a tool of society, used to exercise order and control. This
she achieves less by direct confrontation and more by subtle means such as playing on
and maintaining character weaknesses, undermining self-confidence, and constantly
"rubbing salt in open wounds" through therapy sessions, the consequence of which is to
maintain the malleability and suggestibility of her patients.
She may represent any element of society which seeks to oppress or "depress" other
elements, rather than being seen as the instrument of bureaucratic oppression. There
are many who delight in the weaknesses of others and who derive pleasure and
strength from the torment they inflict. Nurse Ratched, and indeed the entire hospital
may be seen as representative of coercive and intolerant elements of society at large.
Another "message" to come out of the film is that we can change the structure of our
society - if we have the courage and determination to do so.
R. P. McMurphy is one such determined man. He is a natural, highly sociable free spirit
who challenges Nurse Ratched's authority because he resents by instinct her frequently
underhand tactics of maintaining authority. It is worth noting that it is not so much order
itself he rejects (he may even see the necessity of some order), but more the ways in
which order is achieved, and perhaps the extremes to which she is prepared to go.
His determination and actions reflect a relatively simple man who is just what he
appears to be. He is open and has no "side". He is mischievous and fun-seeking, yet he
is thoughtful and sensitive to the condition and plight of his fellow inmates. When he
acts, he acts by nature rather than by reflection. He fails to see the bigger picture and
certainly does not consider matters of principle. He acts simply according to his
conscience and does what he feels is right. Harding and the others would perhaps like
to be able to act in this way, but they have questioned themselves (and doubted
themselves) to such an extent that they have lost confidence and can no longer function
as "normal" members of society. McMurphy remains unfettered by such considerations
and as such represents a considerable challenge to the domineering elements of

society, though he himself fails to understand what he represents to both the hospital
administration and his fellow inmates.
It seems to me that McMurphy means and does no great harm, but he is a constant
thorn in the side of the authorities as he doesn?t take life too seriously, while those
around him (authorities and inmates) appear to have created problems for themselves
exactly in taking life too seriously.
Nurse Ratched appears to be caring and well intentioned - she may even believe that in
thwarting McMurphy's plans for change and various other schemes she is acting for the
greater good of her patients. However, as McMurphy's challenges become ever more
"dangerous", she shows her mettle and doesn't flinch from taking measures to ensure
continued adherence to the rules. Indeed it is only at the end that we see just how far
she will go to enforce her authority, casting aside individual success and welfare merely
in an effort to establish her own position.
We do not feel that Nurse Ratched is warm and caring. She is polite and pleasant, but
cold. This is a job she does well, but it remains that - a job. She fulfils her function and is
very proud of her position of authority, pride which leads her to place her position above
the well-being of her patients. So incensed is she at the undermining of her position that
she ignores the clear progress made by Billy and sets about restoring her order - at the
expense of Billy's improvement, indeed of his life.

The film has been accused of being morally unambiguous compared to the book. In the
book Kesey cleverly used descriptions provided by the mentally ill Chief to communicate
atmosphere and a general sense of being "lost" and hopelessness, but McMurphy's
arrival leads to clarity, hope and purpose. My recollection of the book is not one of any
particular moral ambiguity, indeed the Chief's "fog" implies disapproval of the "system",
though there may be more sympathy for, and an attempt to understand Nurse Ratched,
while in the film her character is hardly "explored", but is rather a sort of gauge by which
to judge the more rigid and blinkered aspects of society. Nonetheless both the book and

the film are clearly travelling in the same direction, and the film script/performances may
even have added greater humanity and sympathy than were present in the book.
It has been suggested, and I have frequently thought that McMurphy may be regarded
as an almost Christ-like figure.
Let us consider some of the reasons for this:
McMurphy challenges the status quo, and threatens to subvert authority.
He "cures" the sick (by inspiring confidence, the lack of which has caused most of the
inmates' problems).
His fellow inmates may be regarded as his "disciples".
He is "betrayed" by Billy, as Judas betrayed Jesus.
There is a "last supper" of sorts.
McMurphy dies for others' "sins", or at least in trying to help them overcome their "sins".
In death, McMurphy inspires the others to believe in themselves and in something
greater than the imposed status quo.
Although McMurphy dies, it is nonetheless a spiritually uplifting ending. His spirit
continues in the hearts and minds of his fellow inmates (and the audience), especially
the Chief who has grown in confidence enough to be able to escape and live his own
life. In death McMurphy's spirit and inspiration have developed well beyond any
influence he might have been able to exercise as a "patient".

The film
Both the script and direction managed to mix humour, pathos, tension, sociology, and
even (to some extent) religion! It had, of course, excellent base material by Ken Kesey,
but it was brilliantly brought to life (and perhaps even clarified for some, though I can
understand the various qualms expressed about the book to film adaptation) with love
and respect.
The performances of the "lunatics" are uniformly excellent, and none more than that of
Jack Nicholson as McMurphy. The producers of the film were on potentially dangerous
ground given the context and the content of the film - they could easily have fallen into
sentimentality or might have created a "cold" film about treatment of the mentally ill. As
it is, our emotions are fully engaged without drifting into sentimentality, and we feel great
sympathy and pathos for the characters. These characters could also quite easily have
been sacrificed to the themes of the film, but the script allows the themes to arise from
the conflict between the characters, rather than have the characters illustrate the
themes of the film.
It would probably not have been too difficult to elicit sympathy through these characters,
nor to make a hero of a rebel in an unfair regime, but to achieve this with humour,
warmth, and above all in creating a depth of feeling and caring for these people (and a
genuine sense of shock and loss when McMurphy is killed) is a marvelous achievement,
and it is this emotional element (for which all involved in the production should share
credit) which elevates the material to the highest level. Our emotional engagement
allows what could have been a dry or intellectual artistic exercise to evolve into a
profoundly human tale of love, tolerance and understanding.
I think the music (by Jack Nitzsche) deserves a most honourable mention - not only
does it underline emotion, it enhances it and even creates in itself an emotional
response to a situation. I'm thinking particularly of the Chief's escape where the music
captures loss, defiance, strength and nobility.

An Analysis of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's

Nest From a Disability Perspective

Assessing the Way People with a Disability Are Viewed in

This Classic Movie
Jessica Elliott, Yahoo Contributor Network
May 5, 2006 "Share your voice on Yahoo websites. Start Here."

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Nurse Ratched

The Ward

one flew over the cuckoo's nest

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I decided to write about One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest because I had never seen the movie
before and had always had the intent of picking it up at some point. I am really happy that I did
because this movie was different from what I thought it was going to be like and ended up being
more than "just a movie about a disability" but a message about society, in my interpretation of
the film.
The movie focuses on the character of Jack Nicholson who plays Randall Patrick McMurphy. It
is found out early in the movie that McMurphy is not "crazy" or mentally ill. Because he was in
jail and did not want to participate in his work detail any longer, he faked being mentally ill in
order to get out of it. He ended up at a mental institution where he admitted to Dr. Spivey, the
institution's head doctor, that he was in fact sane. The doctor still had to go through with the
evaluation to prove to the penitentiary he came from whether or not McMurphy was mentally ill
and thus, McMurphy joins the ward.
As the movie progresses, McMurphy befriends a number of the patients and actually becomes a
hero-like figure for them because he does as he pleases and does not let Nurse Ratched order him
around. Although they look at McMurphy adoringly, they do not participate in the same courage
that he has in escaping the institution. The only one that does is Chief, who actually is not
mentally ill at all. McMurphy is the only one that knows this and they plan an escape to together.
The movie ends up showing how this rigid is whatcaused McMurphy to eventually go crazy with
Bibbit's suicide being the last straw. Instead of dealing with the internal problem with the system,
everyone dealt with the "problem" by making McMurphy follow their system. This was done by
giving him a lobotomy.
McMurphy was not a disabled person in the movie. It was almost as if he was the guy on the
inside seeing how everyone was actually treated in a mental institution. He saw firsthand how all

the staff, nurses, and doctors treated everybody as if they were mentally ill, crazy, or abnormal
instead of a person who happened to have a disorder or disability. Although McMurphy does not
have a disability, he has an emotional response towards the patients in the ward. He treats them
like human beings and organizes basketball and card games, jokes around with them, and gets
them interested in the World Series. I felt that McMurphy's role showed the viewer that people
with a disability do not have to be shunned. It is not taboo and is an issue that can dealt with.
I felt the other people in the ward who did have a disability or difficulty felt safe in their own
world surrounded by people like them. I think that McMurphy's character reminded them that
this is not all there is to life and that you can change things up a bit and still have a good time
and be safe. The vibe from the institution created a dependency in the men, when in fact, most of
the patients were fully capable of taking care of themselves and making their own decisions. It
seemed as though their emotions were controlled by the nurse and doctor of the institution. This
is where the negative energy stemmed off from. This is exemplified through one of the last
scenes in the movie where Billy is scolded by Nurse Ratched for having sex. She asks him,
"Aren't you ashamed?" And without stammering, he states, "No, I'm not." Because he did not
stammer (which was a very prominent part of his "disability"), the viewer sees that because he
was able to enjoy something on his own, already there was a positive improvement. However,
because the nurse felt that this was inappropriate, needless to say, out of her control, she
reminded Billy that she could tell his mother and that his mother would not be very approving of
this situation. Immediately, Billy's stuttering comes back and he begs the nurse not tell his mom.
He his dragged away by the institution's staff and ends up committing suicide in the doctor's
office.
I think McMurphy's role was a very positive one in the movie. Even though he was not the one
with the disability, he aided those that did. His positive attitude towards the men in the ward and
treating them like men made them feel like humans and that their disability held no bearing on
what they can do and what they can enjoy. When the men were with McMurphy, they felt strong,
happy, and confident. On the other hand, when the nurse and hospital staff was around or
controlling the situation, the men were the opposite. Their attitudes on themselves changed
depending on who was dictating it to them. Nurse Ratched's controlling and belittling demeanor
led the men to believe that they belong in that institution with no hope of getting better - in all
reality, they didn't care to either. McMurphy would reverse this situation when he was around the
men and made them feel like they were invincible.
I feel the barriers set up for people with disability in reference to this film are that society has a
HUGE role in determining the acceptance of people with a disability. The outlook of people that
do not have a disability shapes the characters of those that do. This movie showed what can
happen when society makes you believe that you are crazy, stupid, or ignorant. You are made to
feel like you are a nobody that needs to be monitored in every single thing you do and no
decision you ever make is your own. When you are in a society that makes the rules for you and
controls how you should act, think, and feel, it can lead to how McMurphy ended up, with a
lobotomy.

I feel that if society were more accepting of those with a disability, most of the people that are
diagnosed with a disability may have a better chance of beating it because they, themselves, may
feel like they have an opportunity to do so.
My reaction to this film was initial awe, more so because of the ending of the movie. I was very
disgusted with the way the institution's staff handled each patient on that ward and I saw that it
was mainly to feed their own ego. They considered themselves better than all those men and used
them to create a very controlling atmosphere where no one benefited except for the staff.
It made me think whether or not something like that can happen outside from this movie. Are
people with a mental disability treated like this in real life? Is there a possibility that they can be
nurtured to the point that their mental illness can be cured? It left a few unanswered questions
like the aforementioned and it is a bit disturbing to think that people who are educated in
knowing better still do not act that way.
We talked about this issue many times in class especially about teachers being educated in
disability and people who have them and how they should act. However, there is no requirement
for teachers to take a class or be knowledgeable in that respect. It made me wonder whether or
not these nurses and doctors in the movie knew either. Perhaps the movie echoes society in that
regard and wants people in power roles to know that they hold a lot more power in their position
than they may think and is possible for it to affect people in a negative way.
I have to say that my view on institutions is a little bit different. I never realized what kind of
reinforcement they could be to the patients and also what power they hold in the ultimate
outcome for their lives. I think this was demonstrated in the movie by McMurphy eventually
being made to be mentally ill and so had to be in the institution. He, of course, did not have a
disability but because of the power that the staff held and in order to better control him, that is
what they made him become.
All in all, I would have to say this is a powerful movie. Many may watch it for the acting - which
was very good - however because I had to specifically watch it keeping our class in mind, it
made me think about how true it is that society can shape the outcome of an individual who has a
disability. It made me feel that I have a huge part when I come across somebody with a disability
and how I would react to them.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest The Movie

The movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, tells the story of McMurphy, a convict,
who is sent to a mental institution because he believes he is insane. In actuality
McMurphy, is sane when he comes to the mental ward, he only wants to get out of
the work that jail time entails. It is believed that his stay in the mental ward is what
drives the man insane. While in the mental ward, he interacts with the patients of
his ward and ends up changing their worlds completely. When two different
societies are combined, they undoubtedly will change one another. This is the case

when McMurphy coming from the "real" world, a society where a person can do
what he pleases, is associated with the mental ward patients, whose lives are
completely controlled by their nurses and their routines. McMurphy and the
patients have a significant effect on each other.
The mental ward and the world that McMurphy comes from are completely
different. The mental ward is completely based on rules. The patients' lives are
based on the routine that their nurse, Nurse Ratched, has established for them.
Nurse Ratched believes that the rules she sets for the patients are in their best
interest or getting better. The nurses have entire control over the patients. They
are locked into their beds every night, get up at the same time, they eat at the
same time, and they watch tv at the same time every day. The patients follow
Nurse Ratched's rule without ever questioning them. Basically, they have no minds
of their own. McMurphy comes from a society almost opposite of the mental ward.
He has lived his whole life doing what he wants. He has never had a nurse hovering
over him telling him what he has to do at all time. Being in prison shows that
McMurphy has a hard time living by the rules. So living by strict rules of the mental
ward is going to be even harder for him.
Living in the mental ward is very hard for McMurphy at first. The patients
and McMurphy cannot understand one another so socializing with them is hard for
him. When he begins to interact with them, he has a profound effect on the
patients of the mental ward. McMurphy has a hard time following the rules that
Nurse Ratched sets for patients of the mental ward. So he has to question her and
protest against the rules of the ward. Before McMurphy came to the ward, the
patients never questioned Nurse Ratched's rules. Seeing McMurphy challenge them
incited a sense of freedom within them to disobey Nurse Ratched and everything
they knew as true. McMurphy's presence gave them a will for freedom that they did
not have before. Under McMurphy's supervision the patients had the nerve to
escape from the mental ward for one day and go sailing. Something they would
have never of thought of doing before they knew McMurphy. After encountering
McMurphy, the patients were brave enough to oppose Nurse Ratched's rules
openly. Such as the time Martini threw a tantrum that disputed Nurse Ratched's
rationing of their own cigarettes. McMurphy also got them to come together as a
group and fight Nurse Ratched's controls. McMurphy gets the whole ward to vote
against Nurse Ratched rule that they were not allowed to watch the World Series.
Another thing that the patients would not have done without the help of McMurphy.
Life in the mental ward has an effect on McMurphy as well. McMurphy's goal was in
the mental ward was to escape from it but after he came into close contact with the
people of it he lost that aspiration. When he had his window of opportunity he did
not escape but instead chose to remain in the mental ward.
When the two different societies of the mental ward and the outside world
meet, they were bound to change each other. These changes can be seen by

observing the patients actions to the old rules of the mental ward and McMurphy's
actions while in the mental ward. Who can say if these changes were for the
better? All that can be said is that they clearly changed in some form or another.
Everyone at some point in their lives have felt different or out of place. Everyone
has also either had a bully or that one person they just didn't want to be around
them or anyone they knew. Furthermore, everyone has had that one person they
admired for sticking up for themselves and saying what they wanted, even if it
meant sure punishment. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, these
three attributes stick out in the story. A discussion of the setting, theme, and
character situations of the story will help one understand how those feelings fall into
line with most every person on the streets today.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is set mainly in a mental hospital tucked away in
the forests of Oregon. During a sustained portion of the novel though, the patients
from the mental hospital go on a deep-sea fishing trip and the setting shifts to the
open sea. Every character involved in the novel is either a patient or a doctor at the
hospital, leaving little room for the setting to alter to anything outside of the
institute.
In this novel, every individual is pushed around by one person or another making
the main theme of the novel suppression of an individual. Men like Harding, Billy
Bibbit, Seefeld, Frederickson, and McMurphy are not really crazy. The only reason
McMurphy is in the hospital is because he faked insanity to get out of prison. They
are here because they cannot cope with society. They have been beaten into
submission, and their individuality has been taken over by Nurse Ratched. They
believe that living in society is too hard. They feel they are unable to fend for
themselves, so they need someone like the demanding Nurse to control them.
Unfortunately, they cannot live with their cowardly ways and will remain cowards for
the rest of their lives. Every man in the institute has some type of deformity or
problem with things such as speak showing through as their weaknesses. Even the
staff workers have suffered at the hands of society, and the Nurse uses their hatred
to help control the members of the hospital. They, in a sense, have been "trained"
to take insults and, therefore, nothing affects them.
The Chief, an Indian, has been treated like he hasnt existed his entire life. He was
ignored and forced to feel inferior by the government who took away his belongings.
The Chief learns to use his "invisibility" to his advantage. While everyone thinks he
is deaf and mute, he listens in on their conversations and learns all about what is
going on around him and analyzes nearly every thing happening in the ward.
Another theme in the novel reveals that women have power over men and what this
power can do if it is allowed to become abundant. Harding is not man enough for his
wife, and she accuses him of being a homosexual. His problem is further
complicated by his feminine white hands and cause him to dislike them. Billy is not
good enough for his mother. She dominates him and treats him like a child. Towards
the end of the novel, Nurse Ratched threatens to tell his mother that Billy has slept
with a prostitute. He is so scared and ashamed that he slits his own throat and kills
himself.

Nurse Ratched also tries to scare the patients into ordinance. She threatens them
and controls them through fear. When she is not successful in gaining control over a
patient, she orders shock treatments to accomplish her goal. When she cannot keep
McMurphy down, she has him lobotomized so that she can now control him and use
him as an example to other patients.
There are many characters throughout the novel, but three of them really live the
story of the book.
McMurphy is a gambling Irishman and convict, who loves women. Throughout the
novel, he battle Nurse Ratched and tries to show the other patients they are just as
normal as any other person. At one point in the novel, he backs down after learning
that he won't be able to get out until the Nurse says he can. After his friend drowns
himself, he comes back with a bang by smashing a window and reasserts himself as
the pain in the butt he started out as. McMurphy's whole goal is to make sure the
men know they are men and they're aren't special or anything of that sort. The one
thing standing between him and this accomplishment is Nurse Ratched. In turn,
McMurphy has to bring her down and is intentionally disobedient and constantly a
smart aleck to her comments. He wants to show the patients she is only human and
can be brought down, easily.
McMurphy accomplishes his goal at the very end of the novel. The Chief kills him,
due to the fact he is a vegetable now, and runs out through a broken window. The
Chief has realized McMurphy's plan and uses it to escape to freedom from the
Nurse's grips for himself.
On the other hand, Nurse Ratched is a very manly female. She is constantly trying
to dominate the patients and finds herself very successful until the day McMurphy
shows up. Once McMurphy is introduced to the institute, she has to work extra hard
to even force the most deprived patients to obey her. She continually must put up
with McMurphy's stunts and finds that her dominating presence is no longer. With
no power left to feed her needs, she soon realizes she must take McMurphy down.
She gets this done by using her brute force of being able to use the shock
treatments and eventually uses a frontal lobotomy to get rid of McMurphy. The one
thing she doesn't realize is that McMurphy has already left his mark on the ward and
his presence and actions live on in every patient in the hospital. In a sense,
McMurphy has died, but his feelings live on.
The Chief is the one character that really shows McMurphy is still alive in spirit.
Chief Bromden, as he goes by towards the end of the story, aids McMurphy in his
last scheme and goes through the shock treatments right by his side. Bromden is
scared, but looks at McMurphy's dominating presence and is somewhat soothed. He
knows he can be the man McMurphy is and wants this bad. After the shock
treatments, Bromden begs McMurphy to keep his mouth shut to stop the
treatments. McMurphy refuses and continues on his mischievous ways. After
McMurphy is lobotomized, Bromden finds that he cannot look at him the same.
McMurphy just lays there with no fire in his eyes and is slowly dying away. Bromden
kills him, symbolizing that McMurphy's views live on in the patients and that he
himself is a direct recipient of McMurphy's actions. He soon breaks a window and

flees the ward, repeating everything McMurphy told him.

Nearly everyone has been bullied a day in their life. In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's
Nest, the novel shows that one man can make a difference when he shows others
the truth behind the bully. It also shows how people admire others and soon want to
be similar to them and help the process of overthrowing the dominating being. The
story teaches that one may learn and become more powerful than he or she thinks.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, written by Ken Kesey in 1962, is a book about a
lively con man that turns a mental institution upside down with his rambunctious
antics and sporadic bouts with the head nurse. Throughout the book, this man
shows the others in the institution how to stand up for themselves, to challenge
conformity to society and to be who they want to be. It is basically a book of good
versus evil, the good being the con man R.P. McMurphy, and the bad being the head
nurse, Nurse Ratched. McMurphy revitalizes the hope of the patients, fights Nurse
Ratched's stranglehold on the ward, and, in a way, represents the feelings of the
author on society at the time.
Before R.P. McMurphy arrives, the ward is your basic average mental institution.
Men line up to receive their medication, they do puzzles and play cards, and the evil
head nurse and her muscle, a group of big black fellows, carry patients off to be
shaved or for electroshock therapy. The people can't do anything about it, though.
After all, some of them are vegetables, and according to society they're all nuts.
Then one fateful day, McMurphy blows in and breathes some fresh air into the ward.
He's loud, he cracks jokes, and, as he said of himself, "I'm a gambling fooland
whenever I meet with a deck of cards I laysmy moneydown." Nobody was sure
whether he was crazy or he was just acting like it to get out of the work camp he
transferred from. Soon enough people realized that either way, he had it out for
Nurse Ratched.
At first, the head nurse Nurse Ratched, tries to ignore him. After all, plenty like
himself had come and gone. Most of them had been treated with a little
electroshock and they were down to normal, or as normal as someone in a nuthouse
could be. She tried to get him to the shower, a cleaning process all incoming
patients have to go through. He says that he's plenty clean. Soon it became clear he
had to be dealt with. He taught the patients how to play blackjack, and he even had
a deck of cards with pictures of naked ladies on them. He also tried to teach a large
Indian man (who was the narrator of the story) to play basketball. He tried to get
the work schedules changed so the guys could watch the World Series, and he
snuck into the nurses' station to turn down the loud waltz music they always played.
Basically, McMurphy was the protagonist who would screw up Nurse Ratched's
perfect system, which seemed almost automatic and robotic at times. The patients
and nurse have a group therapy session. This is where everyone can talk about
things they've done that bother them. McMurphy points out that Ratched is

controlling them, and he has her all figured out. He says that they are like a bunch
of chickens, pecking out the weakest one. Ratched uses divide and conquer to keep
the patients under control. He also said of his fellow patients, "Jesus, I mean you
guys do nothing but complain about how you can't stand it in this place here and
then you haven't got the guts just to walk out? What do you think you are for Christ
sake, crazy or something? Well, you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the
average [explicit] out walking around on the streets." This signified that he believed
they could be cured. Later on in the book, a patient named Billy Bibbit regained his
masculinity after he had sex with a woman, but soon after Ratched cut him back
down and he committed suicide. This also shows the nurse's power over the ward.
The nurse was like the mongoose to McMurphy's snake, or the snake to his
mongoose. I don't know animals. Either way, the clash between the two was a
metaphor for the society author Ken Kesey was living in.
McMurphy's rebellion against Nurse Ratched is a metaphor for the counterculture
movement of the time. He represented the free spirited hippies who believed
everyone deserved a shot at happiness, while the nurse represented the man,
corporations, those who wanted everything to be uniform and nothing to be
spontaneous. McMurphy slowly converts everyone to his side. They've hated the big
nurse for so long, but they never had a leader to help them become vocal until now.
Kesey had plenty of experience with this counterculture. The Chief, the narrator of
the book, was actually inspired by LSD. Ken Kesey had himself worked at a hospital
as an orderly, and his experimentation with drugs led to a hallucination of a large
Indian man sweeping the halls. Many of the characters in the book were inspired by
his old job. He was even sued by a lady who believed Nurse Ratched was based off
of her and made her look bad.
McMurphy gave hope to the patients by fighting against the nurse-tatorship of
Nurse Ratched, which symbolized the fight between corporate America and the
hippie counterculture. In a way, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest influenced society
as much as society influenced it. College students everywhere read it just as they
were beginning to rebel, and it is considered a masterpiece. It was even transferred
to the silver screen, with Jack Nicholson starring as R.P. McMurphy. I felt this was an
excellent book. It was humorous, but it also represented the great struggle of good
versus evil, and the worth of self-reliance, independence, and courage. One Flew
Over The Cuckoos Nest Themes
Little Words, Big Ideas

Madness
Although most of the characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest are considered
mentally ill, the plot of the novel suggests that theres a thin line between "normal"
and "abnormal."...

Freedom and Confinement

The novels protagonist chafes at being locked up in a mental institution, but most
of the patients are there voluntarily because they find freedom and safety in being
confined. The world is...

Manipulation
Nurse Ratched, the novels antagonist, maintains her power on the ward by
manipulating the mens fears and desires. She uses shame to keep them
submissive. She manipulates her staff thr...

Power
Nurse Ratched, the antagonist, is drunk with her power until McMurphy arrives and
upsets it. Much of her power lies in her ability to emasculate the male patients and
maintain a sexless faade...

Laws and Order

Nurse Ratched uses an extensive system of rules and regulations, as well as an
ordered routine, to keep the asylum patients under control. Many of the rules Nurse
Ratched has in place are petty; th...

Rebellion
McMurphys rebellion against the paltry rules that govern the ward throws
everybody into an uproar. Patients respond with warmth as they suddenly realize
theyve been dead all these yea...