Hallucinations In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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American Literature 1 H Effects of War on the Individuals In the novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, the main characters of the story, as well as their personalities were affected by the war. After going to war and coming out of it, the characters’ changed. It affected their attitudes and how they interacted with one another. Nurse Ratched, who was an army nurse, had a desire for power and wanted complete control over the ward, which caused her to have this constant urge of being confident and controlling of all of the patients. Chief Bromden was in WWII, and had constant fear of everything around him, from his hallucinations that caused his paranoia, to pretending to be “dumb and deaf” to be caged inside the ward.…show more content…
They were having trouble interacting with others because of how badly war affected them. They were all affected differently, and their personalities were affected. They were isolated from society because of the war affects, for example, Chief Bromden pretended to be caged in and have a lack of communication, as well as him being “dumb & deaf” showed how he was isolated from society. The hallucinations of the fog showed how he was isolated because the fog was used as a safe place for him. McMurphy was portrayed as a heroic individual that sacrificed themselves for others. He, in the end, set the patients free during a long battle with the head Nurse. Nurse Ratched, who was a former Army nurse, was isolated because she always wanted a constant desire of control over everybody in the ward. She stayed inside her Nurse’s station, and always wanted to have power over all the patients, which caused the affect of war upon her. She wanted to be the head of everything, and no one was to be stricter than her. The author Ken Kesey wrote this book to portray how one of the main characters in the book, Nurse Ratched, is controlling of everyone around her, even though she’s a woman. During this time period, women weren’t mostly in charge, compared to men, so by her representing the “combine” she showed that women do have the power to be in control. All three characters in this book were affected differently, they all show how the common theme was involved, the affects of war on the
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