She comes up with the ward policies and laws, and imposes them on every single patient, until a protagonist, R.P McMurphy, enters the hospital. He tries to rebel against the abduction and power abuse of Nurse Ratched, and ends up being a victim of the Combine, paying for his deeds by his own life. Chief Bromedon describes the Big Nurse as a machine, who has no heart and no feelings for any patient in the ward; all she wants to do is to maintain her control and power. Any violence or rebellion is not tolerated by her at all, no matter what. “You are committed, you realize.. you are… under the jurisdiction of me… the staff” (127).
Why, friend, that’s most unlikely.” (Kesey, p.54,55) With this type of thinking throughout the novel, that the patients were misguided with what they lack in their lives. By Miss Ratched’s manipulation. When McMurphy comes in the ward with his bolstering personality and laugh, and it instantly breaks up the monotony of the ward.With the Novel progresses. Then McMurphy challenges the Big Nurse to break her down and get under her skin, give the patients their manhood back. Then the guys they need to go into the world since they are an only volunteer and not committed as he is.
Nurse Ratched is an ex army nurse who wants things her way and if they aren’t she will do whatever she can to get them to, her power is challenged by McMurphy when he arrives on the ward; she is used to dealing with and controlling very insecure and submissive men and isn’t used to someone of McMurphy’s character. It is amusing to see the banter fly back and forth between her and Mack, watching as he attempts to overthrow her regime and make her loose control, he achieves this on several occasions but sadly in the end her power overcomes his own; It is surmise able that she herself looses in the end due to the fact that most of her patients decide to leave, Chief Broom escapes and Billy Bibbit kills himself due to her directly threatening him to such a point that he takes his own life. Mrs Bibbit may well deserve to be in an institution similar to her son and it is perfectly obvious to many if not all that there is nothing wrong with Billy himself other than a perfectly acceptable stutter. His mother belittles him to such an extent that his mind does not work in the same way as an adult. Chief remembers seeing him in the past with his head laid in her lap in much the same way as an infant or
Miss Ratchet is the main antagonist in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. She is a power hungry tyrant that cold-heartedly runs the mental ward at the Salem, Oregon State Hospital. As the head administrative nurse, she exercises her power over the staff and the patients. She not only is controlling by telling others what to do, but she also enjoys punishing those that disobey or anger her. Nurse Ratchet takes pleasure in being feared by the patients.
McMurphy Vs. Nurse Ratched In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nestby Ken Kesey, the author explores a motif of power. The head of the ward, Nurse Ratched, holds a tyrannical rule over all of the patients. She has the authority and possesses the power to control the patients. She controls the patients through fear, the schedule of the ward,and medical technology. One of the patients, McMurphy, does not conform to the way Nurse Ratched is running the ward and decides to challenge her authority.
In part one of the novel, he explains that the ward is “for fixing up mistakes in the neighborhoods…” As much as this is correct, it is still a weird way to look at the mental hospital. Another part of the book that shows that the ward has molded their minds to thin differently and slowly become insane is when McMurphy challenges the other patients to stand up for themselves with Nurse Ratchet, after the first group meeting in part one. It explains that the patients are “Even scared to open up and laugh.” While he explains that the patients need to laugh more he says “When you lose your laugh you lose your footing.” This
Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest uses stylistic features such as characterisation, religious symbolism and narrative voice to explore the idea that ‘when systems are unjust people of conscience must act.’ One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is narrated by the main character Chief Bromden, a chronic in a very controlled, unjust, authority driven mental asylum. That is until Randall McMurphy a new admission enters the hospital ward causing havoc for the enforcers of the unjust system, standing up on behalf of the patients. Nurse Ratched ‘the big nurse’ and her ‘black boys’ who abuse their power creating an unequitable system. In One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey uses characterisation to depict the struggle of McMurphy against the unjust system of ‘the Combine.’ Nurse Ratched, the big nurse, is portrayed as a powerful mechanical being ‘big as a tractor’ with a large amount of power along with her ‘black boys’ who maintain the injustice of the system. Kesey uses Bromden’s narration to depict these characters as ‘humming hate and death’ further emphasising the lack of compassion in the hospital.
According to Mason Cooley, “What lies behind appearance is usually another appearance.” The concept Cooley is making with this statement is that the way a person appears to be is not who they truly are. People can be are wrongly perceived based on their appearance to others. The outside appearance does not reflect the true self. This concept Cooley develops can be seen throughout several works of literature and many different viewpoints. In the novel entitled, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the author Ken Kesey expresses how various characters are inaccurately perceived by others based on the image they portray rather than who they truly are.
The portrayal of nature in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, shows the contrasts of society as people strive to be perfect and fit in while also struggling to remain individualistic. The director, Milos Forman, uses various sounds to explain the oppressions of the ward while symbolizing the nature as freedom in the first party aftermath scene. He uses certain low shots combined with close ups to establish an order for which the viewer perceives certain characters, explaining the contrast between the leader against followers through power exchange. The use of mise-en-scene supports the difference between original behaviors versus forced behavior, regulations against free will. Through the use of nature sounds and machine sounds, low and high shot types and
“Conformity ensures an individual’s relationship with the institution… rebellion inevitably complicates it”. The enigmatic and elusive nature of the institution is designed to suppress individuality and encourage conformity, due to the inherent tension present between the inflexible institution and the individual. The harmonious or orderly functioning of society is dependent upon the cooperation of all the parts that seek to have certain needs and requirements met. This social contract entails the reduction in individual freedom in return for the provision of individual needs, such as security. Through an exploration of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest, Ken Kesey’s authorial intention give the responder an insight into the individual’s