Though I believe this power quest is best shown through Nurse Ratchet’s power over the patients in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Ken Kesey begins his novel by showing the protagonist Randle McMurphy arriving at an Oregon mental institution in a police car, this shows that McMurphy is already suppressed and most likely not enjoying it. McMurphy was sentenced to the mental institution after getting in trouble with the law and at the prison. While at the institution McMurphy is monitored by nurses both male and female. The head nurse, Nurse Ratchet, is the main antagonist and the person most interested in attaining power.
She replied, “No. I don’t agree. Not at all.’ She smiles around at all of them. ‘I don’t agree that he should be sent to Disturbed, which would simply be an easy way of passing our problem on to another ward, …’ She waits but nobody is about to disagree” (Kessey 156-157). This would be exemplary use of bandwagon by Ken Kessey, as the doctors chose to say what they thought was in acquiescence (4) with Nurse Ratched’s best interest.
He comes into the asylum and starts stirring up trouble with the head nurse, Nurse Ratched. Mac, as he is commonly called, then begins to try and bring some of the outside world in, be it through playing basketball or watching the world series. He also takes the other patients on grand adventures, be it on a boat or at the party in the ward. He begins to grow a bit attached to the patients, and when one of them takes his own life after an incident in the ward, Mac snaps and becomes violent. He attempts to kill Nurse Ratched and is taken away and lobotomized.
Underneath the Insanity “What goes beyond is what you see beyond what you know”, a famous quote by American author and journalist Earnest Hemingway delineates the hidden aspects of the novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. This novel takes place in the mind of a disturbed and paranoid Native American known as Chief Bromden who resides in a mental hospital along with several other characters. He is a giant man physically but a weak and coward person mentally. Bromden undergoes a path towards sanity throughout the novel. The almighty power in charge of these patients is known as Nurse Ratched who is the oppressive and strict figure who represents modern day society.
These symptoms were chosen since they were similar to existential symptoms. In addition to falsifying symptoms, their names, vocation, and employment were fake.All other information about their personal life and history remained the same. Once admitted, the pseudopatients would cease their act and function they would normally. In the hospital they interacted with staff and patients alike. The psuedopatients wrote about their interactions and observations of the staff and other patients.
Later in the film Andy takes a young prisoner named Tommy under his wing and finds that Tommy’s old inmate was the real murderer. Andy explains it all to the Warden and he finds it to be a very thrilling fictional story that Tommy cultivated to entertain Andy. Andy had a secretive plan up his sleeve to save him from all those years of misery and gets revenge on the Warden for being such a hypocrite and “obtuse”. As we watch this
He is what we call a ‘manipulator’, Miss Flinn, a man who will use everyone and everything to his own ends” (Kesey 29). Ratched implants in Flinn’s mind that McMurphy is a man that is not to be trusted, and despite his charm and good looks, he will ruin the running of the institution, which Nurse Ratched is desperate to avoid. She influences this Nurse so that she will not have any sympathy for McMurphy and that Ratched’s orders and
In the novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey, a ward of a mental hospital and its inhabitants create an attractive metaphor for the controlling nature of American culture. Throughout the novel, the story of Randal McMurphy, conveyed through symbolism, a new patient in the ward as he battles against the head of the ward- Nurse Ratched. As the fight between these two powerful forces ensues, it becomes more than just a classic case of rebelling against authority. Kesey’s story invites the reader to consider just how vague, or previously vague, the line is that separates and treatment from tyrannical control. Symbolizing a valiant struggle between free will and conformity, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is a powerful, electrifying, and important piece of American literature.
Manipulated easily by Iago, that he wrongly considers as his friend, he falls into all the traps set by Iago and finally kills his wife and himself while McMurphy sees at the first glance how the Big Nurse got the power and manipulates the patients and the hospital staff as shows this sentence of McMurphy, just after his first meeting:” Is this the usual pro-cedure for these Group Therapy shindings? Bunch of chickens at a peckin' party?”. We can conclude that Othello is pretty naive and tends to trust the wrong people when McMurphy is smart and as good as the Big Nurse to manipulate people. But we can add that Iago is also more discret and smarter than the Big Nurse, who is clearly the ennemy, which makes him more difficult to detect. This point is
Similarly to Rosalynn, the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, tells the story of an ordinary mental hospital patient, Randall McMurphy, who, through great leadership and persuasion, gives the patients the support to stand up to Nurse Ratched, who was the most feared doctor by all of the patients. Because of McMurphy’s strong leadership, the patients have the courage and support to fight for their freedom and individuality that Nurse Ratched took away from them. When McMurphy walks into the hospital day room, he clearly displays individuality because while everyone is standing in the corners, he makes sure to go up to everyone and introduce himself. “Hello buddy, what do they call you? My name’s McMurphy…”(18).