McMurphy Watches As The Big Nurse example essay topic

The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey was published in 1962 and was a best seller of its time. The novel was important for its time because of its anti-establishment message. The United States government at the time was involved in a struggle and the American people were concerned over the threat of nuclear war. The theme of the novel is the individual versus society.

I will prove using text from the novel and other critical works that the politics and rules of the hospital mimic that of society. The setting of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the main ward of a mental institution, and the year is somewhere in the late nineteen-fifties, early nineteen-sixties. The point of view is first person with Chief Bromden narrating. Chief Bromden is a Native American who pretends to be deaf and dumb not because he wants to but because people have ignored him for so long it just comes naturally. The themes of the novel are: the individual against society, sanity and insanity, and sacrifice. The story starts with Chief Bromden cleaning the halls when a new patient named Randle Patrick McMurphy arrives.

McMurphy has successfully convinced the penal system into thinking he is crazy and sending him somewhere more comfortable than the Work Farm. Immediately upon his arrival, McMurphy notices that Big Nurse Miss Ratched is dehumanizing the other patients and tries to help them. Although in the end, McMurphy pays for his friends' freedom with his own life, he liberates the other patients and "takes down" the Big Nurse through rebellion and lack of conformity. The hospital mirrors society in that it runs like a government. There is an oppressor and the oppressed. In the hospital, the oppressor is Miss Ratched, and the oppressed are the patients and staff.

Everyone has to do what the Big Nurse says or suffer the consequences. "In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the oppressive power of the mass society is evident in its setting-a mental ward dominated by the tyrannical Miss Ratched, the big nurse, whom Chief Bromden, the schizophrenic narrator, describes in mechanical metaphors" (Reilly 1776) The Big Nurse tries to make the hospital just like society so that the patients will learn to live together in peace, but instead she rules over them dehumanizing and quelling any hint of self-awareness. This has gone on without interruption until McMurphy shows up. "Into this world where men are either reduced to animals or turned into automatons, there enters a rough-and-tumble, logging and gambling man, whose relative freedom and invulnerability, his male wildness and woodsy common sense and humor, all convince [Chief Bromden]-it is pathetic as much comic-that this one must be 'controlled by some anti-combine. ' " (Sassoon 211) McMurphy comes in and starts causing trouble after the first group therapy session. McMurphy watches as the Big Nurse gets the other patients to yell accusations at Harding, one of the smartest patients in the ward.

After the session, McMurphy asks Harding why he put up with the pecking party. Harding asks him to explain " 'The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to peckin' at it, see, till they rip the chicken to shreds, blood and bones and feathers. But usually a couple of the flock gets spotted in the fracas, then it's their turn. And a few more gets spots and gets pecked to death and more and more. ' " (Kesey 55) The analogy does not work for Harding and tells McMurphy that the patients are rabbits and the Big Nurse is a wolf. Even on the outside this would be true, every one would be rabbits even McMurphy because he had to work for someone.

McMurphy's only rival is the Big Nurse, "His rival and enemy is 'Big Nurse,' a tyrannical, sadistic woman whose authority over the ward is almost total". (Sassoon 211) The politics of the ward seem to be totalitarian, in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, or in this case Big Nurse and her ward and opposing political and cultural expression, like watching the world series, is suppressed. The rules of the ward are supposed to be for the benefit of the patients, but the Big Nurse uses them to enforce her will on the patients, and while all the patients can see what is going on only McMurphy does anything about it. In the novel, McMurphy does things to make the Big Nurse or the establishment angry, intending to seize their power. His first step is taken on his second day there, by singing early on a bright morning. He is wearing only a towel over boxer shorts.

The Big Nurse thinks that he is inappropriately dressed, when one of the aids brings him a uniform. "McMurphy just looks confused, like he don't know how to take the outfit the black boy's handing to him, what with one hand holding the toothbrush and the other hand holding up the towel. He finally winks at the nurse and shrugs and unwraps the towel, drapes it over her shoulder like she was a wooden rack". (Kesey 89-90) This makes the so angry that she has been made fun of she can't control herself for the moment and almost goes crazy herself but she calms down and manages to save face after all.

He does little things to make the nurse angry but above all he does it in a non threatening way so as not to get sent to the Disturbed ward where they have the Shock Shop, and the operating table for Lobotomies. McMurphy's early methods of revolt mirror those of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., by using non-violent direct action to make people aware of civil rights issues. At first he does little things like requesting things from the nurse, questioning hospital policy, and getting the patients to vote on different subjects like opening a new quiet room for card games. When he realizes that he is committed and could be in the hospital longer than his original sentence, he stops taking an interest in the lives of the other patients, and focuses on his own interests. Another of his arguments was watching the televised World Series during the day, which required switching TV time. The Big Nurse recommended putting the issue to a vote and he was defeated.

Even though he explained the situation to the other patients, only twenty of the forty understood and were capable of raising their hands to vote. He then gets to Chief Bromden and his hand goes up. Although that would have been a majority vote in favor of watching the games, the Big Nurse said the voting was over. When game time came around and McMurphy stopped doing his cleaning, pulled up a chair and turned on the TV, the Big Nurse got angry and turned off the cable to the TV. Even then, McMurphy sat there watching the blank screen. The other patients stopped and sat down and watched the blank TV with McMurphy, and continued this every day that week.

When the Big Nurse later decided that they needed to be punished for their disregard for authority, she locked up the quiet room in which they played cards, thus giving McMurphy another reason to rebel. "We must take away a privilege... This was to be her final victory over him, supposed to establish her rule once and for all... He stopped in front of her window and he said in his slowest deepest drawl how he figured he could use one of them smokes he bought this mornin', then ran his hand through the glass... ' I'm sure sorry, ma " am,' he said. 'Gawd but I am.

That window glass was so spick and span I com-plete ly forgot it was there. ' " (Kesey 171-2) The same window was broken twice more after that incident. Once when he put his hand through it, right after it was fixed and again when one of the other patients threw a basketball through it. McMurphy then started doing more drastic things in his efforts to affect the Big Nurse. His next effort starts when asking for accompanied leave with a girl from Portland.

The Big Nurse does not allow it. He then decides to plan a fishing trip. He even names two aunts as his supervisors. He has a problem getting volunteers though, because the Big Nurse posts articles about rough water and boats sinking and people drowning, so that patients take their names off the list and McMurphy has to coerce them into going. The early morning of the fishing trip he talks to Chief Bromden who has been pretending to be deaf and dumb so he can listen to conversations. He talks about the past and becomes friends with McMurphy and The Chief signs on to participate free of charge whereas the other participants paid ten dollars for attendance.

It had been arranged that two women friends would come with two cars, but when the time comes, only one woman arrives with one car and there is no way of transporting all twelve attending patients. McMurphy then accidentally reveals that he is keeping some of the money for himself, and to save face he convinces the doctor to come along so they can use his car. McMurphy has successfully liberated some of the patients and they are on their way. On the way, they stop to get gas, but the station attendants try to swindle the doctor. At this time, McMurphy jumps out of the car, stands up to the attendant, and tells him that they are transferring the mental hospital's most dangerous patients. He convinces the attendant to give them a discount, and they resume their journey.

Once they arrive at the dock, the owner of the rented boat refuses their agreement unless they have papers relieving him of any responsibility for the patients. Overcoming all of these obstacles, they finally get on the boat and have a great time. They feel free at last, but eventually they have to return. McMurphy even arranges a future date for one of the other patients with the girl that provided transportation. As revenge, the Big Nurse devises a new plan for McMurphy and the other patients.

By using a chart showing their financial accounts, she tries to get the patients to think twice about trusting McMurphy. The chart shows that their balances have been reduced, while McMurphy's balance has increased. She brings this up in group therapy and McMurphy jokes that he's been taking them for all they " re worth and he and the other patients joke and kid good naturedly. Incensed, the Big Nurse then holds a meeting excluding McMurphy and then all the patients begin to agree with her. Although at first Chief Bromden does not agree he feels that McMurphy does some things without profit, but after McMurphy swindles the other patients and his friends by betting a sure thing involving Chief makes him change his mind.

After this, the Chief is a little angry with his friend but still comes to the rescue in the shower when McMurphy is fighting the aides. When this happens, both McMurphy and the Chief are unfortunately sent to the Disturbed ward for shock therapy. The novel has clear political overtones in that it represents a microcosm of society. "Kesey's metaphors are clear.

The Combine, the macrocosm, and the hospital ward, the microcosm, are the twentieth century world gone berserk with power; it uses the miracles of modern science not to free people and make their lives better but rather to compel them to conform. It is the mass society that will not tolerate individuality and that will fold, spindle, or mutilate any person who fails to conform". (Reilly 1776) The Big Nurse and staff rule over the patients, and the patients consign to submissive roles. The Chief outlines the problems in the outside world in his flashbacks. He flashes back to the war, to his childhood, his father drinking because of the government trying to take his land. "If the reader is really sensitive to the specific language of the book, he will see how Kesey uses its subtle changes to signal changes in the Chief's state of mind.

The fogged-in scenes are characterized by confusion and some description of the grossness of the asylum's inmates and black help. As Chief Bromden recovers his powers of perception, including his sad past and the scenes of white racism and war which has produced his state of alienation, the sentence structure and word choice change markedly. So also the emphasis on McMurphy's outward grossness shifts in the Chief's eyes to an apprehension of what he is suffering inwardly, to his deeds of kindness to the men, his complicated and puzzling deals, and his final decision to protect another man though he know it means his doom. The chief sees beyond McMurphy's outward geniality to the marks of anguish on his secret face". (Sutherland 222) Chief Bromden had the unfortunate luck of being a Native American when the US government oppressed them and seized their lands. The scene in the hospital is no different for him.

The tyrant is still taking something away that belongs to him, whether it is his land or his humanity. Through McMurphy, he recaptures his humanity and self-awareness. He once again realizes his six-foot-six inch self in the mirror and is finally able to break free from his hospital imprisonment, but only after helping free McMurphy... Unfortunately, McMurphy's freedom comes when Chief Bromden kills him. In the end, we learn that Chief Bromden is going to visit his old land that he has heard his people are building on top of the government's damn. In doing so, they have reclaimed what is theirs, just as McMurphy helped the Chief reclaim what is his - his own life.

"In Kesey's world, an individual may indeed be damned either way when he or she encounters the overwhelming forces of the mass society, but through accepting responsibility and acting one can still win an important victory. McMurphy's death is not futile, because he has saved his soul by losing it to a higher cause". (Reilly 1777) The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest has been a successful novel, been made into two plays and a very successful film. At a time of constant accusations and uncertainty, Ken Kesey's novel hit the heart of readers everywhere. The novel stood for individuality, freedom, and liberty and satirized the establishment. His portrayal of the mental hospital, his decision to make the narrator a schizophrenic Native American who has been so dehumanized all his life that he pretends to be deaf and mute for his own survival, and hallucinates whenever the time is right, is indicative of the isolation felt by the common man.

Kesey's choices for most of the characters came from his own experiences while working in a mental hospital. The novel had an adverse effect on society when it was read. Some people saw its merits and teach it in schools, others have written papers on certain subjects trying to explain the novel. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest was published at the height of the public's ardent fear of communism and nuclear war. Its apparent lighthearted style enabled a serious look at the society that we supported. By representing society through the microcosm of a mental hospital, Kesey made it easier for people to accept and understand the injustices within our own society".

[McMurphy] did not save or even change the entire world, but he did save and change a part of it: The other patients are no longer cowed and intimidated by Nurse Ratched, and several of them voluntarily check out of the hospital... There is, then, a slight but significant victory". (Reilly 1777).