| ’s Nest Essay, Research Paper
One Flew Over The Cuckoo?s Nest
In our study of this novel of rebellion, and protest. The ward in One
Flew Over the Cuckoo?s Nest is microcosism of a much larger world, where
power is too often misused and individuality is stifled for the sake of
conformity.By using Chief Bromden as the Narrator Kesey pulls the reader
right in to the middle of this by taking the only character that can shed light
on all of the dominant themes present in the novel. Which are Kesey?s views
on the feminist movement, civil rights, and the underlying idea of conformity.
All of these issues are exposed in the ?pool scene? in which the author, and
director are constrained to different parameters, and must use different
devices to convey the same message.
The dominant theme in this novel is that of conformity. In the novel
conformity is represented as a machine, or in Chief Bromden’s mind a
“combine” . To the Chief, the “combine’ depicts the conformist society of
America The Chief views the mental hospital as a big machine , which is run
by ? The Big Nurse? who controls everyone except McMurphy with ?wires?,
and a ?control panel?( which the Chief see quite clearly in his psychosis). In
the Chief?s eyes McMurphy was missed by the ?combine?, and the Chief and
the acutes were lured into it. Therefore McMurphy is an nonconformist and is
free from the ?wires? of ?The Big Nurse? and so he is a threat to the
?combine?. This is very clear in the ?pool scene?. This excerpt from the
book demonstrate?s R.P?s influence on the acutes to rebel, ?Now that
McMurphy was around to back them up, the guys started letting fly at
everything that had ever happened on the ward they didn?t like.?(158) In the
film you can actually see the acutes looking at McMurphy after they make
their arguments to nurse Ratched, and he backs them up in the book by asking
the doctor directly before the nurse had a chance to answer. This segment of
the novel unmistakably depics the notion of rebellion.
Another significant theme in Kesey’s novel is the role of women in
society, and how it contradicts the males. In keeping with the highly
contrasting forces of conformity verses creativity Kesey compares the male
role of impulsiveness, sexuality, and nature with the female role of
conformity, sexual repression and ultimately the psychological castration of
the male. Nurse Ratched was endowed with large breast which threatens her
power over the male patients by exposing herself sexually, and Kesey’s view
in the novel of male sexual dominance, hence she try’s to hide them the best
she can. Nurse Ratched gains her power through her sterility which in the
novel Chief descibes her face as appearing enamel. In the film she does this
with no makeup and white uniform.. ?The Big Nurse? takes the place of the
mother role or over domineering feminine role in a lot of the patients lives,
which led them to their psychological castration. This is obvious patient Billy
Bibbit a thirty one year old man whose mental problems were due to his over
domineering mother , who was friends with Nurse Ratched. The downfall of
Billy was toward the climax of the novel when “The Big Nurse” brought to
the surface Billy’s inability to stand up to his mother and her years of
psychological castration, and soon after, led his suicide.
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