In the 1960s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the lives of psychiatric ward members are changed forever when introduced to Randall McMurphy. While he claims to be insane, what separates him from the others are the means of comitance; Randall pleaded insanity to avoid a difficult jail sentence while the others more or less committed themselves. His confidence is a never before seen attribute in the ward and inspires the other ward members to break out of their comfort zone to not only speak up for themselves against the controlling head Nurse but to embrace their masculinity and take power of their own lives. In Ken Kesey’s fiction novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, patients in a psychiatric ward are under the cruel regiment of Nurse
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The fishing trip was a taste of freedom for the guys as they had not left the confines of the ward in years. However, leading up to the trip, “the Big Nurse had the rest scared with her stories of how rough the sea’d been… and how many boats’d sunk” (227). McMurphy needed ten people to sign up for it to be allowed and the nurse pulled tricks (scare tactics) to dissuade the boys from going. Despite the trip having ten people, everything about the trip went wrong from them not having a second car, one stripper not showing, and not having the proper license to rent a boat. However, the awkwardness of the trip did not keep the boys from growing as “they could sense the change that most of [them] were only suspecting: these weren’t the same bunch of weak knees from a nuthouse” (235). Being able to leave the ward and accomplish something of their own instilled confidence and capability within the boys. The next big assertion of territory was when McMurphy broke the window where the Nurse observed them from, not only literally breaking the window, but figuratively evening the disparities between the two and bringing the Nurse closer to the patient. As McMurphy punched the glass, it “came apart like water splashing and the nurse...was left sitting there with her face shifting and jerking” (201). The glass breaking like water shows the strength …show more content…
Despite the gain in confidence Billy had developed through his progress with women, all is reversed as soon as the Nurse threatens to tell his mother. This is highlighted when Billy is discovered with a woman and unabashedly introduces her with a “good morning, Miss Ratched...This is Candy” (313). This is monumental as this is the first sentence uttered with a stutter less ease, signaling the peak of his confidence. This progress, however, is completely lost as Nurse Ratched issues her threat shown by his quick fear and reversion back to stuttering: “Duh-duh-don’t t-tell, M-M-M-Miss Ratched” (315). He once again becomes a “poor miserable, misunderstood boy” under the clutches of his mother and the Nurse who uncoincidentally, are good friends (318). As McMurphy is blamed for the suicide, McMurphy is sent to receive a lobotomy and essentially loses all that was to him, prompting Chief Bromden to act. McMurphy’s eyes were described as “open and undreaming, glazed from being open so long without blinking until they were like smudged fuses in a fuse box” (322). The simile comparing his eyes to smudged fuses relays the continuity of the technology inside of them and how the inner workings of his personality had been smothered. Seeing the lack of life in his eyes drove Chief Bromden to
The fishing trip was a taste of freedom for the guys as they had not left the confines of the ward in years. However, leading up to the trip, “the Big Nurse had the rest scared with her stories of how rough the sea’d been… and how many boats’d sunk” (227). McMurphy needed ten people to sign up for it to be allowed and the nurse pulled tricks (scare tactics) to dissuade the boys from going. Despite the trip having ten people, everything about the trip went wrong from them not having a second car, one stripper not showing, and not having the proper license to rent a boat. However, the awkwardness of the trip did not keep the boys from growing as “they could sense the change that most of [them] were only suspecting: these weren’t the same bunch of weak knees from a nuthouse” (235). Being able to leave the ward and accomplish something of their own instilled confidence and capability within the boys. The next big assertion of territory was when McMurphy broke the window where the Nurse observed them from, not only literally breaking the window, but figuratively evening the disparities between the two and bringing the Nurse closer to the patient. As McMurphy punched the glass, it “came apart like water splashing and the nurse...was left sitting there with her face shifting and jerking” (201). The glass breaking like water shows the strength …show more content…
Despite the gain in confidence Billy had developed through his progress with women, all is reversed as soon as the Nurse threatens to tell his mother. This is highlighted when Billy is discovered with a woman and unabashedly introduces her with a “good morning, Miss Ratched...This is Candy” (313). This is monumental as this is the first sentence uttered with a stutter less ease, signaling the peak of his confidence. This progress, however, is completely lost as Nurse Ratched issues her threat shown by his quick fear and reversion back to stuttering: “Duh-duh-don’t t-tell, M-M-M-Miss Ratched” (315). He once again becomes a “poor miserable, misunderstood boy” under the clutches of his mother and the Nurse who uncoincidentally, are good friends (318). As McMurphy is blamed for the suicide, McMurphy is sent to receive a lobotomy and essentially loses all that was to him, prompting Chief Bromden to act. McMurphy’s eyes were described as “open and undreaming, glazed from being open so long without blinking until they were like smudged fuses in a fuse box” (322). The simile comparing his eyes to smudged fuses relays the continuity of the technology inside of them and how the inner workings of his personality had been smothered. Seeing the lack of life in his eyes drove Chief Bromden to