The wrench is a useful tool used for a variety of different tasks, like tightening nuts and bolts. Without it, nuts and bolts everywhere would be falling out of place, and people everywhere would go “nuts” trying to reassemble desks and reattach the tires onto their cars. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, people do in fact “go nuts,” and wrenches are indeed used, but not in the exact same ways. Randle McMurphy, the main character of this novel, frequently causes mishap in the insane asylum he lives in, causing him to go “nuts”; he constantly messes with its orderly and mechanical schedule. In other words, in Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Mr. McMurphy is the wrench in the machine that is the mental hospital.
Growing …show more content…
The ward is run by Nurse Ratched, a mean and manipulative woman who does whatever it takes to keep her hospital running consistently and smoothly every day. By the time McMurphy arrives, Bromden has this routine memorized. In fact, he knows the exact time of a fellow patient’s daily confession of how he used to watch his sister take a bath (Kesey 33). This mechanical schedule gives Nurse Ratched a sense of order and control in the ward; it keeps her engine purring. To aid her in running the ward, Ratched hires staff who she knows will follow her instructions (Kesey 27, 28, 29). The staff in the institution control the hospital while Ratched is not around; they are parts of the machine that function without the operator in control. For example, her trio of assistants: Warren, Washington, and Williams, submiss to her every word and follow her orders precisely even though they hate her just as much as the patients do. They push this resentment onto the patients and force them to comply to the Ratched’s orders, therefore running the machine just the way she wants it (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” 6). For example, after some of the patients in the ward go on a deep-sea fishing trip, Nurse Ratched orders the trio to disinfect the men by spraying them down with salve. They proceed to take advantage of the naked men, telling them to do ridiculous tasks for their own entertainment (Kesey 258). Nurse Ratched does not care about this harsh treatment, for it makes the patients comply to her rules and makes the machine-like environment run smoothly. However, this machine does not run so smoothly after McMurphy
Growing …show more content…
The ward is run by Nurse Ratched, a mean and manipulative woman who does whatever it takes to keep her hospital running consistently and smoothly every day. By the time McMurphy arrives, Bromden has this routine memorized. In fact, he knows the exact time of a fellow patient’s daily confession of how he used to watch his sister take a bath (Kesey 33). This mechanical schedule gives Nurse Ratched a sense of order and control in the ward; it keeps her engine purring. To aid her in running the ward, Ratched hires staff who she knows will follow her instructions (Kesey 27, 28, 29). The staff in the institution control the hospital while Ratched is not around; they are parts of the machine that function without the operator in control. For example, her trio of assistants: Warren, Washington, and Williams, submiss to her every word and follow her orders precisely even though they hate her just as much as the patients do. They push this resentment onto the patients and force them to comply to the Ratched’s orders, therefore running the machine just the way she wants it (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” 6). For example, after some of the patients in the ward go on a deep-sea fishing trip, Nurse Ratched orders the trio to disinfect the men by spraying them down with salve. They proceed to take advantage of the naked men, telling them to do ridiculous tasks for their own entertainment (Kesey 258). Nurse Ratched does not care about this harsh treatment, for it makes the patients comply to her rules and makes the machine-like environment run smoothly. However, this machine does not run so smoothly after McMurphy