Leadership In Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo

When should rebellion be used, and why should it be used? Why is it necessary to rebel against authority? When someone is in an authoritative position, it is very likely for them to be absorbed in their power, and thus, abusing it in a way that annoys their subordinates, at best. In other cases of abused power in history, people in powerful positions have exploited their power so that the people under their rule have been lied to, spied on, manipulated, and deprived of their most basic rights. Sometimes, a person in power can become so absorbed in their power that they fail to create a rational decision. When this happens, it is in the subordinates best interest, and arguably their duty, to speak up and show that they are against their leader’s decisions. In many cases in world literature, there are tons of authority figures, even if they are subtle instances of power; this may include, but is not limited to, parents, …show more content…
In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the nurse in charge of the psychiatric ward takes control of all the patients by the means of passive/aggressive leadership. When McMurphy was on the psychiatric ward, he and the patients weren’t allowed to watch the TV at the precise time Nurse Ratched, the nurse in charge, scheduled TV for. He then tries to get a vote going to see if he can get the patients to watch the World Series, but almost none of the ward patients were jumping at the chance to undermine her authority in fear of the punishments. Eventually, he gets enough people, but she did not change the time. In retaliation, his group of patients acts like they are enjoying the World Series, when in reality the screen is blank (Kesey 111-113). The way McMurphy rebelled against Nurse Ratched demonstrated that he is unhappy with the current ruleset and that he would like to see the situation