One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: A Literary Analysis
In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, readers are thrust into the unknown and sometimes terrifying world of mental patients at a psych ward. In the novel, narrator Chief Bromden describes the events that happen in his day to day life after a new ward patient, Randle McMurphy, is admitted. Throughout most of the story, McMurphy constantly challenges the Big Nurse in charge of the ward, Nurse Ratched, and ridicules her futile attempts to force him to conform to the monotonous life shared by the other patients. Although McMurphy is able to change many of the patient’s lives for the better, Nurse Ratched ultimately wins by essentially turning him into a vegetable and regaining …show more content…
In particular, there is a logbook by the Nurses’ station in which the patients are able to tattle on their peers whenever someone says something that is inappropriate or disturbing. Many of the men will practically shove each other out of the way in order to get to the logbook first because the person who writes something down is rewarded and “gets to sleep late the next day” (36). Nurse Ratched says the book is “of therapeutic interest to the whole ward,” but she really uses the entries to ridicule the patients during the group therapy sessions. For example, the Big Nurse says that several patients wrote in the logbook that Mr. Harding said he felt inadequate in his relationship with his wife because she had large breasts and drew the attention of other men (58). Nurse Ratched continues to read all of the other embarrassing comments the patients wrote down about Mr. Harding in front of everyone, and then asks them to comment on Mr. Harding’s inadequacies. Nurse Ratched commands control over the men by dividing them and rewarding the people who snitch on their ward mates. Then, she uses the information derived from the logbook to mock the patients in front of everyone in the ward and crush their individuality and pride. This belittling of the patients inflates her status in the eyes of the men and she becomes more
In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, readers are thrust into the unknown and sometimes terrifying world of mental patients at a psych ward. In the novel, narrator Chief Bromden describes the events that happen in his day to day life after a new ward patient, Randle McMurphy, is admitted. Throughout most of the story, McMurphy constantly challenges the Big Nurse in charge of the ward, Nurse Ratched, and ridicules her futile attempts to force him to conform to the monotonous life shared by the other patients. Although McMurphy is able to change many of the patient’s lives for the better, Nurse Ratched ultimately wins by essentially turning him into a vegetable and regaining …show more content…
In particular, there is a logbook by the Nurses’ station in which the patients are able to tattle on their peers whenever someone says something that is inappropriate or disturbing. Many of the men will practically shove each other out of the way in order to get to the logbook first because the person who writes something down is rewarded and “gets to sleep late the next day” (36). Nurse Ratched says the book is “of therapeutic interest to the whole ward,” but she really uses the entries to ridicule the patients during the group therapy sessions. For example, the Big Nurse says that several patients wrote in the logbook that Mr. Harding said he felt inadequate in his relationship with his wife because she had large breasts and drew the attention of other men (58). Nurse Ratched continues to read all of the other embarrassing comments the patients wrote down about Mr. Harding in front of everyone, and then asks them to comment on Mr. Harding’s inadequacies. Nurse Ratched commands control over the men by dividing them and rewarding the people who snitch on their ward mates. Then, she uses the information derived from the logbook to mock the patients in front of everyone in the ward and crush their individuality and pride. This belittling of the patients inflates her status in the eyes of the men and she becomes more