The 1960’s witnessed a sprawling reformation in American society through its treatment of minorities. In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the author illuminates societies unfair treatment of the mentally ill. Through the perspective of a long time patient, Chief Bromden, the reader becomes a witness to the cruel treatment from the wards controller, Nurse Ratched. Chief Bromden’s meticulous description of each day illustrates the degrading and mechanical power of the ward’s authority as well as the vicious monotony that exploits the patients’ illness or assumption of one.
Nurse Ratched employs cold-hearted tactics in order to ensure her reign and force each patient into submission. Right as a new patient is introduced to …show more content…
Everyday the patients line up at “Eight O’clock [as] the walls whir and hum into full swing. The speaker on the ceiling says, “medications” (34). The patients immediately are pushed into a mental haze for optimum obedience and no motivation for dispute. The ward is able to carry on problem free because patients are unable to think for themselves and act for themselves. The consistent fog that encapsulates each of them detracts from any real chance at rehabilitation and only furthers the ultimate control of Nurse Ratched. Furthermore, the patients are left sitting in palpable dreariness of the common room with constant anticipation of the pain that is to come. They sit meddling with each other and “when the key hits the lock all the heads come up like there’s strings on them” (10). Kensey illustrates the amount of anxiety that these patients bask in waiting for the aides or nurses. As the reader we can then infer that their constant worrying is completely detrimental to their health and only seems to further the actually power the ward has over them. Having lived the same day over and over again each patient slowly begins to drift from reality. They lose hope of actual treatment and they lose hope of escape from the forceful strains of the
Nurse Ratched employs cold-hearted tactics in order to ensure her reign and force each patient into submission. Right as a new patient is introduced to …show more content…
Everyday the patients line up at “Eight O’clock [as] the walls whir and hum into full swing. The speaker on the ceiling says, “medications” (34). The patients immediately are pushed into a mental haze for optimum obedience and no motivation for dispute. The ward is able to carry on problem free because patients are unable to think for themselves and act for themselves. The consistent fog that encapsulates each of them detracts from any real chance at rehabilitation and only furthers the ultimate control of Nurse Ratched. Furthermore, the patients are left sitting in palpable dreariness of the common room with constant anticipation of the pain that is to come. They sit meddling with each other and “when the key hits the lock all the heads come up like there’s strings on them” (10). Kensey illustrates the amount of anxiety that these patients bask in waiting for the aides or nurses. As the reader we can then infer that their constant worrying is completely detrimental to their health and only seems to further the actually power the ward has over them. Having lived the same day over and over again each patient slowly begins to drift from reality. They lose hope of actual treatment and they lose hope of escape from the forceful strains of the