Capitalism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Theodore Roosevelt, a past president of the United States, once declared, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing." In Gloria Naylor’s groundbreaking novel Linden Hills, a character named Braithwaite observes and records the day to day life of what occurs in Linden Hills all without acting to benefit the community. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story The Great Gatsby, the image of a character, called Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, watches over the Valley of Ashes -- a society that suffers from the negative effects of capitalism. Lastly, in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the character Chief Bromden witnesses the events in the mental asylum without partaking in them until …show more content…
T.J. Eckleburg, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, is the most mysterious. He does not even talk. Eckleburg is not even an actual physical character in Fitzgerald’s novel. Although the reader never has the chance to meet the doctor, Eckleburg’s huge billboard observes the world in his absence. Eckleburg’s ginormous eyes, that hide behind the huge spectacles, glare down onto the dirty, polluted, eyesore that is an inevitable effect of capitalism in this novel -- The Valley of Ashes. During a call from his hysterical friend, a character named Michaelis is notified that Myrtle, his wife, had been cheating and that she had also been hit and killed by a car. While standing there, after running out to see the aftermath of his wife’s demise, Michaelis notices that Eckleburg on the billboard had seen Myrtle’s death play out, “Standing behind him Michaelis saw with a shock that he was looking at the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg which had just emerged pale and enormous from the dissolving night.” (170). Eckleburg’s billboard had watched the whole catastrophe as it occurred. Eckleburg’s eyes can be interpreted in two different ways: this billboard is placed in the depths of capitalism’s ugly fallout, so do the eyes pertain to those of God? Or do they represent the eyes of a capitalistically overwhelmed society? As a result of combining these two ideas of representation, the personification is God as a poster child …show more content…
Unlike any other character that was previously mentioned, Bromden eventually overcomes the obstacle of observing without acting. Everyone in the ward thinks that Bromden is deaf and dumb, but really, he just does not like to talk and participate; he is scared, “I creep along the wall quiet as dust in my canvas shoes, but they got special sensitive equipment that detects my fear...” (4). Bound to a mental asylum, Bromden sees how patients can be taken advantage of. He sees the inequality between the staff and the ill. Even though he is physically able and easily the biggest human in the room, Bromden chooses not to act upon any of the injustice that goes on around him. Although he starts off very introverted, as time passes and through the introduction of one of the ward’s newest and most outgoing patients, Randall McMurphy, Bromden starts to come out of his shell. For Bromden, McMurphy serves as an example of what it looks like to go against the system with nonviolence. This gives Bromden the ability to build his own confidence and speak up for what he believes in. Unfortunately, towards the end of the novel, because of McMurphy’s questioning of the ward policies, he is given a lobotomy. This action shows Bromden how corrupt the asylum is; if one tries to speak out against the system, the punishment is, in this case, a forced lobotomy. After the nurses