The Cross
Kesey’s usage of the cross in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest resembles the classical Roman definition of the cross as a symbol of humiliating execution, not in the literal sense of killing, but in that both the Romans and Kesey recognize the cross as a tool for establishing orthodoxy and achieving conformity.
Kesey’s comparison of the electroshock table to the cross demonstrates the cross as not a form of redemption, but of annihilating dissents to achieve total control. When Harding describes the electroshock therapy, he claims that “You are strapped to a table, shaped, ironically, like a cross … Zap! …(and) turn into a mindless organism …” (65). The patients’ avoidance and insurmountable fear toward the electroshock table demonstrate the shock therapy, represented by the table, is not for healing, but for controlling patients through fear and for converting patients into unthinking, subhuman creatures. Kesey points out that the table, similar to the Roman cross, treats any form of opposing self-expression as “hostile go-to-hell behavior”, and annihilates the dissents’ individuality to create conformity (65).
Further, Kesey’s emphasis of the cross on the birthmarked nurse’s neck indicates that Kesey perceives the cross as a reminder to follow the orthodoxy. Kesey demonstrates that …show more content…
When Bromden looks out the window at night and observes the moon, Bromden describes the face of the moon as “scarred and scuffed where it had just torn up out of the snarl of scrub oak…” (142). Comparing the face of the moon to McMurphy’s own seam that runs across the face, Kesey draws a parallel between the moon and McMurphy. Thus, Kesey portrays the moon as possessing masculine defiance and rebelliousness, just like how McMurphy’s own over-masculine identity disrupts the ward’s feminine-powered
Kesey’s usage of the cross in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest resembles the classical Roman definition of the cross as a symbol of humiliating execution, not in the literal sense of killing, but in that both the Romans and Kesey recognize the cross as a tool for establishing orthodoxy and achieving conformity.
Kesey’s comparison of the electroshock table to the cross demonstrates the cross as not a form of redemption, but of annihilating dissents to achieve total control. When Harding describes the electroshock therapy, he claims that “You are strapped to a table, shaped, ironically, like a cross … Zap! …(and) turn into a mindless organism …” (65). The patients’ avoidance and insurmountable fear toward the electroshock table demonstrate the shock therapy, represented by the table, is not for healing, but for controlling patients through fear and for converting patients into unthinking, subhuman creatures. Kesey points out that the table, similar to the Roman cross, treats any form of opposing self-expression as “hostile go-to-hell behavior”, and annihilates the dissents’ individuality to create conformity (65).
Further, Kesey’s emphasis of the cross on the birthmarked nurse’s neck indicates that Kesey perceives the cross as a reminder to follow the orthodoxy. Kesey demonstrates that …show more content…
When Bromden looks out the window at night and observes the moon, Bromden describes the face of the moon as “scarred and scuffed where it had just torn up out of the snarl of scrub oak…” (142). Comparing the face of the moon to McMurphy’s own seam that runs across the face, Kesey draws a parallel between the moon and McMurphy. Thus, Kesey portrays the moon as possessing masculine defiance and rebelliousness, just like how McMurphy’s own over-masculine identity disrupts the ward’s feminine-powered