FREE ESSAY ON ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS'S NEST- INSANITY OR NONCONFORMITY?

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOOS'S NEST- INSANITY OR NONCONFORMITY?

INSANITY OR NON-CONFORMITY?
Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a novel, which depicts the lives of the
classified, mentally insane in a struggle against the authority of a hospital ward. Over
the course of the novel, the hospital ward turns into a place of rebellion while the
wise-guy hero, tries to reform the institution while dignifying the people within.
The story is told in the first person point of view by Chief Bromden a huge patient who
is sharing his mental hospital experience. He is a disturbed man who has fooled all of
the other patients and the staff into believing that he is deaf and can't speak. He
thinks of the hospital as a place of fear, rather than of a place of healing. This partly
has to due with the head of the hospital ward, Nurse Ratched; a woman who believes in
order at all times. She is viewed as the hospitals most powerful person, in turn, the
least liked by the patients. In order to escape the Nurse, Chief Bromden thinks back to
his childhood in an Indian village, but this also evokes the Combine force, which sends
his mind into a deep fog.
Early on in the story Kesey, introduces the character Randolph McMurphy, a newly admitted
patient. He is a boisterous man with much self-confidence and a very friendly
personality. He claims that he's only at the hospital to enjoy an easier life compared to
the life he was living at a state farm. McMurphy quickly familiarizes himself with the
people surrounding him and tells stories to all of the patients. His humorous personality
enlightens the patients and the ward in general. However, Nurse Ratched doesn't like this
change because she feels McMurphy is a manipulator. Her controlling personality clashes
with his easy going personality and as expected she tries to enforce rules, while he is
ready to rebel against them. Nurse Ratched has dealt with people similar to McMurphy by
punishing them with electro-shock therapy or with lobotomies. Both are to degrade the
"offender", the latter of the two makes the patients feel inferior to society on account
of their sexuality.
McMurphy is greatly disturbed by the Nurse's antics. He is dissatisfied by the way she
treats the patients at the daily Group Meetings. She decrees the patients self esteem so
greatly that she furthers them all into a state of depression. McMurphy decides that he's
going to take a stand and he bets Harding, a patient who is intelligent, but is ashamed
of his effeminacy, that he can make the Nurse loose control of the ward without getting
in trouble. 
During his fight against the ward, McMurphy entertains the patients with his skirmishes
with the Nurse. They all appear to be on his side, until an issue concerning watching the
World Series on the television arises. McMurphy takes a stand, but only one man stands by
his side, Cheswick. In order for the patients to watch the baseball game they would vote
on it at the next Group Meeting. McMurphy needed one more vote to secure the game, so he
turned to Chief Bromden, who was in a deep fog. McMurphy's personality forced the Chief
back to reality. However, McMurphy still wasn't allowed to watch the game. Yet, he raised
the spirits of the patients and he became somewhat of a hero to them. 
Soon, McMurphy comes to the realization that the only way he was going to get out of the
ward is if Nurse Ratched releases him. Thus, he begins to obey the rules set forth by the
Nurse. He also learns that the majority of the patients were sent voluntarily to the
ward. This inspires him to destroy the fear that has entrapped the patients. McMurphy
begins by planning a fishing trip that was successful and proved to the Nurse that these
insane people were really capable of more than she gave them credit for.
McMurphy is suspicious of Chief Bromden's deaf and dumb act and finally breaks through to
him. The Chief describes to him the Combine, which consists of people like the Nurse, the
government, and his mother. Generally anybody that destroyed tradition, nature, and
freedom. After this talk that ended the years of silence, McMurphy makes a deal with
Chief Bromden. If he grows strong enough to break the Nurse's control panel; McMurphy
will let him go on the fishing trip for free.
McMurphy at this point has helped nearly all of the patients by bringing them back to a
more natural state of being. However, he has worn himself down and seems as though he is
worst off than when he originally came into the ward. After getting in trouble with Chief
Bromden for sticking up for a man who was mistreated, they both had to undergo shock
treatments. Once they returned, the patient's were attempting to plan an escape for
McMurphy, but he wouldn't leave until Billy Bibbit had a date. By the time, that this
happens, McMurphy is too worn down to escape from the Nurse. The Nurse has continued her
relentless attack on the unstable and makes Billy feel extremely guilty and this leads to
Billy's suicide. McMurphy is now completely disgusted with Nurse Ratched and attacks her.
She is so completely humiliated that she could never regain control of the ward. Thus,
she orders a lobotomy on McMurphy and he returns a ruined man.
The setting of the hospital ward in Oregon is a microcosm of the world outside. The
mental ward follows the expected cruelty, which has always existed in mental hospitals.
This is seen through Nurse Hatched's use of mental and physical abuse used to punish
those who misbehaved. This ward is seen as a microcosm because outside Indian villages
were being burned and conformity of homes and families were being formed. Like the
hospital ward, any action against this conformity or abuse on the less fortunate is
simply regarded as insane and never occurs. This is known as the workings of the Combine.
These comparisons of both worlds provokes a feeling of helplessness because the reader
relates to the outside society, yet it is so closely paralleled to the victims of the
ward that it becomes a common and relatable issue. 
Throughout the novel there are many themes presented that put great closure to the book.
One of which is that people will always live their lives differently, yet some people are
so set down and stubborn with their ways that they perceive others as being wrong. Kesey
portrays this through Nurse Ratched and McMurphy. McMurphy is a man who is often
portrayed as the frontier hero. He is his own man and is a true non-conformist. While
Nurse Ratched represents order and obsessive control during all circumstances. 
Sexuality is a prominent issue among the characters of the ward as well. Nurse Hatched
uses this issue to manipulate the patients, most notably Harding and Billy. They are both
partly in the hospital because of their sexual shortcomings. Nurse Hatched denies the
sexuality of her patients and even herself. This inferiority to the rest of society does
not help in the betterment of the patients. The characters have already been reduced to
such incompetent people by the Combine, Nurse Hatched, and especially society that the
fear and vulnerability that lies within these characters is what makes them victims of
society.
One of the most powerful themes which runs through this novel is that of laughter.
McMurphy is such a strong man partly because of the way he can laugh off mistakes, the
world, and most importantly himself. In the opening of the novel, McMurphy walked into a
world where nobody could laugh, but with his help and example he broke through the
patients' insanity barriers and got them all back to laughing. The level of a character's
ability of laughter can be related to their level of insanity. McMurphy's personality was
a shining beacon on the faces of the patients. His attitude inspired other patients and
gave them the strength that they needed to face the reality of their lives. 
In Conclusion, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is an incredibly inspiring
novel that at face value tells the story of a hospital ward, but in thematic terms
portrays society's way of dealing with the undesirable, no
Bibliography
barron's booknotes