Patient Control in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

1030 Words3 Pages

The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey is about the power structure of a mental ward from the perspective of a patient, Bromden. The story takes place during the 1950's in Oregon. Many of the patients on the ward are not necessarily insane however do not fit in with pre established societal norms and have chosen a life away from these norms. The men who are voluntary have given in to the staff and follow them like sheep, however, the men who are committed need controlling according to society so they were sent to the ward. The head nurse, Nurse Rached, of the ward keeps control using her staff that has been picked out over years of meticulous selection. The staff under Rached's orders keep control of the patients with cruel act such as forced labor, intimidation and separation.

Forced labor is very prolific throughout the story and is the hospitals first line of defense in keeping patients under control. From the beginning of the story the aides on the ward force the patients to preform menial labor tasks to all of the acutes and some of the more mobile chronics. The aides are first shown as the people who do this in the opening scene of the novel when Bromden wakes up, “Stick a mop in my hand and motion to the spot they aim for me to clean today, and I go,”(9). Bromden is ordered around by, what was at the time, the lowest rung of society (all of the aides are black) even though he huge, at 6'8”.The forced labor is put upon the patients typically in the afternoon when they would be most active. This policy of forced labor is endorsed by Nurse Rached as shown when McMurphy first arrives when addressing one of the aides, “you may need a month of bedpans ...to refresh your appreciation of just how little ...

... middle of paper ...

...lence and having a cold yet happy looking smile allow the nurses at least to make patients say things that the y normally would not say. The power Rached wields in these situations allows her to control the patients toward issues she want to talk about.

Nurse Rached has a multitude of techniques that she and her staff use to control patients. They use labor to keep them busy , medical treatments as threats and separation to calm down patients. The way the patients were treated in the novel would never be allowed in modern times. Additionally the idea of a power structure dominated by one very powerful women is still very uncommon, however in modern times Rached would probably be a doctor with multiple residents helping her. The power structure in this book is very complicated however the staff is in complete control just like the equivalent people in modern society.

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Individualism In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1791 Words  | 4 Pages

    The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey tells a story of Nurse Ratched, the head nurse of a mental institution, and the way her patients respond to her harsh treatment. The story is told from the perspective of a large, Native-American patient named Bromden; he immediately introduces Randle McMurphy, a recently admitted patient, who is disturbed by the controlling and abusive way Ratched runs her ward. Through these feelings, McMurphy makes it his goal to undermine Ratched’s authority, while convincing the other patients to do the same. McMurphy becomes a symbol of rebellion through talking behind Ratched’s back, illegally playing cards, calling for votes, and leaving the ward for a fishing trip. His shenanigans cause his identity to be completely stolen through a lobotomy that puts him in a vegetative state. Bromden sees McMurphy in this condition and decides that the patients need to remember him as a symbol of individuality, not as a husk of a man destroyed by the

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...and they have no choice, but to follow it or else they can be put into the “Combine” as Bromden sees it. Near the end of the novel “she turned and walked into the Nurses’ Station and closed the door behind her”. When the nurse “walked” away, it shows how she no longer cares and Bromden will then start having a sense of feeling that he should do something because she just let Billy kill himself. The moment when Nurse Ratched “close[s] the door” is a sign for Bromden to gather his courage and help everyone to get out of this ward.

    Read More

  • Motifs and Images in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

    848 Words  | 2 Pages

    While McMurphy is being punished, the rest of the men slowly start to leave the ward. Laughing at Miss Ratched’s shocked face, the men had their wives come pick them up, or they just up and checked out one day. The Big Nurse, using what little power she had left, issued a lobotomy to McMurphy. With McMurphy unable to laugh anymore and eyes that used to be full of life and energy now drained, Bromden does his hero a last favor- he suffocates him and escapes the ward that same night. McMurphy’s own energy depleted as he distributed it to all the patients. He tried his hardest not to show it, and he fought until the very end to keep from showing his exhaustion, but the fact of the matter was that the patients took his energy, unbeknownst to them, and bettered themselves, allowing them to be free of the combine and escape Miss Ratched’s control.

    Read More

  • AP Lit Final

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the dysfunctions and struggles of life for the patients in a matriarch ruled mental hospital. As told by a schizophrenic Native American named Chief Bromden, the novel focuses primarily on Randle McMurphy, a boisterous new patient introduced into the ward, and his constant war with the Big Nurse Ratched, the emasculating authoritarian ruler of the ward. Constricted by the austere ward policy and the callous Big Nurse, the patients are intimidated into passivity. Feeling less like patients and more like inmates of a prison, the men surrender themselves to a life of submissiveness-- until McMurphy arrives. With his defiant, fearless and humorous presence, he instills a certain sense of rebellion within all of the other patients. Before long, McMurphy has the majority of the Acutes on the ward following him and looking to him as though he is a hero. His reputation quickly escalates into something Christ-like as he challenges the nurse repeatedly, showing the other men through his battle and his humor that one must never be afraid to go against an authority that favors conformity and efficiency over individual people and their needs. McMurphy’s ruthless behavior and seemingly unwavering will to protest ward policy and exhaust Nurse Ratched’s placidity not only serves to inspire other characters in the novel, but also brings the Kesey’s central theme into focus: the struggle of the individual against the manipulation of authoritarian conformists. The asylum itself is but a microcosm of society in 1950’s America, therefore the patients represent the individuals within a conformist nation and the Big Nurse is a symbol of the authority and the force of the Combine she represents--all...

    Read More

  • Nurse Ratched Power

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ken Kesey’s novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, he engages the reader with Nurse Ratched’s obsession with power, especially against McMurphy. When Nurse Ratched faces multiple altercations with McMurphy, she believes that her significant power is in jeopardy. This commences a battle for power in the ward between these characters. One assumes that the Nurses’ meticulous tendency in the ward is for the benefit of the patients. However, this is simply not the case. The manipulative nurse is unfamiliar with losing control of the ward. Moreover, she is rabid when it comes to sharing her power with anyone, especially McMurphy. Nurse Ratched is overly ambitious when it comes to being in charge, leaving the reader with a poor impression of

    Read More

  • Did Mcmurphy Change In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    925 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, patients live locked up in a restricted domain, everyday taking orders from the dictator, Nurse Ratched. Once McMurphy enters this asylum, he starts to rally everyone up and acting like this hospital is a competitive game between him and Nurse Ratched. McMurphy promotes negative behavior, such as, gambling and going against the rules, to mess around with the nurses and so he can be the leader that everyone looks up to. McMurphy soon learns that he might not be in control after all. Nurse Ratched decides who will be let out and when. After realizing why no one has stood up to Nurse Ratched before, he starts to follow rules and obey the nurses. This changes the whole mood of the hospital,

    Read More

  • Cuckoo's Nest Fear

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the characters are in a mental hospital for various reasons. Narrated by Chief Bromden, a large Native American man, the story tells mainly of a newcomer to the hospital, Randle McMurphy, who is not actually mentally ill, but pretends to be to escape work detail. A much-feared middle-aged woman named Mildred Ratched runs the hospital. She runs the hospital like a concentration camp, with harsh rules, little change, and almost no medical oversight. The “prisoners” have a large amount of fear of Nurse Ratched, as she rules the place like she is a soulless dictator, the patients get no say in any decision made. This is exemplified when McMurphy brings up the World Series, and the patients take a vote on it. Though everyone wants to watch it, they have so much fear for Nurse Ratched that they are too afraid to speak out against her wishes.

    Read More

  • Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

    1643 Words  | 4 Pages

    I hated Nurse Ratched before and I sure do now. Her sneaky little schemes to turn the patients on each other make’s me furious. I’m glad McMurphy broke down the window; it’ll remind the patients that her power is limited and changeable. Although, she made McMurphy stronger than ever, even with the countless electroshock treatments. Proving his desire to remain strong in the face of tyranny. “And he'd swell up, aware that every one of those faces on Disturbed had turned toward him and was waiting, and he'd tell the nurse he regretted that he had but one life to give for his country and she could kiss his rosy red ass before he'd give up the goddam ship. Yeh!” (Kesey, 187) I agree to some extent, that without her there wouldn’t be a book, she makes the book exciting even if her methods are all but pure. Her character stands as a symbol of the oppression woman received during that time and in a way, the society in which these characters live are flipped. While on the outside woman have no rights, in the ward they are the all mighty, all knowing, powerful, controllable force. So yah, we need Nurse Ratched but I still hate her. During the course of the short novel she destroyed three men, two of which died and the other was lobotomised. “What worries me, Billy," she said - I could hear the change in her voice - "is how your mother is going to take this.” (Kesey, 231) I can’t say I enjoyed Nurse Ratched being strangled by McMurphy, but I do think she deserved it. Although, it was the end to the battle since the Nurse had won the war. By infuriating McMurphy to that point and her ability to remain calm throughout it all, she proved that McMurphy’s action didn’t faze her. She proved that rebelling is feeblish and by lobot...

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader has the experience to understand what it was like to live in an insane asylum during the 1960’s. Kesey shows the reader the world within the asylum of Portland Oregon and all the relationships and social standings that happen within it. The three major characters’ groups, Nurse Ratched, the Black Boys, and McMurphy show how their level of power effects how they are treated in the asylum. Nurse Ratched is the head of the ward and controls everything that goes on in it, as she has the highest authority in the ward and sabotages the patients with her daily rules and rituals. These rituals include her servants, the Black Boys, doing anything she tells them to do with the patients.

    Read More

  • What Patients Taught Me Book Review

    2036 Words  | 5 Pages

    The title of the book that I have chosen to review is called What Patients Taught Me: A Medical Student’s Journey, the title related to the topic on hand which is about medical rotations in faraway locations that are uncivilized and even remote. The book was published in 2009, and this is significant because it can be relatable to those that are entering the medical field and want a novel that shows the experience and what they have to do for them to become medical professionals. The company Sasquatch Books, which is in Seattle, Washington where she ended up becoming a professor at the University of Washington.

    Read More

  • The Power of Manipulation

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nurse Ratched gains much of her power through the manipulation of the patients on the

    Read More

  • Examples Of Power In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1357 Words  | 3 Pages

    She determines when they take their medication and even tells them when they are able to bathe. Nurse Ratched takes control by taking away a man’s masculinity and making them feel small when they are there. She tells the patients that they aren’t real men and she treats them like they are children. The article “Fixing Men: Castration, Impotence, and Masculinity is Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” by Michael Meloy states, “Nurse Ratched—a sterile, distant, and oppressive feminine force who psychologically castrates the male patients” (3). Nurse Ratched is able to dominate every man in the ward because they are all afraid she will shame them and break them down in front of the other men on the ward and take away their character. Meloy proves this by explaining, “That to castrate a male is to take away the very essence of his being, or his ‘spirit’” (4). The men on the ward are afraid of what she might do or say to them if they go against

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Nurse Ratched

    1870 Words  | 4 Pages

    Nurse Ratched represents the dictatorial dehumanization, emasculation, and mechanization of society or, in Chief Bromden’s words, the “Combine”. The narrator, Chief Bromden, states that nurse Ratched comes into the ward with tools such as “wheels and gears, cogs polished to a hard glitter, tiny pills that gleam like porcelain, needles, forceps, watchmaker 's pliers, rolls of copper wire…” (P.4) with the intention of adjusting and fixing what society thinks is broken. Nurse Ratched’s name, similar to the tool ratchet, suggests that she is an “instrument of control” that is used to “ensure motion in one direction only” (Foley p.36). Through abuse (psychological and physical) and drugs, Nurse Ratched creates a mechanical or robotic feeling to

    Read More

  • How Does Power Abuse Power In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1615 Words  | 4 Pages

    If the patients saw that Ms. Ratched could get angry, and that she was hiding her personality, they would realize that they are not rabbits after all, and that she is not a “good strong wolf”, as they previously believed. When patient R.P McMurphy, the hospital patient that tries to remove all of Ms. Ratched’s power, arrives on the hospital ward, he makes no effort to hide his personality, and the patients begin to recognize how Ms. Ratched hides her personality, in the novel, Chief Bromden says, “He stands looking at us, back in his boots, and he laughs and laughs. In the novel, Ms. Ratched just removed the tub room, which was used as a game room, from the patients, this angered McMurphy, so he decided to do something subtle to get revenge on Ms. Ratched. In the novel, it says, “The Big Nurse’s eyes swelled out as he got close. . .

    Read More

  • Examples Of Malpractice In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    She controlled every movement and every person’s actions and thoughts. She made the doctors so miserable when they did not follow her instructions, that they begged to be transferred out if. “I'm disappointed in you. Even if one hadn't read his history all one should need to do is pay attention to his behavior on the ward to realize how absurd the suggestion is. This man is not only very very sick, but I believe he is definitely a Potential Assaultive” (). This quote from the book illustrated how Nurse Ratched controlled her ward. She manipulated people into siding with her regardless of whether it was the right decision. This was malpractice by Nurse Ratched because she did not allow the doctor, who was trained to diagnose patients, to do his job properly. Instead, she manipulated the doctor to diagnose the patients incorrectly in order to benefit her interests rather than those of the

    Read More

More about Patient Control in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Open Document