Examples Of Allusions In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” Winnie the Pooh once said. In the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the men that live in the Oregon Mental Institution do not hear words like these very often. They have been rejected from society because they are not classified to meet the “social norm”. These “outcast” hide away behind the white walls of the ward, protecting themselves from the world around them. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, author Ken Kesey uses religious allusions to depict that society rejects people that do not fit the ideal social “norm”, but when someone can prove himself powerful enough to stand up for his beliefs men easily follow.
In the beginning of the book, Ken Kesey creates a conception of

the ward, to outsiders seems beneficial to the patients inside; in reality what happens behind the walls of the Oregon Institution hinders the patient's mental healing.

When first admitted into the ward, the new admission is taken to the shower, sometimes forcibly, where three black aides wait to take his temperature. Chief Bromden sees almost every new patient come in the ward, he watches the aides as they go, “... in th[e] shower room with the Admission....” and they, “turn all the showers up to where you can’t hear anything but the vicious hiss of water on the green tile.” (10) The actions by the aides are indirectly referred as statutory rape and strange interpretation of their “baptism” into the ward. Each new patient must be cleansed before they are given their “greens” and allowed to interact with other patients. But afterwards the new admissions are left trembling from the psychotic harm they received and terrified of the power the staff holds. Each day the men are required to line up and take their various medications to heal them. The men, “...file by and get a capsule in a paper cup—throw it to the back of the throat and get the cup filled with water by the little nurse and wash the capsule down.” (22) This event is symbolic because it is similar to “communion”, forcing the men to

take their pills and wash it down with water, which is healing them and “washing away their sins”. Every day the patients are brought into a group therapy meeting led by Nurse Ratched and Dr. Spivey which allows the patients to discuss their feelings and past mistakes with their peers. The doctor urges the patients to, “Talk, he says, discuss, confess.” (31) This time is treated as the men’s “confession”, as done in the catholic church, where they confess their sins to the staff or “higher power”. “Confession” in the ward is used to emasculate the men. Through all these techniques the men are suppressed and believe that they cannot leave the ward because they are not psychologically ready to handle the outside world.
Throughout the middle of the book, Mack begins to be followed by many of the other patients because he is powerful and isn’t afraid to stand up for his beliefs, his “Christ Like” traits become much more apparent during this time. Mack and Harding, another patient on the ward, have been in a argument about the Nurse. Harding believes that the Nurse’s power should be respected, but Mack disagrees claiming that she has cut their balls off during her “pecking party”. Finally, Harding agrees with Mack and replies, “No one’s ever dared come out and say it before, but there’s not a man among us that doesn’t think it, that doesn’t feel just as you do about her and the whole business—feel it somewhere down deep in his scared little soul.” (37) Harding speaks for all the men when he says this, they all have been deceived by the Nurse’s power and true aspirations for the men and Mack is correct and the first to stand for them. Mack and Chief are roommates in the ward, Mack found Chief’s gum collection under his bed, so when they were sitting waiting at the Disturbed, Mack offered Chief gum. For the first time Chief responses, “And before I realized what I was doing, I told him Thank you.” (122) Mack has broke through to Chief, causing the deaf and dumb Indian to speak, after no one else has in almost ten years, just like Jesus healed a blind man. Mack later decides to take the men on a fishing trip, twelve get to go, for the first time the men actually bonded and did something on their own. After just about everything could go wrong on the boat, McMurphy began to laugh, “...[he was] surrounded by his dozen people, and watch[es] them, us, swinging a laughter that rang out on the water in ever-widening circles, farther and farther, until it crashed up on beaches all over the coast, on beaches all over all coasts, in wave after wave after wave.” (140) This was Mack’s first miracle, just like Jesus, he made the men laugh, not a fake, pretend laugh, a laugh that made their bellies hurt. He made the men actually for the first time in a long time feel good about themselves. He made them feel free. Mack continues throughout the rest of the book to stand up and be a leader for the men, just like Christ
Towards the end of the book, Mack shows his success of being “Christ Like” and giving everything up for his men, teaching them they are free. After the men’s last night together, full of fun, drinking cough syrup and partying. The next morning the Nurse and Staff came into the mess of the ward, the Nurse went to find Billy, a young patient on the ward, she found him naked in the room with a stripper. Afterwards, Nurse threaten to tell his mother so he slit his throat, the Nurse was furious about his suicide and blamed it on Mack, telling him, “First Charles Cheswick and now William Bibbit! ... Playing with human lives—gambling with human lives—as if you thought yourself to be a God!” (175) For the first time Mack had the pressure of realizing how much his leadership impacted all the men of the ward. He finally understood how far his power had gone throughout his time on the ward, he was the leader, like Christ, with his followers, or disciples. After the long party night and Mack attacking Nurse, he was sent off for treatment, when he arrived back he was a vegetable. Chief couldn’t stand the idea of Nurse using his as an example for future patients so he, “Then [he] rolled off. [He] lifted the pillow, and in the moonlight [he] saw the expression hadn’t changed from the blank, dead-end look the least bit, even under suffocation.” Scanlon asks Chief, “Is it finished?” (177) Chief realized that Mack would forever be stuck in ward unable to do anything, under the Nurse’s control, never free. So Chief decided it was only fair to release Mack, by suffocating him, that way he could be at peace, just like the descend to heaven in the Bible. But they major thing Mack taught the men was believe in yourself and flying free. After Chief kills Mack, he goes to the control panel and as Mack and him had practiced, he picked it up and, “I put my back toward the screen, then spun and let the momentum carry the panel through the Screen and window with a ripping crash. The glass splashed out in the moon, like a bright cold water baptizing the sleeping earth.” (178) For the first time Chief was free, just like in the Bible after Jesus goes to heaven everyone is free of their sins, in the book after Mack dies Chief is free. Finally free of the ward, free to do just as he pleases. Throughout the end of the book Mack proves his “Christ Like” power and shows how his compassion and leadership impacted the men of the ward.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard a person may try, when someone has been rejected from society it is very difficult to make their way back into the world. But when the right person comes along and stands up for what he believes, a man down in the dumps will be willing to follow; and then slowly gain the confidence to stop hiding behind the white walls of a psychiatric ward. This is what Mack did for the men of Nurse Ratched’s ward, he saved them from believing they were not strong enough, smart enough, or brave enough to take on society.