Nurse Ratched Analysis

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Kesey also creates irony in allowing the mentally ill to eventually take control from the mentally sound. The hospital ward is a microcosm for American society where a leading body dictates what is sane and attempts to control the rest of society. Nurse Ratched and her staff represent the government, while the patients are those who live under the rule of said government. Although the patients comply the rules they are subject to, some key details suggest that they could take back control for themselves should they want it. First, all of the Acutes, except for McMurphy and Scanlon, are voluntarily committed to the hospital. They could leave at any time they want and have could nullify and punishments they would receive by leaving. The patients …show more content…

Nurse Ratched is able to be the dominant figure in the hospital, overpowering the male Doctor Spivey. He has very little control over the hospital and he allows Big Nurse to be the sole leader despite his elevated occupation and gender according to historical trends. In consolidating her power she also prevents the patients from being manly and doing “men” things. Robert Forrey, a literary critic who wrote for the Purdue Research Foundation, states that Ratched did not allow the men to be reminded of their masculinity. They were not able to drink, gamble, whore, smoke, or watch the World Series. This allowed them to be subordinate because they did not recognize their potential to overtake Big Nurse and reverse the irony (317). Furthermore, Ratched also disguises her own femininity to achieve the same purpose. She disguises her feminine parts, such as her breasts and rear by her uniform so that the men will not be able to recognize her weakness in being female. After recognizing her femininity, Harding recognizes that Ratched’s weakness could be sex. McMurphy clarifies Harding’s realization, “Why, if you mean do I think I could get a bone up over that old buzzard, no, I don’t believe I could” (Kesey 66). Big Nurse wants to disguise her femininity and therefore the aspects which could reveal the ways in which she would lose her power. Forrey also acknowledges that when McMurphy rips Ratched’s uniform he is …show more content…

McMurphy and Big Nurse vie for power throughout the novel; Ratched tries to control the patients while McMurphy attempts to escape this same control. Sullivan states, “[McMurphy] teaches [the patients] to laugh and to revolt against Ratched’s tyranny” (16). They mostly have conflict over the patients. While Big Nurse wants to subordinate her patients, McMurphy wants to help them to be more independent and to escape authority so they can function on their own in society. This concept is portrayed through Kesey’s fog symbolism. Ratched’s control causes the patients to be lost in the fog, but McMurphy is able to pull them out. Bromden describes, “It’s like...that big red hand of McMurphy’s is reaching into the fog and dropping down and dragging the men up by their hands, dragging them blinking into the open” (Kesey 124). McMurphy helps the patients to realize their societal potential and that Ratched’s authority prevents them from returning to their normal lives. Although McMurphy helps all of the patients mature, he especially helps Bromden to metamorphose into a new

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