Through McMurphy’s attempt to lift the control panel in the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey, the author, demonstrates the importance of perseverance and trying even when there is no chance of success to inspire the other patients in the ward to take risks. During his attempt to lift the control panel, McMurphy realizes that the control panel is too heavy for him to lift, but he continues to give it all his effort even though he knows he will fail. Even though McMurphy knows he will not achieve his goal, he still tries because he is brave enough to. He understands that he will not be able to achieve anything unless he takes a chance to achieve the impossible. In the novel, the entire ward wants changes to be instilled in the hospital, but the ward is too afraid to try. …show more content…
They live under the absolute dominance of Nurse Ratched.
Due to Nurse Ratched’s complete dominance and perfunctory routine, the patients exhibit inhumane behaviors and act like animals who get “sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to peckin’ at it... till they rip the chicken to shreds’ (Kesey 57). However, McMurphy’s decision attempt to lift the control panel gives the other patients in the ward the courage to attempt the impossible. In the novel, McMurphy wants other patients to participate in a vote that will allow them access to the tv to watch the World Series. When he demands a revote from Nurse Ratched, the McMurphy is able to help the patients stand up for themselves by going “into the fog... dragging them blinking into the open” (Kesey 140). By trying to lift the control panel even when he knows he cannot, McMurphy inspires the other patients in the ward to take risks. He is also able to connect the patients back to their humanity and courage, which allows them to recognize that they deserve proper treatment in order to get better. McMurphy shows the patients that they have the power to fight and make their own
choices. His attempt to lift the control panel allows the patients to see that trying even when failure is inevitable is just as valuable as succeeding, teaching them that nothing is achieved unless an attempt is first made. During the vote, many of the patients raise their hands. One of the patients that raises his hand is the Chief. “”. Even though the Chief prefers to remain invisible in the ward, his action of raising his hand signifies his emergence back to reality. He draws inspiration from McMurphy and tries to stand up for the patients and himself. Despite his desire to remain hidden, the Chief takes a risk and almost reveals his secret of not being mute or deaf. McMurphy is able to show the Chief that he has the power to decide for himself and that his voice matters. The Chief takes a chance, which enables him to help himself. Shown through McMurphy’s action in the tub room, the Chief is able to realize that importance of trying even when failure is inevitable, allowing him to access the courage to raise his hand. Shown through McMurphy’s endeavor to lift the control panel despite its enormous weight, Kesey is able to illustrate the significance of attempting to achieve the impossible to inspire the other patients in the ward to try to do the same.
The author Ken Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and went to Stanford University. He volunteered to be used for an experiment in the hospital because he would get paid. In the book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Kesey brings up the past memories to show how Bromden is trying to be more confident by using those thoughts to make him be himself. He uses Bromden’s hallucinations, Nurse Ratched’s authority, and symbolism to reveal how he’s weak, but he builds up more courage after each memory.
He continued to show the patients that the nurses were not in power in fact had little power over him. Inspired patients occurred once again he had inspired them with is lack of surrender to the wards system. With this situation in play this brought up McMurphy picking the needs of patients to motivate his own plan of
From the moment McMurphy enters the ward it is clear to all that he is different and hard to control. He’s seen as a figure the rest of the patients can look up to and he raises their hopes in taking back power from the big nurse. The other patients identify McMurphy as a leader when he first stands up to the nurse at her group therapy, saying that she has manipulated them all to become “a bunch of chickens at a pecking party”(Kesey 55). He tells the patients that they do not have to listen to Nurse Ratched and he confronts her tactics and motives. The patients see him as a leader at this point, but McMurphy does not see the need for him to be leading alone. McMurphy is a strong willed and opinionated man, so when he arrives at the ward he fails to comprehend why the men live in fear, until Harding explains it to him by
In the control panel scene, McMurphy bets with the other men that he can lift the control panel even though it is too heavy for him. He is teaching Chief and the other inmates that even if you think you can't do something, you have to try. If you try and you fail that will be okay, but if you never try, you don't know what you can do. The other men and Chief have never tried to rebel against Nurse Ratched and the institution. They have watched others fail so they are afraid to try; but they are different. If they try, they might be able to defeat Nurse Ratched. They do not know about their own abilities. They lack the self-confidence and courage to do it for themselves. So McMurphy shows them how to try. "But I tried, though,' he says. Goddammit, I sure as hell did that much, now, didn't I?"(111)
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.
They both realize that in order to get their own way, they must gain control over their rival and the ward. McMurphy and Nurse Ratched have different methods of attaining and using what control they have. They have different motives for seeking control over others. They also have different perceptions of the amount of control they possess. Throughout the novel, these two characters engulf themselves in an epic struggle for the most control.
McMurphy is an individual who is challenging and rebelling against the system's rules and practices. He eventually teaches this practice of rebellion to the other patients who begin to realize that their lives are being controlled unfairly by the mental institution. When McMurphy first arrives at the institution, all of the other patients are afraid to express their thoughts to the Big Nurse. They are afraid to exercise their thoughts freely, and they believe that the Big Nurse will punish them if they question her authority. One patient, Harding, says, "All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees...We need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place" (Kesey 62).
character who wants to take Nurse Ratched’s power. Both characters aim for power over the ward’s patients, but it is McMurphy's strategy that wins a hold of the patients.
Reading Log for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” The novel is written from the perspective of a mental patient, Big Chief Bromden, who observes and comments about the daily activities of the hospital where he is a chronic patient. Through his interpretations, the reader experiences his surroundings and experiences. One of the key elements that he conveys early on is that he is pretending to be deaf and is able to hear everything spoken around him.
When McMurphy returns from getting his second dose of electroshock therapy and a lobotomy, as punishment for his attempt to strangle Nurse Ratched to death, he is barely human. Two doctors tuck him into bed because he is too weak to do it himself. The arrangement has beaten Randall McMurphy at the game of life. He lies like a vegetable in bed, unaware to the outside world. He is not able to rebel against the doctors. He cannot lead the patients in a rebellion. Chief Bromden sees that McMurphy’s future has been stolen, along with his manhood, and suffocates him to death with a pillow. McMurphy lies dead in bed. In dying this way, his recollection is sealed among his fellow patients. He can die as a sort of martyr for the men in the little microcosm of a world inside the hospital walls. In one sense, McMurphy was crazy. It was optimistic and crazy to think that he could change such a system.
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.
Fred Wright, Lauren's instructor for EN 132 (Life, Language, Literature), comments, "English 132 is an introduction to English studies, in which students learn about various areas in the discipline from linguistics to the study of popular culture. For the literature and literary criticism section of the course, students read a canonical work of literature and what scholars have said about the work over the years. This year, students read One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, a classic of American literature which dates from the 1960s counterculture. Popularized in a film version starring Jack Nicholson, which the class also watched in order to discuss film studies and adaptation, the novel became notable for its sympathetic portrayal of the mentally ill. For an essay about the novel, students were asked to choose a critical approach (such as feminist, formalist, psychological, and so forth) and interpret the novel using that approach, while also considering how their interpretation fit into the ongoing scholarly dialogue about the work. Lauren chose the challenge of applying a Marxist approach to One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Not only did she learn about critical approaches and how to apply one to a text, she wrote an excellent essay, which will help other readers understand the text better. In fact, if John Clark Pratt or another editor ever want to update the 1996 Viking Critical Library edition of the novel, then he or she might want to include Lauren's essay in the next edition!"
In this, individual’s regain self-confidence, and in turn inspires others to pursue the same. With Mcmurphy’s unwavering confidence and belief, the impossible seemed achievable, and gave hope to the other patients. Consequently, this phenomena inspired the rest of the patients to band together, and act out against injustice- regardless of the discomfort this imposed upon them. In doing all, an individual is able to evoke self confidence and overcome personal obstacles, just as Chief did. As the novel highlights, life will not always be lawful. Despite the convenience of conformity, individuals must muster up the courage to face the unjust, in order to restore any sense of self-esteem and save the vulnerable. Many humans are frail and cowardly, but with the guidance of a committed leader, even the most grim obstacles can be
One of the main themes discussed in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kasey was freedom. Even though the characters in the novel are in a mental institution, they still want to have rights and a feeling of independence for themselves which they are not getting. When patients receive electroshock therapy or are sent off to seclusion for misbehaving and not following the rules, they feel as if they are not being treated fairly. One example would be how the Chief is treated when he is being shaven, “I don't fight or make any noise. If you yell it's just tougher on you. I hold back the yelling. I hold back till they get to my temples. I'm not sure it's one of those substitute machines and not a shaver till it gets to my temples; then I can't hold back. It's not a will-power thing any more when they get to my temples […] My sound soaks up all other sound” (7). The chief feels as if he has no control over the situation and is forced to hold back his emotions in order to please those around him which shows how freedom was being taken away from the patients.
There were no heroes on the psychiatric ward until McMurphy's arrival. McMurphy gave the patients courage to stand against a truncated concept of masculinity, such as Nurse Ratched. For example, Harding states, "No ones ever dared to come out and say it before, but there is not a man among us that does not think it. That doesn't feel just as you do about her, and the whole business feels it somewhere down deep in his sacred little soul." McMurphy did not only understand his friends/patients, but understood the enemy who portrayed evil, spite, and hatred. McMurphy is the only one who can stand against the Big Nurse's oppressive supreme power. Chief explains this by stating, "To beat her you don't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as sson as you loose once, she's won for good. And eventually we all got to lose. Nobody can help that." McMuprhy's struggle for hte patient's free will is a disruption to Nurse Ratched's social order. Though she holds down her guard she yet is incapable of controlling what McMurphy is incontrollable of , such as his friends well being, to the order of Nurse Ratched and the Combine.