One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Essay

Critique of Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest tells a colorful but rather disturbing story through the lenses of Chief Bromden-a schizophrenic half Indian who pretends to be deaf and unintelligent-as he observes how McMurphy-a con man and a gambler charged with battery and assault who cheated himself out of a prison work farm through an insanity plea-manages to grant the patients freedom against the oppression of the head Nurse. On the surface One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a commentary concerning the institutional systems that are responsible for the mentally ill. However, as the book progresses it is evident that the ward in the mental asylum is metaphorical for society at large and the authoritative

nurse is symbolic for any form of societal coercion which must be opposed and ridiculed as represented by the light hearted and rather Christ-like figure of McMurphy.
To understand the novel’s theme of coercion and freedom as it relates to society’s nature one must understand how McMurphy frees each of the individual patients. One of the most significant characters McMurphy frees from the mental institution is the narrator Chief Bromden. The book begins with Chief Bromden being drugged and thrown into seclusion at the nurses’ orders. This serves to demonstrate the inhumane and cruel nature of the institution in general. Chief Bromden then mentions a few interesting details. He describes a fog created by a machine in the ward that is used to blind and confuse him. Later in the novel he describes it more in detail by stating that it is similar to the one they used in the Army. He states that he uses the fog like the act of being deaf and mute to become his “cagey” self as demonstrated by him saying “He keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get at” (Kensey 123). McMurphy is the first person to understand that Chief’s deafness is only a deceitful act thus enabling him to converse to Chief in a light hearted manner as a human being rather than a “dumb Indian” which is what most people in the institution think of chief.

As the novel progresses it is clear that there is most likely no fog created by the ward and that it is simply one of Chief Bromden’s many hallucinations to escape his fears. One night the Chief has one of his hallucinations and sees the ward turn into a mechanical object headed by the combines-the authority in charge of the mental asylum. The mechanization is utilized to illustrate the dehumanized nature of the institution and its patients. Furthermore, The Chief is also described as being gigantic in stature. However, when McMurphy speaks to him, Chief Bromden explains how he believes he is no longer strong and massive as he used to be. McMurphy then promises him that he will grow again if he follows his program. After McMurphey helps Chief Bromden assert his confidence he believes he has regained his strength. In one instance McMurphey is holding a vote to view the world series. Needing a majority of the votes, McMurphey drags Chief’s hands and the chief describes it as being pulled out of the fog thus demonstrating how McMurphey is helping him escape his mental prison.

Chief recounts many stories that have parallels to his own incarceration. Many of his stories are about how his father’s land had been taken by the government to build a dam. The land represents his father’s freedom and the government represents society’s coercion through belittlement of his father’s strength and through dehumanization of the Indian tribes in general. In another story he explains how while on a high school football trip, he and his team land in mill where a girl asks him to free her from her imprisoning job there. The Chief is only freed from the asylum when McMurphey mentally frees him from his shame and belittlement by giving him a voice to rebel against the nurse that tries to strip the patients of their humanity by mechanizing them with strict regimentation. McMurphey restored him as a human being by giving him value in a world that would have otherwise disparaged Chief as simply a “dumb indian”.
Another important character McMurphey frees is Billy Bibbit.

Billy Bibbit is presented as a thirty-year-old man who is under the control of his mother. He is extremely shy and cannot speak without stuttering. McMurphy attempts to restore Bibbit’s confidence and self worth by helping have his first sexual encounter with a prostitute. Billy however is caught by the nurse who shames him by telling him she will inform his mother. Billy becomes once again enslaved under the control of his mother and commits suicide. Therefore, this represents a method by which the nurse and society in general controls patients and it is shame. The nurse has group discussions with the group of patients in which she subtly allows all the group to attack and belittle a patient. Through belittlement the nurse dehumanizes the patient and forces them to conform to her controls and regimentation. Later in the novel the reader also learns that most of the patients are in the asylum voluntarily and that they could easily leave. However most stay due to their lack of self confidence in surviving in the real world. This is further illustrated by one of the patient’s description of themselves as weak rabbits subordinate to strong wolves. Moreover, as the novel progresses most of the patients that McMurphy interacts with are relatively normal and capable of functioning in the outside world however their dehumanization through belittlement makes them believe they are incapable of surviving outside the asylum

so the prefer to live in a false security under institutionalization. This is symbolic of how society coerces people through deprecation and in turn dehumanization which forces people to merely oblige to a tyrannical and demanding system. For example, Chief’s father is controlled by the government through feelings of weakness and hopelessness in maintaining his land.
McMurphey’s rebellious and rather joyful attitude elucidates to the patients that society’s hardships can always be overcome through laughter and adherence to one’s self worth and sense of humanity. McMurphey collectively frees the patients by proving to them that they have power no matter how little against the nurse’s authority which is metaphoric for societal coercion whether it be government, circumstance, a career, or figures of authority. He organizes a fishing trip against the nurse’s will and shows the group how it feels to be empowered outside the boundaries of the ward and the asylum. McMurphey’s empowerment however costs him his life as the nurse orders a lobotomy-for his hostile attack inflicted upon her when she blames Bibbit’s death on him-which leaves him in a vegetative state. Borden then kills McMurphey and frees him just as McMurphey had freed him earlier. McMurphey becomes a heroic and a redeeming Christ like figure to the patients inspiring most of them to restore their humanity and worth against society’s coercion-through reproach-to leave the ward after his death.
Superficially, it is simple a tale of a rebellious man who goes against the orders of a stringent nurse. Figuratively, the story symbolizes society’s tools to manipulate people through dehumanization by degradation, humiliation, regimentation, and hopelessness in an oiled up repressive machine or the combine as the chief contrives it. The story also emphasizes that the only way to be emancipated from such incarcerating control is to adhere to one’s self worth, sense of humanity and ability to oppose an otherwise unyielding system of control.