One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Society

In modern times, one thing the members of society love to mention is how much it has progressed over the years, but has it really? Many aspects of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest point to a very distinct absence of progression. While society enjoys claiming to have progressed, readers are able to observe aspects of modern society within One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey comments on the aspects of modern society by allowing the reader to observe deprecation of choice, individual degradation, and personal silencing in order to shed light on society’s faults.
In theory, the idea of democracy is a fantastic one, a system where the people can decide for themselves what happens in their lives through voting is truly wonderful. However, a system works only as well as the person

running it.

In the novel, Nurse Ratched is depicted as the overlord of the ward, with each and every patient pressed firmly beneath the pad of her thumb. Under the rule of Nurse Ratched, living on the ward is “a dehumanizing, tedious pattern which is scientifically measured and automatically scheduled for maximum precision” (Vitkus 4). In Nurse Ratched’s ideal world, each and every person works to achieve maximum efficiency, or as Bromden described it, “efficiency locks the ward like a watchman’s clock” (Kesey 32). The doctor advocates for the democratic system being upheld in the ward by saying that change can be made through voting. Yet when each citizen is too scared to vote, no change is made. Nurse Ratched’s system is democratic in name only. Such a setup, deprives the patients of the freedom of choice. Thus allowing those in

authority to control the masses. While reading this, it is clear how horrid this way of life is for the patients, and one must be glad that society has progressed past this type of scenario. Unfortunately, this scene can be seen in modern society as well. One such example is the concept of an Electoral College. Recently, many people have begun to voice their dissatisfaction with the Electoral college, saying that while the population had voted for one candidate, the other won simply be securing more electoral votes. In both the novel and society, citizens are mislead into believing that they have the freedom to make their own choices.
According to modern psychologists, a person is labeled as insane when their behavior deviates from what is considered normal in society. In other words, those that fail to follow the fundamental rules of society are seen as insane. However, Ken Kesey begins to speculate on whether the rules of society serve any purpose whatsoever. Could it be that these so called rules are simply guidelines established by those in charge in order to keep those under them in line? It is clear to see that within the ward, Nurse Ratched is the obvious authoritarian leader, many of her rules seem to possess neither rhyme nor reason, thus leading “McMurphy [to] call her a ‘ball cutter’ and … The ‘wolf who has turned the men into castrated rabbits’” (Vitkus 7), such a comparison is a common quality of authoritarian figureheads, who enjoy to keep the masses directly under their thumb. For instance, when McMurphy needed an item as arbitrary as toothpaste, the nurse denies him his right to toothpaste stating, “it’s a [ward] policy” (Kesey 93) for the cabinet to remained locked until a predetermined time. Such a rule allows those in charge to degrade each member of the ward as an individual to the point where they cannot even complete a task as mundane as brushing their teeth without the aid of a nurse. When shown this example the majority of people would easily be able to point out the ridiculousness of such a rule, yet situations with elements similar to the aforementioned scenario are present within modern society. Within Norco, California, authorities have deemed it a criminal activity to engage in the act of growing flowers. To engage in said criminal act could be seen as a sign of insanity. Within both the novel and modern society, there are certain rules used to determine a person’s level of sanity, yet these rules exist only to keep the masses grouped up and under those that hold authority.