One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Summary

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ by Ken Kessey is a narrative of Chief Bromden, a severe schizophrenic in a psychiatric hospital. Chief is a Native American man who has habituated at the asylum the longest out of all the patients. He feigns to be deaf and dumb to prevent drawing attention to himself. According to Chief, the hospital is a giant machine referred to as the ‘Combine’, which is used to force the patients to abide by the rules. The hospital is visibly divided into two categories of patients, the ‘Acutes’ (curable) and the ‘Chronics’ (incurable). The men are dictated by the heinous Nurse Ratched, a cold and uncompassionate woman. This tale begins with the introduction of the Chief, Nurse Ratched and her aides. Chief often slips into the ‘fog’,

and begins to hallucinate as it is his way of escaping from reality. However, the plot accelerates with the introduction of Randolf McMurphy, a new admission to the hospital ward. Unlike the other patients, McMurphy is a buoyant and rebellious character who immediately asserts his dominance and takes on a leadership role. He begins to notice the abuse of power by staff during the first therapeutic meeting, in which the Big Nurse humiliates a single patient and encourages the other patients participate in doing so as well. McMurphy, a gambler, then commences a bet with the other men stating that he can make Nurse Ratched loose her temper within one week without enduring any punishments. Later that night, the patients line up to receive medication, however, the young nurse drops Chief’s medication due to fearing McMurphy, the ‘sex maniac’. The lack of medication causes Chief to have vivid hallucinations about the death of a patient, which turns out to be true. To win the war, McMurphy disobeys the ‘ward policies’ by walking around in a towel. Upon being confrontation by Nurse Ratched about his behaviour, she states that he is not allowed to walk around in a towel and with no clothes. They discuss how McMurphy did not receive a uniform, causing Ratched to get irritated with the orderlies. Upon being given a uniform, he takes of his towel, under which he was wearing his draws all along, infuriating Ratched further. In the afternoon, McMurphy requests that the constant music’s volume be decreased, however, his suggestions are quickly rejected. He then takes the initiative to discuss his idea with Doctor Spivey, who gains a liking towards McMurphy due to their prior history. With the Doctor’s approval, the changes Randolf requested are attended to, despite the disapproval of Big Nurse.

The frequent gambler requests to change the T.V schedule for one week due to the World Series, however, Nurse Ratched declines the offer without consideration. When the staff and patients decide to vote upon the decision, none of the other men agree with McMurphy due to fearing Ratched. McMurphy, who maintained his temper throughout the bet, becomes enraged due to the lack of support. The results in a rift between the patients. McMurphy attempts to change the schedule once again, and requests for another vote. This time however, the men vote in favour of McMurpgy with the result being a tie, which is broken by Chief. The Nurse does not accept this vote as she declares the meeting to be adjourned before Chief has a chance to raise his hand. McMurphy refuses to obey and turns on the T.V during his cleaning duties, followed by Nurse Ratched turning the T.V off. However, the other men join McMurphy in staring at the blank screen despite being told to continue their chores, showcasing their united rebellion, therefore allowing McMurphy to win the bet against the indignant Nurse Ratched who loses her

composure.