The Importance Of Conformity In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

What is the deciding factor in determining what is sane: what is natural, or what is socially acceptable? In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and later the movie the novel inspired, this conflict is ever present in its Oregon setting of a psychiatric hospital. Throughout the novel, characters with minor quirks and disabilities are shamed and manipulated by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched in an attempt to make them “normal”—that is, conforming to her rigid standards. In fact, the only time these characters overcome their personal challenges is when they are emboldened by the confidence of an outsider, McMurphy, who encourages embracing natural instincts and rejecting conformity. In one particularly apt scene, McMurphy’s recounting

Accordingly, this visit to McMurphy’s childhood home offers a glimpse into what a true man ought to be. McMurphy’s young age at the time of the incident—a time before society’s rules could change what is naturally in the child—particularly shows what a boy or man ought to be. McMurphy the child exemplifies all of McMurphy the adult’s best qualities, and yet is freer: the child is active, virile, and sexually mature, without fear of retribution from the

Throughout Cuckoo’s Nest, women control men through the restriction and manipulation of sex: Chief Bromden’s* mother uses sex to make her husband a weakened alcoholic; Billy’s mother prevents him from consummating any of his relationships, to the point where, after he makes love to a prostitute, the resulting sexual shame from Nurse Ratched causes Billy to kill himself; and Harding explicitly states that women have empowered themselves by removing a man’s implied right to rape. By taking initiative and having sex with a fellow child, McMurphy gains his power at an early age, thus ensuring it is never hidden or taken from him, akin to a vaccine against future emasculation. Only through developing his sexual prowess did McMurphy begin to regain the power taken from his