Theme Of Microcosm In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Param Jansari
Mrs. Llyod-Henry
ENG 4U0
January 20th 2016
The Asylum: A microcosm of Society
The 1950’s, a time of oppression and confinement. A time when people were ignorant of their own situations and were manipulated by those in power. Ken Kesey’s novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, represents an asylum as a microcosm of the 50’s society. It shows how the patients are oppressed by the rules of Nurse Ratched. The patients are unable to stand up for themselves due them fearing and in some ways relying on Nurse Ratched. Eventually, a hero, McMurphy comes to the asylum and free the patients from Nurse Ratched’s grasps. In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Ken Kesey uses the ward as a microcosm of the 50’s society. Kesey confronts the negative impacts of such a society with the use of allegories throughout the novel, he shows how society takes away takes away freedom, the ability to make decisions and how those in power benefit from this.

In the novel, the patients are manipulated by Nurse Ratched, she has rules and regulations which keep everyone in their place, if these rules are not followed then they are punished. For example, at the beginning of the book, Chief Bromden says, “when the fog clears to where I can see, I'm sitting in the day room. They didn't take me to the Shock Shop this time. I remember they took me out of the shaving room and locked me in Seclusion…This morning I plain don't remember. They got enough of those things they call pills down me” (Kesey 10). At the

start of the novel, it is already made clear that physical and psychological abuse is how the ward operates, or rather how Nurse Ratched governs it. By giving the patients pills, they become reliant on them, forcing them to obey Nurse Ratched, while the threat of punishment gives her power and control over them. Another way Nurse Ratched robs the inmates of their freedom is with therapeutic community meetings, where she exploits one of the patients and eventually, “they [are] all shouting to outdo one another, going further and further” (Kesey 39). McMurphy draws parallel to the meeting and pecking parties, he explains, “The flock gets sight of a spot of blood on some chicken and they all go to peckin' at it, see, till they rip the chicken to shreds, blood and bones and feathers. But usually a couple of the flock gets spotted in the fracas, then it's their turn. And a few more gets spots and gets pecked to death, and more and more. Oh, a peckin' party can wipe out the whole flock in a matter of a few hours” (Kesey 44). Here, McMurphy recognizes how Nurse Ratched manipulates the patients by making them turn on each other, and exploiting themselves. He explains how Nurse Ratched targets one of the patients to reveal his weakness, causing to the others to attack him, and eventually sets them all against each other, instead of against Nurse Ratched, and end in all of them feeling weak and isolated. Therefore the "therapeutic" meetings are not there for the patients’ benefits but are there in order to turn them against each other and keep them under Nurse Ratched’s control. In short, therapeutic methods are used to confine the patients under the rules and regulations of the ward, it draw parallel to society in the 50’s, when violence, and underhanded methods were used to win over the public, and at times cause disputes amongst themselves.
In addition, to being robbed of their freedom, it is seen that the inmates’ ability to make decisions has slowly degraded into nothingness, they follow what their told, albeit at times they do resist at first but eventually give in. The patients dislike Nurse Ratched and her tyrant like rule over the ward. However, they feel that she is the key to their cure, this is evident when Harling, one of the patients makes an analogy to ribbits and wolves: “"Mr. McMurphy... my friend... I'm not a chicken, I'm a rabbit… All of us in here are rabbits of varying ages and degrees… we're all in here because we can't adjust to our rabbithood. We need a good strong wolf like the nurse to teach us our place"” (Kesey 38). The patients think they need Nurse Ratched because of false consciousness. Nurse Ratched has rules and routines which she claims is to keep everyone in order, the patients believe some part of this. The patients believe that they need someone with authority to command them, so that they can one day be accepted into society. Furthermore, fog constantly surrounds the ward and its patients, it represents Nurse Ratched’s control over everything the fog touches. Under many occasions patients, such as Chief Bromden, are known to hide in this fog, giving it a much deeper meaning than just the extent of the nurse’s power. In this quote, “I hear the high, cold, whistling wet breath of the fog machine, see the first wisps of it come seeping out from under McMurphy’s bed. I hope he knows enough to hide in the fog” (Kesey 69), the Chief fears the fog, however he wants McMurphy to hide; to give into it. The Chief is schizophrenic and tends to hallucinate, therefore the fog may be medicinally stimulated. Therefore, the fog is symbolically, and quite literally of the mind rather than being actual fog. This fog resides within the minds of every patient at the ward. It is evident, that the fog not only keeps the patients from rebelling against Nurse Ratched, but it also keeps them fulfilling their lives and impairs them from thinking rationally. It helps the patients conform to Nurse Ratched’s rule, and prevents them from ever attempting to improve their situation. The men hide behind the fog because it is comfortable. All in all, due to the patients’ fears of being rejected by society, they give into the fog so that they can live comfortably at the ward, similar to how citizens conform to society’s laws so that they may securely fit in.

Finally, Kesey shows how those in power, like Nurse Ratched, benefits from manipulating and confining others, the patients. It is evident that Nurse Ratched finds controlling the patients easier when they have lost most of their sense of individuality, when she says, “men you are in this hospital…because of your proven inability to adjust to society. The doctor and I believe that every minute spent in the company of others, with some exceptions I therapeutic, while every minute spent brooding alone only increases your separation” (Kesey 94). This quote is ironic, Nurse Ratched claims she believes that separation worsens their illnesses, this is contradicting because when the patients do not obey her rules, she secludes them. By secluding them, she is able control the patients and maintain power over them. When the patients begin to question Nurse Ratched’s rules, she claims it is for their benefit. Nurse Ratched uses the patients’ illnesses as a means to prevent rebellion, by stating that the rules exist to help them adjust to society; if they rebel, they won’t be fixed and be fit for society. Nurse Ratched uses the patients’ mental illnesses and their desire to fit in, as a weapon to manipulate them. Furthermore, when McMurphy asks the patients, what was so bad about Nurse Ratched, they simply say that she is the root of all problems. However, Chief Bromden knows that there is more to it than just that, “McMurphy doesn’t know it…it’s not just the Big Nurse by herself, but it’s the whole Combine, the nationwide Combine that’s the really big force, and the nurse is just a high-ranking official for them” (Kesey 109). Through the eyes of Chief Bromden a mechanical system is observed to govern over not only the asylum but also the whole nation. The Chief has it all figured out the asylum and everyone who works in it, are all part of the combine. The Combine represents a greater unknown power it is the root of all problems and it is this same power which holds the nation together. It controls the patients every move and slowly turns them into machines which are fit to be accepted into the Combine’s mechanical society. In short, the world in the novel is divided in to the asylum and the outside, both are controlled by the Combine. The Combine has a hold on everyone’s mind, it controls them, bending them to its rules, turning them into tools; gears which the Combine can use to operate.

Ken Kesey illustrates the flaws of a 1950’s society, in his novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

Kesey uses the asylum as an allegory of the world, he shows how patients are confines, and robbed of their free will, and how those in power benefit from this, drawing parallels to the oppression of the people by the government. The novel reveals the defects of a capitalist society, how it manipulates people and warns of what may happen if people do no stand up for

themselves.