Use Of Power In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Misuse of power(Final)

Ken Kesey is a famous American novelist who wrote a well-known novel in America, commonly known as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which was first published in 1962. The idea of writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest came from a real-life experience of Kesey while he was working at Veterans Administration Mental Hospital. The characters in this book are divided into many different parts which make the story even more clear for readers to understand easily. The stories in this book are dealing with control while the mental hospital is the place where control leads to destruction. The major antagonist in the novel is Nurse Ratched who is a former army nurse, now working for the mental hospital and since she is in charge

of the ward, she operates mental illness patients in many ways and believes that she has the power to keep patients under her control. The important roles are Nurse Ratched, Vera Harding, and Mrs. Bibbit, the women who represented as the power figure and have the power to control the men in the ward.

On the other hand, McMurphy is a patient in the hospital, who constantly challenges the control of Nurse Ratched, while she tries to show she remains in control. Even though mental illness is the major issue in this book, the function of matriarchal system hurts the male patients in many ways.

The over-developed ego of Nurse Ratched leads her leadership into destruction. The mental hospital is the place which is fully ruled by women or the place where women have power. Nurse Ratched manipulates her power over patients in many negative ways; having the patients “spy on each other” is one of her common ways of achieving those things that patients want her to know. While McMurphy and most of the members in the hospital agree to watch the baseball game, Nurse Ratched did not allow them to do so even though most of the members in the hospital including McMurphy want to watch that series so bad; which shows that Nurse Ratched is a person who does not care about others feelings and their difficulties. In the novel, she is described as a person who can “set the wall clock to whatever speed she wants” (Kesey 68). Which is the representation of

her leadership to show how patients in the hospital do not have control over their own time because she is the one who decided how, when and where things happen in the hospital. Nurse Ratched is characterized as the power figure in the hospital, where she makes the rules so patients have no choice but to follow whatever she wants them to follow. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest novelist Ken Kesey clams, “ She stops and node at some of the patients come to stand around and stare out of eyes all red and puffy with sleep...A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing putting those big, womanly breasts on what would have otherwise been a perfect work, and you can see how bitter she is about it ” (Kesey 3-4). This quote shows us that, even though Nurse Ratched has the strong image in the novel, she is known as a guilty person who misuses her power over other people. After the entrance of McMurphy, she was not able to keep control over the ward because he was not scared of big Nurse, instead, he challenged her control, where he succeeded in some ways. When things get out of Nurse Ratched’s hand and she knew that she needed extra help to keep control of ward, then she decided to use extra effects from outside to control her patients as was the case with Mrs. Billy Bibbit, a mother of one of the patients in the mental hospital.

Billy Bibbit’s mother, Mrs.

Bibit is another female character who destroyed Billy’s freedom by keeping him a virgin until the age of thirty-one. Bibit destroys Billy’s independent growth by using him as a power source as a mom over her own son; loving a child does not mean keeping children's freedom and making them depend on the parents forever. Even though Bibbit knows that her son is adult enough to be able to function in a society by himself, still she keeps him under her control by telling him “Sweetheart, you still have scads of time for things like that. Your whole life is ahead of you”(Kesey 268) such as going to college. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest novelist Ken Kesey clams, ‘“Mother, I’m th-th-thirty-one years old! ‘she laughed and twiddled his ear with the weed. Sweetheart, do I look like the mother of a middle-aged man?”’ (Kesey 268). This quote proves that she does not understand her son’s capability or his ability to handle his daily life struggle and have the ability to live his life outside the family zone. By keeping her son constantly stuck or preventing him from being adult proves that she is not just making him live like an animal but also destroying the happiness of other men in society, just like Nurse Ratched gets her power by keeping her male patients under her control. As a result of his mom’s control, Billy living his life as a dependent man and feeling unsafe, and instead of being himself in the outside world he remains in a ward.

In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Billy Bibbit claims, “If we had the g-guts! I could go outside to-today, my m-m-mother is a good friend of M-Miss Ratched, and I could get an AMA signed this afternoon, if I had the guts!” (Kesey 176). This quote shows that it's not his decision that he is living in a mental hospital, but this is the only one option he seems best for him instead of living with his mom with fear every single day. Because of his mom’s fear, his freedom is not freedom and does not have guts to go out in a society. He decided to stay at the mental hospital with less fear rather at home with his fear-worthy mom. Billy is not the only male character in the novel who was harmed by women.
Harding’s wife, Vera Harding, takes advantage of Harding’s nervousness about his homosexuality, which makes his wife more powerful to control and underestimate him. Vera Harding does not have any respect for her own husband and Harding is another man who was harmed by a woman because of his weakness about his homosexuality. Vera does not want to be known as Vera Harding and instead calls herself Mrs. Vera and prefers other people to call her Vera. She does not only disrespect her husband, also insults Harding's friend by saying “limp little wrists that flip so nice,” (Kesey 166). Which shows us that she doesn't like her husband and also does not have any respect for other men as well. All of her disrespectful actions show us that she does not have any loyalty towards her husband. Even though Harding does not have any mental issues, the misused power of his wife and unproven claim of homosexuality towards him and his lack of strength makes him to stay at the mental hospital rather being together with his wife at home.
If we are living in a society, there are certain rules and regulations that we all have to follow or we can not do certain activities that are unsatisfactory for our community. The characters of Nurse Ratched, Mrs. Bibbit, and Vera Harding are presented as terrifying women who are misusing their power over men whether it’s in a hospital as a nurse over patients, at home as a mom over a son or at home as a wife over husband respectively. The whole intention of those women is to build fear over men to keep themselves in power and make men afraid to face the outside world. The novel ignores gender equality in multiple different ways; either its sexist towards women or misusing power of women over men from different angles. Having many characters and bringing the author's personal experiences in the novel help us as a reader to understand the message that the novel is trying to give their audiences. The way McMurphy, Harding and Billy Bibbit were treated in the novel was very disrespectful and very harmful to the men, which should never happen in our society. A matriarchal society is still uncommon and the doctors like Nurse Ratched, usually are nice to their patients and help them in many ways. Sexuality, misusing power over men and mental illness are the most important issues that are presented in the novel by creating a different character from the different angle, which was done very nicely so presented characters were able to give the maximum information to their audiences.