What Is The Theme Of Freedom In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Have you ever felt that someone was controlling you or taking away some of your freedoms? Maybe as a student in school you felt you weren’t able to express yourself and were being held back by something or someone. A lot of people feel they are being manipulated and prevented from freeing and expressing their feelings and living life to the fullest. This feeling of being a prisoner is partly caused by society and the expectations and rules made by people in our society. In the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey the character Randle McMurphy represents the freedom of the natural world coming into a very civilized and up tight situation in a mental hospital which represents society. McMurphy goes against every rule and expectation

For example the nurses and workers at the hospital are described as machine like and not living. Chief said this of nurse Ratched “Her face is smooth, calculated, and precision-made, like an expensive baby doll, skin like flesh enamel… A mistake was made somehow in manufacturing, putting those big, womanly breasts on what would of otherwise been a perfect work” . As you can see the author wanted the reader to see nurse Ratched as a very mechanical and robot like character. While all the authority figure characters are very mechanical McMurphy is more human with his scarred nose, long red hair, and his constant laughter and joy. Chief represents the natural world too in that he is native American and could remember when he was free and went hunting with his father but then the government and modern society came into his life and destroyed everything he loved. Eventually McMurphy converts all of the inmates to his free and wild ways and has finally succeeded when he is played into going to far and to wild and chokes nurse Ratched which leads to him being taken into the machine like society and is made into a lifeless robotic version of

McMurphy represents the coming freedom for people like the characters in the novel as society changes around them and becomes more open to people with differences and disabilities. As society became more informed about those with disabilities they started treating an caring for them better in hospitals like the one in the story. In the novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey the character Randle McMurphy represents the freedom of the natural world coming into a very civilized and up tight situation in a mental hospital which represents the mechanical society of the time. McMurphy goes against every rule and expectation the manipulative and power hungry nurse Ratched has made and tries to overthrow this very civilized system the nurse has put in place. Freedom is in a constant battle with civilized society, similarly to McMurphy continually fighting against nurse Ratched and her rules and expectations throughout the