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One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest, Ken Kesey shows the struggle between society s control over us to make us all uniform, and individual thought. Kesey uses Nurse Ratched to represent society, with her control over the patients, and Randle P. Mc Murphy, the individual, who rebels against her. Kesey also has Chief Broken, the oppressed individual, battle against the Combine (society), as a whole. Kesey uses Randle P. Mc Murphy and Nurse Ratched to present two opposite ways of living in this world.
Mc Murphy stands for the individual, the savior for the patients, who goes his own way and does what he wants, no matter what the rest of society thinks. Nurse Ratched represents a need for efficiency, order, and control, at all costs. Anyone who crosses her will face severe consequences. We see right when Mc Murphy first enters the ward that he is independent and looking for change. When he first enters, he swaggers in like a western cowboy, seeming to tell Nurse Ratched there s only room for one of us in this town. We also see that the Nurse try s to stomp this individual in his place right off the bat by telling him in a polite tone that Everyone must follow the rules.
In the climax of Part One Mc Murphy tries to rally the other Patients to vote on having their cleaning duties moved to later in the night so that they may be able to watch the World Series. In the group meetings Mc Murphy tries to goes against Nurse Ratched and her rules by trying to get the votes needed. However the Nurse ends the meeting Pizzarro Page 2 before the final vote needed was counted by her. As a result, the patients are not allowed to watch the game. However, when it is time for the game, Mc Murphy stops cleaning and turns on the television. One by one the other patients follow Mc Murphy s lead.
This infuriates the Nurse Ratched, and she loses control of her emotions, something she hardly ever does. In Part Two Mc Murphy realizes that the Nurse is the one who decides when and if you are released from the ward. So as a result Mc Murphy starts to lay low and cooperate with Nurse Ratched and her rules. But at the end he decides that getting out early it is not worth living with the constricting rules, so he goes up to the Nurse s Station window and breaks it with his fist. The window represents all the power that the Nurse has, and by Mc Murphy putting his fist through it represents the change that will occur. In Part Three Mc Murphy constantly defies Nurse Ratched and her rules.
One way Mc Murphy defies Nurse Ratched is he punches and breaks the Nurse s Station window two more times. Another way he defies the Nurse is he starts a basketball team and urges the Doctor to bring a ball back to the ward against the Nurse s wishes. The biggest defile is when Mc Murphy organizes a fishing trip. The Doctor allows it, but the Nurse is totally against it. She tries to get the rest of the men to decide not to go on the trip, but Mc Murphy still has the trip.
In Part Four Mc Murphy throws a party for the patients. After lights out, Mc Murphy has two women bring beer for them. This represents the Mc Murphy s total Pizzarro Page 3 defiance against Nurse Ratched and her rules that make her world. At the end Mc Murphy can not take the Nurse and her control over the patients, so he gets up and rips her uniform off, and begins choking her until he is pried off of her. By him ripping off her uniform, this shows that the Nurse, just as society, has a weakness and can be beaten. Throughout the novel, Kesey also has the Chief, seemingly the only one, who tries to fight the Combine.
In Part Three the Chief explains to Mc Murphy how the Combine worked on his father until he finally gave in to it. He also explains how the Combine will try to break anyone who stands up against. He tells Mc Murphy that as soon as they see that you are big, they lock you someplace until you are fixed. Also in Part Three The Chief remembers a time when he was young where two men came to his house. The two men wanted to talk to his father because they want to buy the land to build a dam. When the Chief tries to talk to the men they just ignored him and acted like he wasn t even there.
This is was first make the Chief think that he doesn t exist. This is part of the reason why the Chief asks deaf and dumb throughout his stay in the ward. Chief s mother was also part of the Combine. She was above his father and worked on him until his father broke down. As a result, his mother took over (society took over). Thanks to the help of Mc Murphy, Chief grows to full size and is a man again.
After Mc Murphy received a lobotomy, Chief saw that there was no life left in that body. Pizzarro Page 4 He saw that he couldn t let The Nurse, or the Combine, or Society win. The Chief decides to take the life out of the body that used to be Randle P. Mc Murphy.
In the end, the patients win because the Nurse would have used Mc Murphy as an example to what would happen to you if you went against her rules (society s rules). Ken Kesey s main theme in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo s Nest was control from society over individual s and freedom. Kesey made this clear in the battle between Nurse Ratched and Randle P. Mc Murphy. He shows that there will be consequences if you stand up against society, however we should no sit back and cooperate with unjust rules. Through Mc Murphy, Kesey shows that importance of individuality.
Kesey also shows that how one man, who was so deep in fear of the Combine, come out of his shell and become a real man again.
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Research essay sample on P Mc Murphy Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest
