(name)
Mrs. Andersen
AP English 12
29 November 2017
Destruction Creation Through the Opposition of Powerful Forces
PART 1
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, is a fiction novel following the story of a nurse and her patients located in an Oregon psychiatric ward during the late 1950’s. Previous to the novel’s 1962 publication, Kesey worked on a hospital’s psychiatric ward, which led to the writing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The novel depicts Randle Patrick McMurphy’s boisterous and rebellious behavior in rallying other patients of the ward as his allies in order to challenge the ruling of Nurse Ratched. McMurphy does so by gambling and drinking, sneaking in women, plus defying the rules. His defiance begins as a sport, but builds into a war between him with his willpower, and Nurse Ratched who has the ultimate authority. Through his defiance, the other patients succumb to his pressure and follow his lead. In the process, the patient's benefit, especially the narrator, Chief Bromden, who became “big”; essentially, he is physically and mentally similar to his old self. Through McMurphy's dominant presence, which led to the patient's discovery of their manhood, and Ratched's control of the patients, power plays a big role over the course of this novel. The ongoing conflict between Ratched and McMurphy reveals the novel's theme of destruction created through the opposition of powerful forces.
PART 2
In William C. Baurecht’s article, “Separation, Initiation, and Return: Schizophrenic Episode in [sic] One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Baurecht discussed how Chief Bromden’s schizophrenic episodes were a parallel to a mythic hero, regarding his heroic and manhood emergence at the end of the novel. Numerous references to Bromden’s father are made, specifically stating how seeing his father’s ghost aided him and taught him not to not fall to victim to racism. Also, at the time of the novel’s publication, manly love was viewed as a taboo which Kesey violated by using Chief Bromden and McMurphy, who sought each other out when necessary, creating a unique brotherhood bond. The two men balance each other out and throughout the article McMurphy was praised as he showed Bromden brotherly love and was seen as a hero . This love, combined with his schizophrenic episodes, helped him become a man and regain his confidence. Towards the end of the article, Baurecht mentions the episode where Chief sees his father’s ghost and that demonstrates how he is now healed, ready for the paternal role as a chief, and care for his comrades just as his father did for his tribe and McMurphy did for him.
I agree that the bond McMurphy and Bromden shared benefitted Bromden due to his resurface into society as well as his hallucinations about his father. Bromden sought McMurphy out once he realized that he wanted to become his old self because he knew McMurphy could help. This form of love is like no other from this time. Typically, a distressed woman was the one to seek out a man’s help, but in this instance, it was a distressed Indian, both minorities. In the article, Baurecht compares McMurphy to Dixon Wecter in The Hero in America from 1941, where Dixon argued that “an American hero is a man of the people and not one who sets himself above the people” (“Separation, Initiation, and Return: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”). This shows how Baurecht saw McMurphy as just as much of a hero as Bromden did. McMurphy helped Bromden “[grow] ten inches since [the] fishing trip” which is a monumental moment for Bromden mentally and physically; he gained his confidence back, which is a form of McMurphy showing love (Kesey 267). Additionally, his schizophrenic episodes allowed him a look into his past, especially the ones of his father. Once he realized how his father was treated in the Combine and was a victim of racism, he did not want to end up with the same fate. Through McMurphy’s help, he pulled him out of these episodes and Chief was reborn a new man, thus a idealized perception of heroism.
Overall, the brotherhood and loving bond Kesey created and acknowledged in the article between Bromden and McMurphy benefitted Chief. In the article and from his assistance to the Chief, McMurphy is an idolized figure despite going against Nurse Ratched’s rules and destroying her social order. He pulled the Chief out of a dark spot in his mind, being his schizophrenic episodes about his father, which shapes his future and guided him to be the man Bromden hoped to return to be.
PART 3
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is an intriguing and well written novel due to Kesey’s style of the book. His scope of truncated words combined with choppy sentences creating informal diction, tone shifts, and usual point of view contribute to the readability of the novel. By these means, Kesey created a magnificent page-turning novel that makes a difficult story about mental diseases and oppressive conditions easy to read. The book is portrayed through Chief Bromden, but since he pretends to be deaf, he directs the novel towards his observations from the Combine and conversations overheard, allowing the reader to get a distinctive first person point of view.
Kesey valued his usage of truncated words and choppy sentences as this peculiar syntax gave insight into how the characters spoke. Oftentimes, the last letter of a word was cut off and slang terms were used in conversations, otherwise when Chief was narrating, full sentences with formal diction were used. For example, when Bromden is discussing the incident where McMurphy punched the glass of the Nurses’ Station to get his cigarettes, he states, “[McMurphy] stopped in front of the window […] then ran his hand through the glass” (Kesey 201). Kesey’s method of narrative style diction given to a quiet and observation character aids the reader in seeing events unfold. On the other hand, when any of the black boys or McMurphy are conversing, that is when the truncated words are often present. When McMurphy is talking to the Chief, he says, “There you’ll be… cuttin’ down the boulevard- men, women, and kids rockin’ back on their heels to peer at him… takin’ ten feet at a step and duckin’ for telephone wires” (Kesey 223). The use of these truncated words, informal diction, and choppy sentences enhances McMurphy’s misfitted nature towards authority.
Additionally, as events occur, the reader learns of them from Chief Bromden’s perspective. For instance, when
PART 4
The theme portrayed in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is destruction is created through the opposition of powerful forces. These two powerful forces refer to Nurse Ratched, a supposed tool for the Combine and Randle Patrick McMurphy, an unruly white man who is moved into the Combine, because at the work farm he previously was at, he “[was] a guy that [fought] too much and [messed around] too much” (Kesey 14). Ratched has had her rules imposed for years, during which Chief and other patients have retracted into a mental fog that had kept the social order, but McMurphy has pulled them out of the fog and realize Nurse Ratched’s treatment. This ultimately caused a battle between the two and unraveled Ratched’s neatly-kept conduct.
On page nineteen, McMurphy has his first interaction with Billy Bibbit, where he tries to figure out who their current bull goose looney is; he does this because he wants to have someone “take [him] to [their] leader and get it straightened out who’s gonna be boss around here.” This assertive position establishes he will cause a disturbance. His central way of doing so is by attacking Nurse Ratched’s social order and influencing the other patients. He notices that the patients are the Nurses puppets and wants to influence them to rebel. In McMurphy’s first instance, he is conversing with Harding, a previous leader-like figure, and encourages him to “Vote on anything. [You do realize] you have to do something to show you still got some guts? Don’t you see you can’t let her take over completely?” (Kesey 70). By voting, that is a manner of disobeying Ratched’s orders and getting under her skin, which is McMurphy’s intention.
McMurphy is successful in irritating Ratched, namely in one of the group meetings. Chief tells the reader, “She’s lost a battle here today, but it’s a minor battle in a big war she’s been winning and that she’ll go on winning […] just like the Combine, because she has all the power of the Combine behind her” (Kesey 113). This is one instance when McMurphy wins, but as Chief recounts, she will ultimately win since the Combine is more powerful than he could become. Due to this, it provokes McMurphy to lash out in various ways, but it occurs to an extent that Ratched can not bare, forcing her to send him up to the Disturbed ward. While he is there “[he] was growing bigger than ever […] the guys couldn’t see the dent she was making on him […] a man out of sight can’t be made to look weak, she decided, and started making plans to bring him back down to our ward” (Kesey 291). Ratched attempted to ruin McMurphy as he was destroying her social order, so in return she tried to make him weak, but ultimately he became more glorified, so she brought him back to her ward and lobotomized him to end the rivalry.
Despite their rivalry, in the patient’s eyes, Ratched was often viewed negatively and McMurphy helped them realize Ratched’s unjust rules. As Chief tells the reader, he “had [his] own notions- how McMurphy was a giant come out of the sky to save us from the Combine that was networking the land with copper wire and crystal” (Kesey 267). This suggestive allusion to Native American mythology shows how the patients saw him as a savior because he challenged the establishment. In the end, “she couldn’t rule with her old power anymore,” showing an end to end to the destruction the two caused, but not a total victory (Kesey 321). From the beginning, McMurphy became a problem, which enhanced through his mannerisms of challenging the rules and occasionally winning, but overall, the destruction created was significant to the lives of the people in the Combine.
PART 5
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a (masterfully written) novel reflecting the 1950’s and 1960’s protest era through mentally institutionalized patients and authority figures. Its usage of truncated, slang words and choppy sentence structure allows the reader to see the (education level) of the patients. Additionally, Kesey sets the story from Chief Bromden’s, first person point of view giving an observational perspective since he is deaf. In terms of characterization, he use of physical descriptions; actions; comments and reactions; thoughts, feelings, and speech builds the reader's idea of each character in their own mind. Each character had his own individuality, as well as their own diction, contributing to the success and easy readability of the novel. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a story of rebellion, conformity, and reestablishment of oneself portrayed in a resilient manner.
PART 6
The poem “I Look at the World” by Langston Hughes probes into the world of a person being controlled with an eventual realization that they have control over their life. In the poem, he discusses his forced confinement due to his race. He then discovers his capability to put an end to oppression, since he sees how beautiful this world is, despite the atrocious events occurring. He has his mind set on changing people’s view of his race, which will benefit future generations. The theme of the poem is determination to fight oppression in order for a more free and bettered future.
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, oppression of a sort and determination to better yourself is just as prominent as it is in Hughes’ poem. The patients are forced to live in the Combine, which is a mental institution meant to improve the lives of its patients and make them ready to live on their own in a normal society. The controlling nature of Nurse Ratched makes this living situation oppressive due to the patients having to listen to Ratched’s orders in order to stay out of trouble; rebelling could result in a lobotomy or electro-shock treatment. That is, until Randle McMurphy comes into the Combine. His nature resonates with the majority of the patients, resulting in them listening to him. In addition to him being like their leader, he helps them recognize their abilities and capability to grow back into their old selves.
In “I Look at the World,” Hughes wrote “this fenced off narrow space assigned to me” (“I Look at the World” 5-6) and Kesey, similarly said, “the Combine [is] for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhoods[,] schools[,] churches[, and] hospitals” (Kesey 40). Both literature pieces examine how society treats those who are different- storing them away from the outside world. Hughes additionally mentions “these walls oppression builds will have to go[ ]” in reference to the torture he and his ancestors faced. In the novel, the men are faced with a different type of oppression due to their mental state. Disorderly conduct would result in one being checked into the Combine. As Chief recounts his father's experience, he says, “The Combine… beats everybody. [It] work[s] on you till you can’t fight! They put things in! They install things. They start as quick as they see you’re gonna be big… and keep on and on and on till you’re fixed (Kesey 221). The treatment that Chief’s father received ruined him and it has had the effect on other patients as well because it has caused Cheswick and Billy Bibbit to commit suicide. Chief says that the Combine and harsh rulings have to dissolve in order for him and other patients to regain their old confidence and strength back; the Combine is too oppressive for the men to be themselves.
In Part Three of the novel, Chief notices how physically strong McMurphy is and he wants to return to that state again since the Combine weakened him. McMurphy obliges on the condition that “can you promise to lift [the control panel] if I get you as big as you used to be?” which Chief agrees to (Kesey 223). After the ward’s fishing trip, McMurphy comments, “By God, Chief… it appears to me you growed ten inches” (Kesey 267). This shows that in relation to Hughes poem he “[saw] that [his] own hands can make the world that’s in [his] mind,” meaning he understood his potential to regain his physical strength back and he did so (“I Look at the World” 13-14).