Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

Words: 1267
Pages: 6
Open Document
Humans are the products of society, manipulated and fixed to fit the perfect ideals of it. In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, a schizophrenic narrator tells the story of McMurphy struggling to fight against Nurse Ratched and her authority. The author incorporates the idea of a Combine, a force led by Nurse Ratched controlling the patient's’ behaviors, as well as using descriptions of machinery to represent the Big Nurse and the hospital. Ken Kesey uses the Combine and machinery imagery to depict society and how society abuses their authority to deprive citizens of their freedom.
The machine and combine in Chief Bromden’s mind is a portrayal of society and how they handle their power to strip away the people’s individuality. …show more content…
The Chief believes that the ward is changing the patients when he states, “this is what I know. The ward is a factory for the combine. It’s for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhoods, schools, and churches. When a completed product goes back out in society, it is better than new” (40). Chief uses the phrase “fixing up mistakes” to display how the patients start with problems similar to a broken machine and then getting “fixed” to better fit what is expected of them in the ward. Chief also uses the word “product” to demonstrate how the ward is dehumanizing them as machines by using it. In his mind, the patients are machines that are on the process of fixing to better fit the hospital’s image. Chief Bromden compares the patients of the asylum to machines when he says, “Across the room from the Acutes are the culls of the Combine’s product, the Chronics. Not in the hospital, these, to get fixed, but just to keep them from walking around the streets giving the product a bad name… What the Chronics are—or most of us—are machines with flaws inside that can’t be repaired, flaws born in, or flaws beat in over so many years of the guy running head-on into solid things that by the time the hospital found him he was bleeding rust in some vacant lot” (15-16). When he referred to the …show more content…
When Nurse Ratched was furious at the Orderlies, the Chief illustrates the Nurse’s expression with, “...she blows up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor, so big I can smell the machinery inside the way you smell a motor pulling too big a load” (5). Kesey compares the Nurse to a “tractor” and uses the words “motor” and “load” to better characterize her as a machine, not a human, who controls others around her. The Nurse does not have any humanly characteristics, but instead is seen as something, not someone, as shown in Kesey’s use of machinery terms. In addition, in Chief’s dream of Blastic in a factory, he sees “a shower of rust and ashes, and now and again a piece of wire and glass” (85) when his innards were cut. With the words “wire” and “glass”, Kesey emphasizes that Blastic is now not human with his innards being replaced to wire and glass, which is common inside machines. He uses machine-like terms to present the idea of the Combine turning the patients into robots who will obey their rules without question and turn them into ones that will fit their perfect society. The quote is one out of many examples of machinery in the novel, showcasing the importance of how the world is about social order and structure, led by the ideals of society, even today. The machine metaphors portray humans being deprived of their
Show More

Related Documents: Analysis Of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

Essay about Prosecution of Nurse Ratched

demonstrated across the evidence presented, her need of control over colleagues and patients across the entire facility, disregarding her medical responsibilities and ultimately disregarding her Hippocratic Oath. This oath, taken by all physicians swearing by a number of healing gods in order to medically practise, states that practitioners must uphold specific ethical standards at all times. The accused prevailed her obsessive tendencies1 over the Hippocratic Oath, and as a government funded institute…

Words 882 - Pages 4

Who Is The Antagonist In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: Analysis Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, tells the story of patients in a mental hospital. It was the 1960s and the characters are ruled by the Big Nurse. All the patients obey her command despite the agony she brings, until one new patient shows up, named McMurphy. He brings new life to the ward and stands up against the nurse. Eventually, he brings all of the patients on his side to rally against authority. The three most relevant elements in…

Words 982 - Pages 4

Cuckoo's Nest Lobotomy

with the “acrid smell of sparks and ozone” (Kesey 77). You are suddenly strapped down to a cross-shaped table where the nurse places a crown on your head that sends electric sparks directly into your brain to induce a seizure. Doesn’t this solve the problem? Would it be better if the nurse took a knife and simply chopped away part of your brain? These are the treatments of electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomy as depicted in “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”, but are they truly as horrifying and gruesome…

Words 2107 - Pages 9

Gray In 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'

patients also face another wave of this suffering simply because of their heritage. Lord's assessment highlights that the novel doesn't have one standout character or situation representing its time, nor a clear hero or villain. Yet, it effectively contrasts the East and West Coasts and individualism and community. The literary value of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" justifies its retention in the school's curriculum despite objectionable material, as it offers valuable insights into societal power…

Words 1342 - Pages 6

Juxtaposition In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Control Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Control wins as soon as it is doubted; doubts lose as soon as they are controlled. Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest integrates juxtaposition, irony, and foreshadowing to reinforce this point. The entire story is told through the eyes of Chief who understands everything about the people in the hospital, yet he deceits everyone about being deaf and stupid, never speaking a word in the first half of the story. Chief continues by speaking about Nurse Ratched…

Words 1443 - Pages 6