The conception of authority portrays that government had dominance over society and anyone that contravened with the rules would be put down. The symbolism of government in this novel directly relates to an article called Ten Days in a Madhouse: The Woman Who Got Herself Commited. This article is about a girl named Nellie Bly who got herself trapped in a New York City mental institution. She called the Blackwell's Island a "human rat-trap". She described the asylum as a place that's easy to get in, but impossible to get out. In 1887, the reporter Nellie Bly pretended to be insane and tried to ameliorate the conditions of the asylum. Nellie Bly's endeavors to help improve the asylum is similar to McMurphy's attempts. This depicts how government had complete control over the patients by exercising their power. The idea of authority allows reader to understand the predicament people faced as government punished those who didnt follow societal