One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: An Analysis

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In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey utilizes Harding's metaphor of rabbits and wolves to uncover and accentuate the relationships in the Ward. Harding explains to McMurphy, “We must learn to accept it as a law of natural world. The rabbits accept their role in the ritual and recognize the wolf as the strong and most certainly doesn’t challenge the wolf to combat” (64). Mcmurphy questions Nurse Ratched’s authority after observing the degrading Therapeutic Community. Harding answers by exploring the nature of the patients, and emphasizes how the patients view themselves as the rabbits; helpless to avoid the situation they are in. As a result, the patients of the ward have become complacent and submissive to their weakness, allowing
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