Symbol Essay The symbol I choose for this assignment is nurse Ratchetd’s window in the nurse’s station. The glass symbolizes the power it can give to her; it is her armor in the ward, and the way she presents herself physically. Ratched uses her window to be able to view everything going on in the day room, that way she has full control and organization. Nurse Ratched’s persona is her armor as well; her vicious intentions spark fear in the men, her psychological intimidation, even when she scolds a patient nicely they are scared out of their wits. Showing the control the Chief claims she has, he mentions in a scene when he is dreaming that the Big Nurse can set the time at any speed, “painfully fast or painfully slow” .She makes the patients feel ashamed of their sexualities, and this is one of the major ways of dominating them. Ratched also appears to not let anything affect her in any way weather it be a she pecked at first argument or an incident that has occurred, again she is always in control. Next, when McMurphy starts to cause disruption in the ward it unsteadies Ratched, for example when Mack wanted to watch the World Series during the after noon (which includes changing the schedule) and they were short one vote, they did not end up being able to watch the game . But McMurphy was not ready to give up, he did in fact turn on the television when he wasn’t suppose to and started watching the game, that is when the Big Nurse unplugged the television, then Mack and the acutes sat in front of the blank screen rebelling. Ratched then loses her composure; in that moment McMurphy has smashed her window, her armor. Right when the patients start rebelling with McMurphy she loses it more and more one situation after another. Although when Mack actually breaks her window right after she thinks
