One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Insanity Analysis

The Origins of Madness in “One Who Flew Off The Cuckoo's Nest”

The book, “ One who Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, by Ken Kesey, suggests that people in society who are considered to be crazy, are merely unable to fit in and conform to unreasonable societal norms, plus expectations. This is displayed within characters in the novel, such as McMurphy, who is outcasted from his society for his unruly actions, and continuous struggle to conform to the behavioural, plus structural norms, around him. It is also seen in the character Billy Bibbit, whom is severely pressured, plus ridiculed, by others, and within the narrator, Chief Bromden, whose Indigenous heritage is unjustifiable disrespected by the mass majority, as he struggles to grasp reality. …show more content…
McMurphy is first introduced into the storyline, when he is placed into a psychiatric ward after pleading insane. This was in an attempt to avoid his sentence in the work fields, and his overall imprisonment, for a conviction against him for statutory rape. However, overtop of such , McMurphy also has a past with violent outbursts and gambling, making him outcasted in his society for his criminal, plus dangerous, actions and behaviour, as a whole. McMurphy unfortunately though, is the kind of person who has embraced his rebellious and out of hand behaviour, and refuses to conform to his surroundings, despite the consequences. This is especially seen with his refusal to conform to Nurse Ratched, the head nurse at the ward, who holds a strict regime over the patient's. He is unsatisfied with her abuse of power, and does anything to push her over the edge, despite the fact it only emphasises McMurphy's own need to defy authority, since he himself, has never truly fit in, nor been accepted for the way he is. An example of such, is when one patient Harding, describes the patients at the ward as rabbits, how " The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger, by devouring the …show more content…
He even rips open her dress, symbolic to him stripping her of her authority and leaving her exposed, plus vulnerable. However, it also exposes McMurphy's violent and primitive nature, as well displays how he has lost hold of his sanity. Chief Bromden narrates what he saw, stating , “ … he let himself cry out: A sound of a cornered-animal fear and hate and surrender and defiance...the last sound the treed and shot and falling animal makes as the dogs get him, when he finally doesn't care anymore about anything but himself and his dying, ” (Kesey, pg 272). Therefore, McMurphy was finally defeated, his exhaustion from trying to keep up his fight to not conform to the societal norms and expectations , finally pushes him off the edge. He could no longer keep up this performance , of acting like a hero when in reality, like Chief stated , McMurphy became nothing but a wounded animal, damaged and broken. McMurphy, tried so hard to defy the rules and test authority, that he did not let anyone stop him from living his life the way he wanted, nor take away his hope for something greater in his life. In ways then, this is also McMurphy coming to terms that he will always be trapped; trapped in a life as a criminal , never being able to situate himself in society , even if he was given the chance to.

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One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Insanity Analysis

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