Examples Of Stereotypes In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Stereotypes are often frowned upon, yet they are commonly used to form opinions on people and ideas. Some of these stereotypes are about sensitive subjects in today’s society and are not discussed very often. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey does not shy away from controversial topics regarding things like mental illness. The novel revolves around life in a psychiatric hospital and is told through the eyes of a mentally ill man named Chief Bromden. It is seen how difficult it can be to live with mental illness in an environment where stereotypes thrive. As the story goes on, the reader finds out that Chief feels isolated and has poor mental health because of his experiences with stereotypes and how the affected the actions of those

Everybody thinks so. I'm cagey enough to fool them that much. If my being half Indian ever helped me in any way in this dirty life, it helped me being cagey, helped me all these years” (Kesey).
Chief is talking about the black boys in this quote and describes their assumptions about him and how it makes him feel. He uses the term “dirty life” which shows how he dislikes the life he’s living in the hospital and being isolated. He feels as though it is easier to be unnoticed in the hospital. To do this, he gives into the stereotypes and acts deaf and dumb, which greatly impacts his recovery and his faith in himself. Even the staff treat him and the other patients as if they are inferior because of the stereotypes they have formed about them and mentally ill patients.
At one point in the novel, the patients begin to develop new feelings towards their mental disabilities and worry less about the stereotypes. “Never before did I realize that mental illness could have the aspect of power, power. Think of it: perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become. Hitler an example. Fair makes the old brain reel, doesn't it” (Kesey). Mr. Harding changes because of McMurphy’s influence on him. McMurphy shows him and the others that they can embrace their disabilities instead of being ashamed of them. He teaches them to not let the stereotypes get to them

An example of this is when Ian Currie discusses Chief’s reasons for being “insane”.
“The novel's narrator is Chief "Broom" Bromden, a man whose madness stems from a long process of isolation from his community of Native Americans in Oregon. This ultimately leads to confinement in the asylum and an attempted withdrawal from all of his surroundings as he feigns deafness and dumbness. Similarly, he clings to the drug-induced "fog" that he perceives around him because "you can slip back in it and feel safe." He needs to feel safe from "The Combine," that evil mechanical power whose stronghold is the mental hospital, and whose chief instrument is Big Nurse Ratched” (One).
Currie explains how the severity of Chief’s illness comes from isolation within his previous community. Stereotypes from the Native Americans he lived around made it difficult for him to be accepted, understood, and helped. This is the reason he is in the mental hospital as well as why he acts deaf and dumb. He keeps doing what he knows how to do and thanks to McMurphy, he becomes motivated to leave the hospital and ends up doing