The Game

Aakriti Pandit

In many ways, the world operates like a game. While the weak rely on chance and dumb luck to advance, the cunning will use strategy and manipulation to gain advantage. Nonetheless. not all games played are fair. As Adolf Hitler says, “there could be many players. If you don’t play with them, they’ll play with you”. At times, in order to ensure success, individuals tweak circumstances in their favor, thereby “rigging” the game. Though it may seem pointless to play at this point, forfeiting is beyond the most tactical decision; submission only enables others to continue to cheat, and only through playing their game and defying presumptions, can an individual beat corruption. Ken Kesey encompassed this phenomenon in his novel “One Flew Over The Cuckoo 's Nest” through the protagonist, Randle. P Mcmurphy- a rowdy, sexualized gambler who finds a way to change the game. With his strategic manipulation, coercion with others, and his ability to allow other patients on the ward to rediscover their purposes, Mcmurphy finds a way to beat the “impregnable” (p.73) Nurse Ratched at her own wicked game. Although his methods disrupted her sacred routine, and resulted in him experiencing the wrath of Ratched, Mcmurphy was still able to rise above her crooked ways and win. For those purposes, Kesey’s novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo 's Nest established the idea that individuals who strive to live unencumbered by unfair circumstances develop integrity. In doing so,