Boss In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The concepts of pursuing, becoming and sustaining the status of boss permeate the characters in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Throughout the novel, the characters face a multitude of platforms for their choices and actions. In order to sustain the title of boss, characters must be able to overthrow the system that they all have grown used to and can’t imagine life without. These characters stay motivated through the feelings of fear, rejection, and revenge. This motivations lead them to realize the flaws in the system they’ve been living through most of their lives. Ultimately, their journey for happiness leads to a damaged yet triumphant escape. Near the beginning of the book, a new admission to the institute is revealed. Before it is revealed who the new person was, Chief gave the reader a run-down on what usually happens to new admissions. They get them into the shower & the black boys take their “temperature” with a gallon of vaseline to introduce them. But this new admission isn’t like any other admission, he refuses the shower, saying they

McMurphy is trying to change the way things work at the institute, and making sure Ratched can’t convict him of doing something dangerous so she can send him up to the disturbed ward. Most if not all of the acutes now look to McMurphy as a leader and as somebody who can back them up if they say something. When the group went to the pool, McMurphy had a conversation with a lifeguard. The lifeguard stated that McMurphy can’t leave if the institute deems you unfit for society. This was a revelation for McMurphy as he hadn’t known this and was being reckless with his actions. He was trying to break Ratched, but now he realises that he needs to be careful and not give her a reason to send him up to disturbed. An example of McMurphy not acting irrationally was when Cheswick started yelling during a group therapy