One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the major thematic idea that my project is focusing on is man versus machine because it represents how Chief Bromden views society and the ward as. In the beginning of the book, Chief describes how he perceives the ward by saying “the ward is a factory for the Combine. It’s for fixing up mistakes made in the neighborhoods and in the schools and in the churches, the hospital is. When a completed product goes back out into society, all fixed up good as new, better than new sometimes, it brings joy to the Big Nurse’s heart”(31). Basically, Bromden believes that everything is ran by the Combine. Nurse Ratched is the power and authority and she makes sure the “machine”, the ward, is running perfect. She set rules for all of the

During a meeting, McMurphy ends up “dominating” it but Chief Bromden says, referring to Nurse Ratched that, “she’ll go on winning, just like the Combine, because she has all the power of the Combine behind her. She don’t lose on her losses, but she wins on ours”(88). This meaning that she will always win because she is the control in the ward. The Combine shapes all of the patients into their definition of perfection. McMurphy is the only person who has rebelled and tried to corrupt the system of the ward. Chief was talking about his beliefs which included McMurphy and says “how McMurphy was a giant come out of the sky to save us from the Combine that was networking the land with copper wire and crystal”(206). McMurphy gave all of the patients in the ward confidence again simply by not conforming to the Combine norms and going against everything Nurse Ratched was enforcing. It helped Chief Bromden realize that the Combine was nothing but his paranoia and he learned that if he doesn’t view the Big Nurse as the one with all of the power than she won’t have any of the power in the