ipl-logo

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Fog Essay

1470 Words6 Pages

In Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the fog that envelops Chief Bromden's mind serves as a powerful symbol for the psychological and social forces that shape individual identity while highlighting the importance of rebellion and resistance in the face of oppressive systems. In particular, the fog, which takes the formation of a recurring motif, represents the way in which oppressive systems can distort and erase individuality, rendering individuals powerless and disoriented. This condition has a substantial presence early on in the novel because none of the acutes in the psychiatric ward would dare to defy the administration of Nurse Ratched, a formidable figure who maintains strict control over the institution and its patients …show more content…

During Part 1 of the novel, Chief Bromden's mind is constantly shrouded in a thick fog, representing the sense of powerlessness and disorientation in the face of the oppressive system that was Nurse Ratched and the psychiatric ward. As Bromden narrates, "They start the fog machine again and it’s snowing down cold and white all over me like skim milk, so thick I might even be able to hide in it if they didn’t have a hold on me. I can’t see six inches in front of me through the fog" (Pg 6). The fog is so dense that Bromden is blind from viewing the world clearly; it serves as a rendition of his inability to witness and comprehend the reality of the oppressive system in which he lives. Bromden's sense of being entrapped in the fog is also reflected by other patients in the ward who are too afraid to challenge Nurse Ratched's authority. This behavior is due to her initial representation of an authoritarian figure who controls every aspect of their lives on the ward and their fear of retribution if they speak out against her. In the early stages of the novel, Nurse Ratched uses several tactics to maintain her control over the hospital and its patients. One of her primary tactics is to establish a rigid and authoritarian system of rules and regulations that leave no room for deviation or individuality. She strictly enforces these rules, punishing patients who disobey them with electroshock therapy or confinement. Additionally, she manipulates the patients by offering small privileges, such as sleeping in or access to the dayroom, as rewards for conforming to her expectations. This system of reward and punishment further reinforces the idea that the patient's behavior is solely under her control. Furthermore, she uses her position of authority to create a sense of dependence in the patients, making them believe that they cannot function

Show More
Related

Is Mcmurphy Presented In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

958 Words | 4 Pages

Chief characterizes the Nurse as almost robotic in her manipulation and intimidation. In the first chapter of the book, Chief Bromden illustrates how Nurse Ratched uses her position in the ward to control the patients. Chief says, “The big nurse recognizes this fear and knows how to put it to use; she’ll point out to an Acute, whenever he goes into a sulk, that you boys be good boys and cooperate with the staff policy which is engineered for your cure, or you’ll end up over on that side” (18). Nurse Ratched uses her power in the ward to manipulate and control the patients. This is important because with the Nurse's control, the patients are unable to think and act for themselves.

Read More

Nurse Ratched Quotes

416 Words | 2 Pages

Ratched represents the intents and goals of these institutions in seeking control and dehumanizing patients. With this, Kesey is able to portray the dangers of authority and the impact authority can have on people. He tries to show how it’s crucial that people don't allow themselves to be controlled by the oppressive and tyrannical systems of authority. He argues that it’s crucial that people do what they can to stand up for themselves when they are faced with oppressive authority and fight for their individuality and

Read More

One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Essay

1929 Words | 8 Pages

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, is an eccentric story on the cruel treatment of patients within psychiatric wards in the 1960s. It is told from the narration of an indigenous man, named Chief Bromden, a character who is deeply conflicted and wounded inside, as he narrates the story of another patient McMurphy. McMurphy is not like Chief, nor any of the other patients for that matter, for he is a man who refuses to follow the wards rules and does whatever it takes in the book to strip the head nurse, Miss Ratched, of her power, in a fight for the patients, sovereignty within the ward. His rebellious attitude unfolds and the consequences begin unveiling

Read More

Does Mcmurphy Change In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

617 Words | 3 Pages

Mack won and broke Nurse Ratched’s power one last time. Chief Bromden uses ‘fog’ as his escape from fear in the Cuckoo Nest. It was his escape from reality while he was in the military and it stuck with him for almost his entire time at the ward. “Nobody complains about all the fog. I know why, now, as bad as it is, you can slip back in and feel

Read More

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Character Analysis

987 Words | 4 Pages

Kesey provides the characterization of our narrator, Chief Bromden, and the other ward patients to intimately display the pain Ratched’s institution causes behind the scenes. When it comes to Bromden, there is no doubt that he is an “unreliable narrator” (Zubizarreta). Regardless of the accuracy of his retellings, Bromden’s account still holds emotional weight, as the events and characteristics of McMurphy and Ratched would still shine through, despite possible inaccuracy in smaller details. One main contributor to his unreliability is “the fog”, which clouded his perceptions during times of stress. As the story progressed, the frequency of “the fog” decreased, due to the actions of McMurphy, as did many other insecure characteristics possessed

Read More

Conformity In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

996 Words | 4 Pages

The book written by Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, takes place in a mental hospital during the 1960’s where the nurse, Miss Ratched, is in charge. She treats her patients poorly and even goes as far as prescribing them with electroshock therapy and lobotomy. Because of this atmosphere on the ward, most patients live life in what the author describes as a fog. They do the same things everyday and aren’t really living, but are kinda just there. Eventually a man named McMurphy decides to do something about it despite the problems it causes for himself.

Read More

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

1485 Words | 6 Pages

The seclusion and isolation Bromden faces initiates his stress response, which then activates his visual episodic memories. Hence, the fog clears once he leaves isolation, representing the end of a delusion. Kesey capitalizes the word “Seclusion” in this quote, representing it as a place rather than a thing, further emphasizing the use of isolation as a way of controlling Bromden. By elaborating on how childhood trauma alters brain functioning, particularly in the realm of visual episodic memory, the readers see the impact of adverse childhood experiences on individuals' cognitive processes and mental well-being. Bromden's character in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' serves as a representation of the lasting scars inflicted by childhood trauma.

Read More

One Who Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Analysis

1144 Words | 5 Pages

The trouble was I’d been finding that door my own self because I got scared of being lost so long and went to hollering so they could track me” (Kesey 132). As readers have seen in the past, the fog is known to hinder Bromden’s ability to remember events from the past. On page 130, it is evident that when Bromden finally gains an understanding of the fog machine’s purpose, he is able to remember a huge part of his early life that he had forgotten about while undergoing treatment by Nurse Ratched. A few pages later, the analogous shift in Bromden’s confidence is seen with the lack of fog, as he finally realizes that he is capable of resisting the

Read More

Authority In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

1459 Words | 6 Pages

This silence is literally and figuratively represented through Chief Bromden, a longtime patient of a psychiatric ward during the 1960s in the United States. Bromden, along with all the other patients in the ward, religiously abide by the rules and regulations enforced by the ward administration, particularly Nurse Ratched, a strict and abusive manipulator who does anything in order to maintain her power. This power dynamic quickly evolves

Read More

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Insanity Essay

755 Words | 4 Pages

The question of sanity becomes apparent when McMurphy, a confident gambler, who might have faked psychosis in order to get out of the work farm, is assigned to the mental hospital. He quickly stirs up tension in the ward for Nurse Ratched by encouraging the men to have fun and rebel against her rules. Brodmen appears to be sane for the most part, despite his hallucinations of a fog, which seems to be the result of something both the ward and the world has done to him. He is able to think logically and though others believe him to be deaf and dumb, he uses this to his advantage. Chief states, “They don't bother not talking out loud about their hate secrets when I'm nearby because they think I'm deaf and dumb.

Read More

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Freedom

1050 Words | 5 Pages

The fog begins to appear when Nurse Ratched gains full control and power over the men. However, they “haven’t really fogged the place full force all day, not since McMurphy came in” (78). Bromden’s hallucinations incorporate a thick fog that begins to fade only with McMurphy’s arrival to the ward. The fog represents an escape from reality for Bromden as well as the “pollution” the mechanical nature of society has developed. Bromden physically cannot see through the fog without the help of McMurphy: the beacon of hope that follows his natural impulses.

Read More

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Character Analysis

993 Words | 4 Pages

There is an obvious idea presented by Kesey that the Nurse is dominant over Billy, who has become very vulnerable. Nurse Ratched is shown as a character of strength by the way the writer has created her character. Nurse Ratched is also seen as a strong figure by the way the other characters talk about her, for example when Chief says “To beat her you don 't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as soon as you lose once, she 's won for good.” The writer has used this line to show us how both Chief and the other patient give her the strong and authoritative

Read More

Significance Of Fog In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

695 Words | 3 Pages

In the first part of the novel, the fog frequently made an appearance, although it appeared less frequently as McMurphy chipped away at Nurse Ratched’s mechanical facade. As McMurphy rattles the Big Nurse more and more, the fog appears less and less, perhaps a stimulation of independent thinking within Bromden. In his eyes, though, McMurphy “keeps trying to drag us out of the fog, out in the open where we’d be easy to get at” (Kesey 128), but then later realizes after shock therapy that he won’t “slip off and hide in [the fog]” (Kesey 287), finally recognizing his own identity and his clearer state of mind while casting off the fog for

Read More

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Fog Analysis

427 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel,One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey utilizes the motif of fog in order to provide a symbolic representation of Chief’s escape from reality to one's own comfort zone, ultimately suggesting that society perceives others on the basis of social standards. Just as the fog is said to be a place of tranquility, in the novel the fog symbolises Chief’s escape from reality. As Chief is about to go to bed after talking with Public relations he says “Nobody complains about all the fog. I know why, now: as bad as it is, you can slip back in it and feel safe. That's what McMurphy can't understand, us wanting to be safe.

Read More

Mental Illness In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

673 Words | 3 Pages

Ken Kesey uses his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to describe the lives of patients in a mental institution, and their struggle to overcome the oppressive authority under which they are living. Told from the point of view of a supposedly mute schizophrenic, the novel also shines a light on the many disorders present in the patients, as well as how their illnesses affect their lives during a time when little known about these disorders, and when patients living with these illnesses were seen as an extreme threat. Chief Bromden, the narrator of the novel, has many mental illnesses, but he learns to accept himself and embrace his differences. Through the heroism introduced through Randle McMurphy, Chief becomes confident in himself, and is ultimately able to escape from the toxic environment Nurse Ratched has created on the ward. Chief has many disorders including schizophrenia, paranoia, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and, in addition to these illnesses, he pretends to be deaf and dumb.

Read More

More about One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Fog Essay

Related Topics

Open Document