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Power In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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Nurse Ratched’s Truth One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a novel with a clear engagement shown toward the reader regarding Nurse Ratched’s measures. Author Ken Kesey expresses Ratched’s actions through multiple altercations with other leading characters. The main conflict in this novel is how Nurse Ratched manipulates her power in the ward, and inevitably does not want to better her patients. This can be agreed upon based on her abuse of given power, how she treats her patients, and to what extent of life she will let them live. Firstly, Nurse Ratched is repeatedly seen abusing her power in which she has over the ward. Referring to a specific scene, Ratched manipulates a conversation between an overbearing patient, McMurphy, and guilts him …show more content…

“Do you want to know what I think? I think you are being very selfish. Haven’t you noticed there are others in this hospital besides yourself? There are old men here who couldn’t hear the radio at all if it were lower, old fellows who simply aren’t capable of reading, or working puzzles - or playing cards to win other men’s cigarettes. Old fellows like Matterson and Kittling, that music coming from the loudspeaker is all they have. And you want to take that away from them. We like to hear suggestions and requests whenever we can, but I should think you might at least give some thought to others before you make your requests” (Kesey 106). This interaction shows how Nurse Ratched can easily manipulate a conversation into a respect battle. She uses every fault a patient has against them, and makes them believe it is all because of what they were admitted for. This further supports how Ratched abuses her power as she then turns to more physical terms of manipulation over the patients. Lobotomies and electroshock therapy are nothing out of the norm for the patients residing in her ward. What Nurse …show more content…

The patients are frequently told that they will be lost and alone when let out. However, when McMurphy plans a way to get a touch of freedom, the patients begin to realize the restrictions Ratched puts against them. The narrator of the story, Chief Bromden, reflects, “Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy” (Kesey 211). This shows that the men maintaining their sanity in such an oppressive world cannot allow external forces to exert too much power. When a person succumbs to the bad experiences of humanity, they have no way of growth. All of these negative external forces on the patients’ lives all lead to Nurse Ratched. For the patients to be able to leave the ward and realize her restrictions on them “- it reveals that the mental hospital is hindering, not aiding, their recoveries and ultimate return to life outside the institution” (Cyclopedia of Literary Places 2015). This provides a strong argument showing how Nurse Ratched truly does not try to better her patients, but she just tries to keep them under her

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

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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.

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The way that Nurse Ratched abuses her power is her constant attempt to emasculate the men that attend that institution. For instance, in the film, Nurse Ratched repeatedly reminds her patients that they are “weak” and “unmanly”, further diminishing their masculinity, and making them feel inclined to give in to her commands. Along with this, this film has allowed awareness about mental illness to spread and has changed a multitude of perspectives about mental illness. This movie allowed individuals to feel more empathetic

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Heartless, cruel, and sadistic are all words people may use to characterize Nurse Ratched. She keeps dictatorial control over her patients, shatters patients' self worth, and is the symbol of evil and oppression in the novel. She treats patients with this authority so that they let her control them, and Kesey through the use of Ratched shows why it’s crucial to stand up and rebel against oppressive authority. Ratched would ruthlessly undermine her patients self worth to a degree where they would become compliant and submissive to her control. The best example of this is how she treats Billy Bibbit, a young, insecure, and vulnerable patient.

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Throughout the beginning of the novel it is evident that some characters over use their powers, one of these characters being Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched uses her position in the ward to take advantage of the patients and make sure that they adhere to everyone of her daunting commands. Nurse Ratched “tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision-made machine” (Kesey 28) because she has been on the ward for so long that when something doesn 't go according to her plan, she starts to get mad and will often try to use her power to come down on the patient 's. Nurse Ratched is in control of the whole ward and when someone does something that isn 't in her manuscript she gets irritated. The ward will be run her way and only her way, “ under her rule the ward inside is almost completely adjusted to surroundings” (Kesey 28).

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Due to McMurphy’s attempts to break down the villainous Nurse Ratched with his particularly disruptive antics despite his selfish motives, and Bromden’s quiet progression to courage, the two are heroes to those in the ward. A former army nurse, Nurse Ratched has the entire ward under her control, going by her schedule and her rules. Everything in the ward has gone by her plan, even the staff was chosen

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Many of the men in the ward suffer from low self-esteem and self-respect. The orderlies constantly breakdown the patients and demote their individualty through many different ways. Nurse Ratched taking advantage of their vulnerability “‘you men in this hospital’ she would say like she was repeating it for the hundreth time, ‘because of your proven inability to adjust to society’”(Kesey 167) Nurse Ratched repeatedly destructs the patients on the ward and manipulates them to belive they are incapable of ever being able to function as a part of society. This displays the amount of control the orderlies have on the patients and the amount they take advantage of that, as well. This example ties into the self-doubt and uncertainty the men in the book have in

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With this in mind, she does not hesitate to exercise her power on the psych ward. Furthermore, Kesey characterizes Nurse Ratched as the antithesis to Randle McMurphy. In the Chief’s mind, he can “smell the machinery inside the way that you smell a motor” (Kesey 4). This statement further shows how the people of the asylum see her as a regent and connects her to the Combine. Nurse Ratched controls every aspect of the patients’ daily lives.

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Part one of the novel is an in-depth explanation of Nurse Ratched’s authority and the power she holds over the ward. Part two is an illustration of how fearful

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In the ward, most patients aren’t like McMurphy; he's loud, bold, and has no filter. Other Patients are scared of Nurse Ratched, while he refuses to obey

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“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is a novel that dives into the theme of societal indifference. In the book, the mental asylum is run by a woman named Nurse Ratched. Usually the hospitals such as this one are run by the doctors, but due to the matriarchy, the head nurse calls the shots. The patients in the ward have no choice but to look up to her, that is until R.P. McMurphy, a former inmate committed to the ward, makes an appearance. Nurse Ratched loves being in control, especially being powerful than others.

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In the ward, the only individual capable of undermining Nurse Ratched’s power is Randle McMurphy. By blatantly disregarding the nurse’s strict rules, standing up for himself, and encouraging other patients to do so, he creates a situation that jeopardizes the order Nurse Ratched has created. When McMurphy manages to get a fishing trip approved, granted he gets ten other patients to sign up, Nurse Ratched uses malicious methods to thwart his plans: “The nurse started steadily bringing in clippings from the newspapers that told about wrecked boats and sudden storms on coast” (Kesey 178). In order to dismantle the immense progress McMurphy has made towards changing the attitudes of the patients, Nurse Ratched discourages them from attending his trip. Her motive in doing this is to have the patients lose faith in McMurphy, ultimately destroying the influence he has over them.

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

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Nurse Ratched's "blood gathers up under her skin and settles into a kind of glow" when she asserts her dominance over McMurphy, and her "soft" voice and baby-like breath betray a sense of power that is both calm and threatening. The patients in contrast are shown to be powerless to resist her, as they are conditioned to obey her every command. Kesey's critique of mental health institutions stems from his opinion that they are intrinsically dehumanizing. By treating patients as objects, these institutions deny them their identity, turning them into passive recipients of medical therapy rather than active participants in their own care. As patients lose control over their lives, this can lead to feelings of hopelessness and depression.

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Capitalism Analysis

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By the end of the session, Nurse Ratched has not revealed anything and therefore retains power, while the “pecked” patients are left with little to none. This is an example of capitalism at play, the vulnerable and weak are targeted while those in power remain unscathed, creating an imbalance of

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Kesey has used characterisation to get the idea that in this novel there are aspects of venerability and strength. In Nurse Ratched’s case, Kesey has made it so that she is shown with strength and power over the whole ward, including the black men in white, other nurses, and mainly the patients. An example of Nurse Ratched’s power over the patients is when she says to Billy Bibbit, “What worries me, Billy, ' she said- I could hear the change in her voice- 'is how your mother is going to take this.” This shows how one sentence was able to debilitate Billy into begging Nurse for forgiveness and restraint of telling his mother.

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The movie was mostly focused on the feud between the warden/nurse Ms. Ratched and McMurphy. McMurphy tried to go against the hard-set plan set by the institution. More he tried to establish dominance and leadership within the group. This threatened the nurse’s ways of subduing patients, and they felt of less importance in their own institution. This led to a bitter rivalry and because of it the nurse tried to subdue, with same techniques as with other patients, McMurphy even after realizing that he was not a mentally unstable person.

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