Rules In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, author Ken Kesey describes life for patients inside an insane asylum. Through the eyes of a patient on the psychiatric wing, we see that life in the asylum is systematic: there are rules and laws enforced to govern and to keep order on the ward. The head nurse on the ward, Miss Ratched, established the rules to help the men return to society, yet also uses them to dominate over the patients lives. In One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey uses theme that shows the power of laws and rules in society. Miss Ratched, the head nurse, is the main antagonist in the story. She creates rules to have jurisdiction on her ward, relies on patients to obey to gain power. If patients did as they pleased, then the Nurse would lose control of the ward and be worthless. So, when you try to go against her policies “then she calls the law.” (Kesey, 70). Nobody breaks a rule cause she has ward policies meant to punish the patients. Punishments are usually electroshock treatment, shocking someone with electricity, or other medical operations. This makes the patients act cautious and avoid challenging the policies, making the rules give Nurse Ratched power over them. The rules Nurse Ratched create make her dominant, which shows that rules give people the ability to gain power.

After entering the ward, it took only a couple of days for McMurphy to hate the Nurse’s rules and policies. Since he hates them, he tries to violate them as much as possible to stand up to the Nurse. In one incident, he breaks shower rule and gets confronted by a ward worker; when the man tells McMurphy to follow policies, says he sure “don’t want to go against that goddamned policy”(Kesey, 103). Most of the patients on the ward are obedient unto the Nurse‘s rule, but her policies do not affect McMurphy who challenges the rules, to affect the Nurse‘s ward