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

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Shortly after Randle McMurphy “whipped” Nurse Ratched in group therapy in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the narrator, Chief Bromden, acquiesced the truth that it was only a temporary victory, with the heavy, recurring fog returning quickly, now feeling “as hopeless and dead as [Chief] felt happy a minute ago”, noting “the more I think about how nothing can be helped, the faster the fog rolls in. And I’m glad when it gets thick enough you’re lost in it ad can let go, and be safe again” (Kesey 113).
In Kesey’s novel, the fog serves a multitude of purposes, chiefly Bromden’s psychological state and the suppression his individuality and willpower by the hospital throughout the novel. Clearly, in the beginning of the novel, the hospital …show more content…

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 …show more content…

Like such a government, she constantly lies to and manipulates both her staff and her patients, such as when Bromden sees her “blow up bigger and bigger, big as a tractor” in rage at her aids, but then has to “change back before she’s caught in the shape of her hideous true self” (Kesey 5) before the patients see her in order to preserve her total power, as dictators don't want to lose power either. Furthermore, near the end of the novel, McMurphy even shouts out “Hooee, those Chinese Commies could have learned a few things from you, lady” (Kesey 281) as she has him dragged away for shock treatment, indicating what the reader and the patients all knew: Ratched was a cruel, controlling, and vindictive

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By describing the patient, Kesey makes the reader create a picture of how tough and abusive the staff of the hospital

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Everyone in the hospital believes that he is deaf and dumb. When McMurphy begins to pull him out of the fog, he realizes the source of his charade: “it wasn’t me that started acting deaf; it was people that first started acting like I was too dumb to hear or see or say anything at all.” As Bromden himself is demystified, so too is the truth behind what has oppressed him and hindered his

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Nurse Ratched’s desire for control, in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, allows her to manipulate the entire hospital ward into believing her work is for the betterment of the patients. Significantly, Nurse Ratched appears doll-like: hair in a tight bun, a neatly pressed uniform, and “too-red” lipstick (48). Traditionally, dolls, like other toys, are made to occupy the unruly minds of young children. By comparing Nurse Ratched to a child’s toy, Kesey implies she is a mere distraction to the patients from their mental impairments.

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McMurphy initially sees Nurse Ratched as an obstacle to his freedom and the freedom of the other patients. However, he quickly realizes that he can use her to his advantage. He begins to flirt with her and tries to seduce her, hoping to undermine her authority and gain power over the other patients. He also tries to provoke her into making mistakes, which he can then use to his advantage. For example, he encourages the other patients to rebel against her, knowing that she will respond with harsh punishments.

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(Kesey 123). Bromden realized that McMurphy was trying to teach them that in order to survive, the patients needed to step out of their comfort zones and be free from safety. McMurphy realized that the fog was like a security blanket to Bromden and that he needed to get rid of it in order to gain his confidence back. He wanted Bromden to realize that he was more than just a patient in a mental institution. He wanted him to realize that his life had purpose.

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In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, written by Ken Kesey, the narrator of the story named Chief Bromden goes through tremendous character development through finding the courage and confidence to face his fears. Since the beginning of the novel, the “fog machine” is mentioned several times by Chief Bromden, as it was something he always used to help him hide away from other nurses and patients. He describes it as a thick fog that clouds his vision, as said through the quote: “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” (Kesey, 7). This quotation describes the fog as a cold, white and thick fog, and

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Throughout Ken Kesey’s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the balance of power is challenged in the psychiatric ward. Out of the several leaders that appear in the novel, Nurse Ratched and McMurphy are the most prominent. During Nurse Ratched and McMurphy struggle for power, they share many of the same qualities. It is argued that: “McMurphy and Ratched are alike in intelligence, military service, distinctive (if opposite) clothing, and conventionally masculine qualities” (Evans). These small similarities; however, do not distract the characters from fighting for their individual beliefs.

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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

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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

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By weakening McMurphy’s power in the ward, she creates an environment where can continue to thrive in her power through the systems she has set in place. However, Nurse Ratched’s plan does not succeed and McMurphy is allowed to proceed with his fishing trip. He continues to undermine the nurse’s authority to the point where he physically assults her after she blames Billy’s death on him. His actions give Nurse Ratched an opportunity to give him the ultimate punishment, a

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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.

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Published in 1962, Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest tells the story of Patrick McMurphy, a newly-admitted patient at a psychiatric hospital where individuals with various mental conditions are treated. Run primarily by Nurse Ratched, a demeaning autocrat who exhibits complete control over others, the patients are subjected to various forms of treatments and therapy with the intent of rehabilitation (Kesey 5). Most forms of treatment depicted in Kesey’s novel, such as group therapy, are an accurate representation of what typical psychiatric patients may encounter while under care at a mental facility. Yet others, particularly electroshock therapy and lobotomies, were quite controversial at the time of the novel’s publication. Such treatments were questioned for their effectiveness at improving patients’ condition – and while these procedures were still occasionally performed at the time, they often did not benefit the treated individual.

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His rebellious and free mind makes the patients open their eyes and see how the have been suppressed. His appearance is a breath of fresh air and a look into the outside world for the patients. This clearly weakens Nurse Ratched’s powers, and she sees him as a large threat. One way or another, McMurphy tends to instigate changes of scenery. He manages to move everyone away from her music and watchful eye into the old tube room.

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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.

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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.

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