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Summary: Nurse Ratched

709 Words3 Pages

Have you ever saw a person talking to themselves or speaking to a person not physically present? Perhaps on a lesser scale, you have encountered someone who seems sad all the time or jumps from extreme happiness to extreme sadness, with anger in between. Currently we are in legislative session, which is a time when parliamentary and presidential systems come together for the purpose of discussing laws and appropriating funds. This time is crucial for anyone who receives mental health services, as it is when the distribution of funds is allocated for programs. Without appropriate funding the patients suffer in various forms to include abuse due to lack of funding for qualified staff, lack of research for treatment, and lack of programs to assist …show more content…

The person in charge of the institution in the book was Nurse Ratched. Often, she was referred to as the “Big Nurse.” Nurse Ratched demanded respect and power from the wards of the institution. She manipulated the patients and the other staff members to obey her. When the nurse is introduced in the novel, an eerie feeling overwhelms you. Instantly you can feel the fear of the narrator, Chief Bromden, whom is also a patient. Early in the novel the nurse is described as strong and powerful, “Practice has steadied and strengthened her until now she wields a sure power that extends in all directions…”(Kesey 23) The sure depth of her power is illustrated here. Chief Bromden believe that Nurse Ratched is the face of the Combine - the machine he depicts as society. The Chief, believes that the Nurse is only part of the system not the broken system in and of itself. Physically, the Nurse is described as plastic by Kesey. This matches her personality. Often, Nurse Ratched pretends to be sweet. She smiles and will talk sweetly, however this is a false misrepresentation of her true personality. Her uniform is always finely pressed and crisp white. She exudes Obsessive Control Disorder, which has significant irony due to her employment and behavior towards the mentally ill. The uniform

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The concept of justice is dependent on a character’s view point on a situation. Randel McMurphy is the latest addition to the psychiatric ward, and is able to witness the extent in which the patients are being neglected with fresh eyes. In response to the injustices that McMurphy observes, he takes it upon himself to be the one to stand up to the authority of Nurse Ratched, as Kesey writes, ““Just what I said: any of you sharpies here willing to take my five bucks that says that I can get the best of that woman—before the week’s up—without her getting the best of me?”” (Pg. 66). While it is in McMurphy’s nature to gamble, he is also a man of justice.

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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

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710 Words | 3 Pages

They are her workhorses and adhere to her every need. They represent the dark enmity and the overpowering madness that lies inside of her. Nurse Ratched “ sits in the center of this web of wires like a watchful robot, tend her network with mechanical insect skill, know every second which wire runs where and just what current to send up to get the results she wants” (Kesey 29). Nurse Ratched strictly controls society in the

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1965 Words | 8 Pages

The author used very descriptive language to describe Miz Ratched's bigness and her transition. He also uses figurative language like simile, personification and anaphora in order to compare the nurse

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883 Words | 4 Pages

Barbed Wire And its effects on WW1 Introduction World war 1 is undoubtedly one of the most deadly conflicts in human history. Killing an estimated 37 million people over the span of 4 years, this is one of the most deadly wars, to have ever been waged. Many things make world war one stand out, when compared to its predecessors. World war one was the last major european war since the franco-prussian war 40 years earlier.

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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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999 Words | 4 Pages

Ken Kesey’s comic novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, takes place in an all-male psychiatric ward. The head of the ward, Big Nurse Ratched, is female. Kesey explores the power-struggle that takes place when the characters challenge gender dynamics in this environment. One newly-arrived patient, McMurphy, leads the men against the Big Nurse. The story is told through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a patient who learns from McMurphy and fights for his freedom.

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1409 Words | 6 Pages

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest What would one expect if one's idea of society and normality was manipulated and engineered by someone else? This is the case in Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The novel is articulated by Chief Bromden, a schizophrenic patient, and is set in an insane asylum with a strict tyrannical administrator, Nurse Ratched. The significance of “Big Nurse Ratched” is how she is considered to be the representative of society as she tries to mold everyone directly into her picture- perfect vision.

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778 Words | 4 Pages

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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198 Words | 1 Pages

Milgram studied the difference between obedience and conformity and different variables that would vary such things. In this movie we see people obey the commands of Nurse Ratched because of the hierarchy she created within the ward. People feel the need to listen to her for that very reason. Zimbardo's findings are also present in this movie. The human rights abuses that happened at the Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 Iraq war is a recent example of what happened in the Stanford Prison experiment in real life.

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1459 Words | 6 Pages

These elements keep the nurse in power, as many of the patients fear being the target of one of these meetings and worry that they will again be betrayed by others. By introducing order through these activities, Nurse Ratched undermines the safety of the patients that should be under her care and keeps them silent. Nurse Ratched's oppressive order is not only seen in a literal sense, but also through the attitudes of the patients under her care. Chief Bromden describes the nurse as being “able to set the wall clock at whatever speed she wants just by turning one of those dials“ (Kesey 70). Nurse Ratched’s control over the patients’ lives extends to the point where

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994 Words | 4 Pages

Nurse Ratched is the main antagonist who is a very cruel and manipulative nurse, in which all the characters seem to agree that she is out to get them. The other main female role is a hooker McMurphy knew before the hospital who plays a role of meeting the boys needs. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s

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1253 Words | 6 Pages

Foucault expresses that the control over the people in the Panopticon is not forceful, but rather psychological; however, Nurse Ratched shows both forceful and psychological control during the novel. Foucault states that people in a Panopticon are all controlled by authority, but in a psychological manner. He believes “it is not necessary to use force” (323) since those in a Panopticon control themselves. The idea of being isolated in a cell with unknown people watching over the prisoners can cause a sense of concern, which results in good behavior. While this control is psychological, Nurse Ratched’s power to bring patients to the Disturbed Ward, a surgical ward, or Shock Shop, electroshock therapy, when she pleases reveals the force she uses in the ward over the

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993 Words | 4 Pages

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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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.

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