The Big Nurse In 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest'

The lust for power is something that can drive every single action of a person. This is the case of the Nurse Ratchet, or the Big Nurse in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey. She is the head of a mental institution ward inside a hospital and she runs it like a military operation. She controls all the men in the ward and gives them enough fear that they would never stand up against her. However, everything changes when a new patient McMurphy is admitted. He, unlike the other patients, stands up to the Big Nurse. This creates a power struggle as they pull and push against each other. McMurphy illuminates the corruption of the ward and bands the men together to try and fight against this. The men of the ward are highly hesitant to fighting back, though, as they have been

Yet McMurphy leads a revolution against the Big Nurse to show her power is not almighty and the men have their own power inside. The Big Nurse had taken control of the ward long before many of the patients had went in. Her rein of power was strong enough to scare most of the men and leave never to question ward policies. She ran all group meetings with the patients but when McMurphy enters the ward he begins to dominate the meetings. This is his first attack against the Big Nurse as he tries to oppose the controlling tendencies. He takes any action to give her a hard time and find a way around the rules. By setting his own new rules and trying to change whatever he can in the ward McMurphy brings chaos in a new way. However, the Big Nurse does all she can to stop him before he becomes too powerful. Instead of sending him off to another ward creating a martyr she tries to show him the consequences of his action. She believes by showing the other men he can be stopped that she is truly