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Who Is The Protagonist In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

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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. She does this by belittling the patients by embarrassment, however, most of all patients are not taken seriously, like Chief Bromden. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” displays ideas of matriarchy taking over the hospital, making the idea that the patients could be nothing but the minority. The Narrator, Chief Bromden, among other patients, was overlooked and not taken seriously. When readers …show more content…

To keep the power that she has, Ratched needs to make the patients, and even the staff, feel small. In an example, how she treats Billy. Billy Bibbit is a patient on the ward who, though he has the ability to leave, will not do so. As an insecure man, Ratched seems to go out of her way to embarrass him. While McMurphy threw a party at the hospital, he was also planning his escape, but he did not want to leave Billy without him having a date with Candy. Candy was a friend of McMurphy who brought the alcohol for the party. Ever since the fishing trip, Billy was very fond of Candy. When given the opportunity for a real “date” with her, he took, accidentally having her in his bed asleep the next morning. When he was caught, he was shamed like a child by Nurse Ratched. “Oh Billy… A woman like this…”(Ratched). It could be seen as Billy’s confidence grows weaker, asking Ratched not to tell his mother as she said “... how your mother is going to take

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Randle P. McMurphy represents freedom, life, joy, and hope to the patients in Big Nurse's ward. He comes from the Outside, loud, seemingly perfectly sane, and wreaks havoc on the orderly world imposed on the patients. As Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest progresses, McMurphy displays the power of the individual against a repressive establishment. He brings many of the patients in the ward that were self-admitted to the hospital full swing, showing them what life can be like outside of the ward. Chief Bromden, Harding, and even Billy Bibbit end the novel as completely changed men.

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One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest Meets The Hero’s Journey One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey is a fictional novel that explores the interrelations between a nurse and her patents in an insane asylum. Furthermore, Ken Kesey utilizes two characters R.P Mcmurphy and Chief Bromden who help to depict the inner and outer phycology of men who have been confined. In addition, Kesey makes use of themes such as power determined by sex and rebellion as a struggle between life or death to portray the ultimate castration of men through using a female character who detests her own female breast and enjoys emasculating the men of the ward. The plot of the book mainly starts off with a focus on Chief Bromden, but changes with the introduction of R.P Mcmurphy arriving on the ward. Kesey initially characterizes Mcmurphy has a convict who has rape under a list of crimes he has committed, however later on in the book Mcmurphy is seen as a hero like figure.

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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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1. After reading the first portion of the novel, “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” my first impression was that the narrator, who serves as also the main character of the story, lives in a psychiatric ward and is referred to as Chief Bromden. Chief Bromden is an individual who is faking to be deaf and dumb to all of those around him, so he pretty much is an observer. For this reason, he overhears a lot of what is going on in the asylum. Because everyone believes he cannot understand what they discuss, they talk freely around him.

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Therefore, he helps Billy overcome his anxiety and fear of worrying about what other people will think, and helps him do something for himself for once. McMurphy can see that Billy has interest in Candy, but won’t do anything about it himself, because he doesn’t think he should. He encourages Billy's interest in the opposite sex and arranges for Candy to come to visit Billy. With support from the other men and McMurphy, Billy went for it, he finally believed that he was good enough to do something and didn’t rely on what he thought would happen if his mother had found out, or what others would think. However, when Nurse Ratched returned the next morning and confronts Billy, she is able to bring him right back to the place of shame and fears that he has always felt.

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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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Throughout the book, the patients, whom McMurphy led, began to believe that they could stand up to the power that was Nurse Ratched. A seed of doubt can completely destroy the ideology of power. At the beginning of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader learns that the patients are scared of Nurse Ratched. Before McMurphy entered the hospital, the characters were all scared of Nurse Ratched because

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Psychiatric hospitals are proven to provide assistance and treatment to those who live with mental illnesses. The system is designed to take away the suffering, assist in the patient’s recovery, and put them on the path toward good health and a happy life. Although hospitals are supposed to take a certain level of responsibility over a patient; in this ward, the control over the patients are clearly interfering with their well being. In Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched’s suffocating authority and the ward’s power over the patients are exacerbating their illness instead of helping these patients heal, proving that them being mentally ill is a faux. Nurse Ratched controls the men with her therapeutic community.

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“ Reclaiming Big Nurse, a Feminist Critique of Ken Kesey’s portrayal of Nurse Ratched in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest” Monstrous figure- In the novel, Kesey portrays Nurse Ratched as a monstrous figure who intimidates the patients to make them small and take their masculinity away. Translocated ideal- This concept depicts the role of Nurse Ratched.

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To control both groups more effectively, Nurse Ratched encourages this division and provides rewards to well-behaved patients for example extra sleep time or more food, but if someone disobeys the rules there is the fear of punishment. Nursing Ratched manipulates the behaviour of her patients by utilizing the fear of becoming a wheeler or vegetable and due to their fear of becoming chronic, acutes are less likely to misbehave or act

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1470 Words | 6 Pages

This behavior is due to her initial representation of an authoritarian figure who controls every aspect of their lives on the ward and their fear of retribution if they speak out against her. In the early stages of the novel, Nurse Ratched uses several tactics to maintain her control over the hospital and its patients. One of her primary tactics is to establish a rigid and authoritarian system of rules and regulations that leave no room for deviation or individuality. She strictly enforces these rules, punishing patients who disobey them with electroshock therapy or confinement. Additionally, she manipulates the patients by offering small privileges, such as sleeping in or access to the dayroom, as rewards for conforming to her expectations.

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993 Words | 4 Pages

There is an obvious idea presented by Kesey that the Nurse is dominant over Billy, who has become very vulnerable. Nurse Ratched is shown as a character of strength by the way the writer has created her character. Nurse Ratched is also seen as a strong figure by the way the other characters talk about her, for example when Chief says “To beat her you don 't have to whip her two out of three or three out of five, but every time you meet. As soon as you let down your guard, as soon as you lose once, she 's won for good.” The writer has used this line to show us how both Chief and the other patient give her the strong and authoritative

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1288 Words | 6 Pages

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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1010 Words | 5 Pages

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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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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