Character Analysis: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

1205 Words3 Pages

In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the reader has the experience to understand what it was like to live in an insane asylum during the 1960’s. Kesey shows the reader the world within the asylum of Portland Oregon and all the relationships and social standings that happen within it. The three major characters’ groups, Nurse Ratched, the Black Boys, and McMurphy show how their level of power effects how they are treated in the asylum. Nurse Ratched is the head of the ward and controls everything that goes on in it, as she has the highest authority in the ward and sabotages the patients with her daily rules and rituals. These rituals include her servants, the Black Boys, doing anything she tells them to do with the patients. …show more content…

The Black boys are under the control of Nurse Ratched and are ordered to do what ever she wants them to. This is due to, the hatred from whites to blacks before the 1960’s. This issue started to shift because of public speakers like Martin Luther king and Malcom X, even though both were killed, they both had a major impact on the equality and power between whites and blacks. The hatred that white people had for black people was still lingering, but was not as large as before the 1960’s (Flaherty, Seidman, McLelland, Holler, par 2-3). In relation to the Black Boys in the novel of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest they are considered Nurse Ratched’s slaves, they are the only black men in the whole asylum which makes them stand out and makes them visibly different than all the other men. Nurse Ratched teaches them to hate the patients, so the only power that the Black Boys have is over the patients. Chief Bromden explains the Nurse’s strategies that she uses with the Black Boys, he says “She appraises them and their hate for a month or so and then lets them go because they don’t hate enough” (Kesey, 27). Power dynamics are evident here because of the way the Nurse treats the Black Boys, she teaches them to hate and if they do not hate enough then she will get rid of them. This point very important because it gives reason to how patients were mistreated in insane asylums. Even though the Black Boys have some power over the patients they are still under control of Nurse Ratched. Using the Feminist lens, these points are important because inequality is created because by the power of the Nurse over the Black Boys. Yet, the Black Boys are used the way that they are because of the color of their skin, there is a physical inequality illustrated because they stand out so much compared to everyone else in the ward. The

Show More
Related

  • Nurse Ratched Power

    1140 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ken Kesey’s novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, he engages the reader with Nurse Ratched’s obsession with power, especially against McMurphy. When Nurse Ratched faces multiple altercations with McMurphy, she believes that her significant power is in jeopardy. This commences a battle for power in the ward between these characters. One assumes that the Nurses’ meticulous tendency in the ward is for the benefit of the patients. However, this is simply not the case. The manipulative nurse is unfamiliar with losing control of the ward. Moreover, she is rabid when it comes to sharing her power with anyone, especially McMurphy. Nurse Ratched is overly ambitious when it comes to being in charge, leaving the reader with a poor impression of

    Read More

  • Misogynistic and Sexist Undertones in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

    1498 Words  | 3 Pages

    From the moment that the apple touched Eve’s lips, women have been seen as an embodiment of all that is evil. This reflects misogynistic societal beliefs that women are below men. While many of the prejudices towards women are hidden in modern American society, some misogynistic stereotypes are still present. In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, one can see many misogynistic and sexist undertones. Big Nurse Ratched is in a position of authority over a large group of men and is seen as a tyrannical and unjust ruler. Although most of her methods would have been seen as awful when used by any person, the saturation of bad women in the novel creates an unfavorable picture of women in general. The balance of power in the ward is never equal; it is either in the hands of women, or of men. Nurse Ratched is determined to take power from the men, while McMurphy is determined to win it back. Therefore, a push-pull situation is created, in which each group is attempting to take power from the other. Kesey’s misogynistic tones create the feeling that men and women cannot be equal; for one to rise, the other must fall.

    Read More

  • Control in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

    3216 Words  | 7 Pages

    ...s control through power, authority, and fear. In the end, they believe they have control over the other, but they do not realize that they both have lost control until it is too late. They both pay a harsh penalty for their struggle to gain control over the ward. Nurse Ratched forever loses her precious power status and authority over the institution, while McMurphy loses the friends he tired to help, his personality, and eventually his life. Throughout the novel, these two characters relentlessly fight to control each other. They both realize that control can never be absolute. This idea does not occur to either of them until after they have lost everything they sought to control. This is what makes the element of control such an important theme in One Flew over the Cuckoo?s Nest.

    Read More

  • Imagery In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    360 Words  | 1 Pages

    Amidst extreme attempts from Nurse Ratched and Randall Patrick McMurphy to gain and maintain total control of the ward, Ken Kesey implements specific vivid imagery, as well as intentional instances of exaggerated word choice, to make these attempts clear to readers during part two of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The men on the ward have felt for some time that Nurse Ratched is oppressing their rights as humans, and now with McMurphy on the ward, “the guys started letting fly at everything that had ever happened on the ward they didn’t like” (145). These complaints are mostly exaggerated, as one suggests that Ratched wants “seven buddies” to go with a patient when he “goes into the latrine to relieve [himself]” (145). This request, although

    Read More

  • Essay On One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    2040 Words  | 5 Pages

    Fred Wright, Lauren's instructor for EN 132 (Life, Language, Literature), comments, "English 132 is an introduction to English studies, in which students learn about various areas in the discipline from linguistics to the study of popular culture. For the literature and literary criticism section of the course, students read a canonical work of literature and what scholars have said about the work over the years. This year, students read One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey, a classic of American literature which dates from the 1960s counterculture. Popularized in a film version starring Jack Nicholson, which the class also watched in order to discuss film studies and adaptation, the novel became notable for its sympathetic portrayal of the mentally ill. For an essay about the novel, students were asked to choose a critical approach (such as feminist, formalist, psychological, and so forth) and interpret the novel using that approach, while also considering how their interpretation fit into the ongoing scholarly dialogue about the work. Lauren chose the challenge of applying a Marxist approach to One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Not only did she learn about critical approaches and how to apply one to a text, she wrote an excellent essay, which will help other readers understand the text better. In fact, if John Clark Pratt or another editor ever want to update the 1996 Viking Critical Library edition of the novel, then he or she might want to include Lauren's essay in the next edition!"

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Book Report

    493 Words  | 1 Pages

    In a book written by Jonathan Harnisch, he says, “I have schizophrenia. I am not schizophrenia. I am not my mental illness. My illness is a part of me.” Unfortunately, not everybody has the same idea. In the Soviet Union, citizens were often put inside mental hospitals for having unpopular views or for having a disability. () In One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, the book displays ()

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Character Analysis Essay

    984 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chief Bromden, the narrator and protagonist of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, is a tall, quiet, half Indian man who keeps to himself. At the psychiatric ward, he pretends to be deaf and dumb, which allows him to overhear almost everything. Bromden, as a character, is full of facades and metaphors, and also has ways of describing the psychiatric ward as well as society for what it is, unwelcoming, destructive and harsh, even if he cannot say due to his medication and mental instability. When McMurphy, a loud and confident transfer from a different psychiatric ward, comes to Bromden’s ward, Bromden begins to realize more and more what the ward really is, and is able to articulate how dehumanizing and cruel Nurse

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Quote Analysis

    528 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey writes specifically on the abuse of government and the abuse of personal power at the hands of Nurse Ratched. By portraying Nurse Ratched in a negative and controlling way, Kesey reinforces the above quote. The above quote is supported through the abuse, torment, experiments, overpowering control, and fear that Nurse Ratched instills into the patient’s lives. The author makes references to “the combine” and “the machine” as if portraying the overwhelming power and abuse of power by the government. Kesey also describes the Big Nurse as an immovable and unstoppable force in the lives of the patients. Though these descriptions are often seen as obsolete within the context of the story,

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Literary Analysis

    657 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nurse Ratched fills that role, but only in the most wicked and cruel manner imaginable. The “mother and child” dynamic is taken to extremes as the Nurse belittles grown men into acting like five year-olds. For example, every group meeting leads the chosen target to be ridiculed for their problems instead of them solved, including McMurphy’s first experience with the therapeutic meetings. Though she encourages other patients to tear into their colleagues, she in effect is doing it herself as McMurphy surmises, “Is this the usual pro-cedure for these Group Ther’py shindigs? Bunch of chickens at a peckin’ party?” As she encourages them of their impotence and feebleness, she reasserts her dominance both as the one in charge and as the mother figure of the

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Feminist Analysis

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Ken Kesey builds up a feud between Randle McMurphy and Nurse Ratched to establish the novel’s climatic attack, a sexist exemplification that powerful women must be subjugated. Women are depicted as emasculators and castrators. The male patients seem to agree with Dale Harding, who states “We are victims of matriarchy here” (56). The patients correlate matriarchy with castration and mutilation, illustrating the dullness and repressiveness of the hospital as a result of a female dominator. The majority of the men in Nurse Ratched’s psychiatric ward have been damaged by relationships with dominant women. For instance, Chief claimed his mother became “Bigger than Papa and me together” (188). Similarly, Billy Bibbit was so afraid of his mother discovering that he engaged in sexual intercourse with Candy that he commit suicide.

    Read More

  • Conformity In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1670 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the 1950’s, conformity was common to the world, and nonconformists would often feel shunned and oppressed by their society (Edmund 69). In Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, the Oregon Psychiatric Institution depicts a microcosmic variation of the society in which he lived, as each character in the novel represents a specific societal role. Nurse Ratched, the head administrative nurse of the ward, represents the oppressive force or government; the Acutes represent the average society, the fighters and followers, and the Chronics represent those who have fought, but lost to conformity and oppression. Alongside this, “there is a certain sigma not only attached to being a patient in a mental hospital, but the whole field of mental

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Analysis

    255 Words  | 1 Pages

    I chose to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey for my research novel and I’m currently on page 100. The story is told from the perspective of Chief Bromden-a cagey, half-Native American patient in a mental hospital-in a stream of consciousness style. Assumed to be deaf and incapable of speaking by the patients and hospital staff, Bromden exposes and details the deplorable abuse the patients of the hospital endure, which the public does not see. Thus far, Bromden describes how the newly admitted Randle McMurphy pulls antics such as resisting the hospital’s set time schedule, launching butter at a clock, and persuading Dr. Spivey to convince Nurse Ratched to hold a carnival for the patients in order to rebel against Nurse Ratched’s

    Read More

  • Theme Of Insanity In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    1739 Words  | 4 Pages

    While much of the confrontation is expressed between many of the patients who have disabilities, Nurse Ratched and her helpers have trouble controlling these patients because of their unpredictable behavior. “In One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the psychiatric ward and the outside world are poles apart. The opposition between madness and sanity can be interpreted metaphorically and can be related to the oppression of individuals in any social institution, as well as in society as a whole. Only a thin line is created between society and institution, between madness and sanity. The tension between scene and purpose is central in the course of the narrative. In the beginning the patients are represented as prisoners of the psychiatric institution, but it becomes clear that some reside there more or less voluntarily.” (Rutten 640). This quote shows that there was a difference between some of the patients. Many of the patients were manipulated enough to have no fight over their own control. They could not rebel against Nurse Ratched, but there were some patients that were sane enough to give their efforts in going against Nurse

    Read More

  • Woman in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    2138 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is a book in which he dealt with the issues of racism, sex and authority that is going on in a mental institute. In the novel, the women are depicted as the power figures who are able to significantly manipulate the patients on the ward. There are four ways of Ken Kesey’s using of “woman” as a subject: Superiority of male sexuality over female authority, matriarchal system that seeks to castrate men in the society, mother figures as counterpart of Big Nurse and “Womanish” values defined as civilizing in the novel.

    Read More

  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: 3 Points

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, the author refers to the many struggles people individually face in life. Through the conflict between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, the novel explores the themes of individuality and rebellion against conformity. With these themes, Kesey makes various points which help us understand which situations of repression can lead an individual to insanity. These points include: the effects of sexual repression, woman as castrators, and the pressures we face from society to conform. Through these points, Kesey encourages the reader to consider that people react differently in the face of repression, and makes the reader realize the value of alternative states of perception, rather than simply writing them off as "crazy."

    Read More

More about Character Analysis: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

Open Document