Hallucinations In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

A man sprints through a dense forest, escaping an unknown terror pursuing him through the darkness from the treetops. As he keeps looking back, he cannot see what is chasing him, but he assumes it must be close behind him. Suddenly, his foot is snared by a protruding tree trunk and he lands face first on the tiled floor of his mental-care facility. His nurse helps him up and regrets mentioning to the man that she just recently adopted a child from Vietnam, which caused him to lash out. Obviously, the man suffered through a hallucination of his past in the Vietnam War, triggered through the nurse’s mere comment. He has done this and will continue to do this for years to come. This is because society forces the individual, through the aid of

This can be as simple as a man with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) being reminded of his traumatizing experience by other individuals. Coincidentally, this is what Chief Bromden suffers from within the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Unfortunately, the facility he resides in does not assist him in any way, and how it operates has a resemblance closer to a prison than a hospital. Chief experiences many hallucinations, and, more often than not, they begin with a thick layer of fog which blurs his vision. This fog is usually accompanied by other hallucinations including the sounds of air raid sirens, people around him beginning to look larger, and beliefs that things are what they are not. These situations are always created by those around him, such as Nurse Ratched, promoting the idea that society is what pushes people to have hallucinations. However, some individuals are not mentally ill, and are still subjected to the pressures of society. Thoreau, the believer of the downfall of society, was not a nutcase; he was simply pushed over the edge by his critics. Thoreau was so disgusted, he packed his bags, left town, and lived in the woods with no company (Thoreau ____). The same incident occurred within Poe’s The Raven when the man featured in the story was subjected to listen to the raven until he reached insanity (Poe ___). The only difference was that this man could not escape from his hallucinations like Thoreau could. He was trapped, and societal pressure would torment him for