One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Society

In modern times, one thing the members of society love to mention is how much it has progressed over the years, but has it really? Many aspects of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest point to a very distinct absence of progression. While society enjoys claiming to have progressed, readers are able to observe aspects of modern society within One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. The novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey comments on the aspects of modern society by allowing the reader to observe deprecation of choice, individual degradation, and personal silencing in order to shed light on society’s faults.
In theory, the idea of democracy is a fantastic one, a system where the people can decide for themselves what happens in their lives through voting is truly wonderful. However, a system works only as well as the person

In the novel, Nurse Ratched is depicted as the overlord of the ward, with each and every patient pressed firmly beneath the pad of her thumb. Under the rule of Nurse Ratched, living on the ward is “a dehumanizing, tedious pattern which is scientifically measured and automatically scheduled for maximum precision” (Vitkus 4). In Nurse Ratched’s ideal world, each and every person works to achieve maximum efficiency, or as Bromden described it, “efficiency locks the ward like a watchman’s clock” (Kesey 32). The doctor advocates for the democratic system being upheld in the ward by saying that change can be made through voting. Yet when each citizen is too scared to vote, no change is made. Nurse Ratched’s system is democratic in name only. Such a setup, deprives the patients of the freedom of choice. Thus allowing those in