Weakening the Combine in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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Weakening the Combine in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest When norms of society are unfair and seem set in stone, rebellion is bound to occur, ultimately bringing about change in the community. Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest demonstrates the conflict of individuals who have to survive in an environment where they are pressured to cooperate. The hospital's atmosphere suppresses the patients' individuality through authority figures that mold the patients into their visions of perfection. The ward staff's ability to overpower the patients' free will is not questioned until a man named Randal McMurphy is committed to the mental institute. He rebels against what he perceives as a rigid, dehumanizing, and uncompassionate environment. His exposure of the flaws in the hospital's perfunctory rituals permits the other patients to form opinions and consequently their personalities surface. The patient's new behavior clashes with the medical personnel's main goal-to turn them into 'perfect' robots, creating havoc on the ward. The hospital in this novel is a scaled down version of the outside world and is equally corrupt. A system with strict policies is created forcing patients to conform to its standards, stifling individuality. The narrator is a mute patient named Chief Bromden, who refers to the hospital as the ?Combine? because it?s mechanized to create uniformity among the patients. Chief believes the Combine?s purpose is to fix the ?impurities? by transforming them into identical and perfect packages. The ones who are unable to conform to the rigid norms must remain in the Combine, patients are only allowed to return to society when they are completely ?fixed up and new? (40). Nurse Ratched, the antagonist, is in charg... ... middle of paper ... ...Murphy in such a helpless state, he takes the initiative to put him to rest. After McMurphy?s death, Chief has the power to lift the control panel and throw it through the window screen where he escapes from the Combine and into the Outside world. Even though McMurphy dies, his spirit lives within the patients and they acquire the strength to overcome the Combine and improve their circumstances. Although the novel depicts an extreme scenario of a society with rigid norms, there is some degree of a Combine in every society. The Combine is a great force that?s hard to overcome but can be broken down with determination from a strong group of opinionated individuals. It takes a leader to influence the passive to fight to obtain their rights. When enough people feel stifled by unfair treatment they need to band together as pack of wolves to try to change the system.

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