One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

A Machine of Society In Ken Kesey’s book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, he creates an interesting comparison between society and its goal to have those who are striving to be in society conform to a uniform mold. Kesey does this through the use of the Combine, a symbol of society as a culturally unifying force. Bromden, a patient in the ward and the narrator of the novel, creates this Combine is his mind to explain the function of power how it is used to then control others. This machine controls the “insane” men within the novel through corrupt means and thus poses an interesting idea of who is actually sane. Ultimately, the Combine is a machine created by society to force those who are believed to be insane to become sane in order to function in society, yet this machine is corrupt and thus causes readers to question the sanity of society. Kesey establishes the idea of this Combine and its relation to society through Nurse Ratched and her function in the ward. Chief Bromden is aware of the Combine and the nurse as an operator of this machine. Nurse Ratched attained the power to operate this ward and control the men through her experiences as a field nurse in the army. As a nurse in the army she had control of men that could do nothing to combat her control as they were sick or injured. This power she has gained through the army is proven by how Nurse Ratched directs the ward with a “rigid routine” (Malin). Bromden is also aware of the fact that the “ward is a factory for the Combine” and that the ward is indeed a harvesting combine itself (Kesey). Bromden also realizes that Nurse Ratched is the foreman, a job often thought to be that of a man, of this factory. This Combine, like that of a combine used for harvesting, is very systematic and makes everything the same. A combine used for harvesting cuts the crop all the same way and puts the crop through the same processes and ultimately produces a uniform product. Bromden realizes the ward as a harvesting