One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Analysis

Nurse Ratchet’s Manipulation
Farah Pazienza
Sanford-Brown Online

Nurse Ratchet’s Manipulation
In Ken Kesey 's novel One Flew over the Cuckoo 's Nest, Nurse Ratched took away the freedom of the patients mentally, physically, and spiritually. One of the major themes in the novel is the Big Nurse, Nurse Ratchet’s subjugation of the patients. Subjugation means to take away freedom, to make submissive by gaining control of someone or something by use of manipulation or force (Subjugate). In the OFOCN, Nurse Ratchet emasculates the patients repeatedly, by her various control issues. Before McMurphy is committed to mental hospital, Nurse Ratchet ran a submissive ward and did not have much trouble from anyone. The patients had viewed her as an angel. This is
demonstrated when Harding is conversing with McMurphy about his angle of mercy. “Our dear Miss Ratched? Our sweet, smiling, tender angel of mercy, Mother Ratched, a ball cutter? Why, friend, that’s most unlikely.” (Kesey, p.54)
It is this type of thinking throughout the novel that the patients are misguided with what they are lacking in their lives by Miss Ratched’s manipulation and when McMurphy comes in to the ward with his bolstering personality and laugh, it instantly breaks up the monotony of the ward. As the Novel progresses, McMurphy challenges the Big Nurse to break her down and get under her skin, give the patients their manhood back and the guts they need to go into the world since they are only volunteer and not committed as he is. The Big Nurse’s infatuation with control completely explains her as being the face of the Combine. Although she is the face of the Combine, because she is very good at getting people to do what she wants using force and coercing people with her fake mother like mentality and fake charm; she has her own agenda. Nurse Ratched not only emasculates the patients but also is able to manipulate the doctors and the staff into doing and following her bidding to help carry out her hate she harbors inside.
Mentally
Breaking down someone mentally is one of the most detrimental things a one human can do to another human being. A person needs his/her mind in order to feel like a whole individual that can function in the world. As stated earlier, the Big Nurse uses manipulation, the Combine, and her own hateful agenda to emasculate the patients the best way she knows how. The worst of her subjugation is through mental manipulation. The men have no laughter, no joy in their current situation, which is apparent throughout the novel until the fishing trip, and the men find their release and laugh. Nurse Ratched takes away the freedom of the patients mentally in Ken Kesey’s novel is by installing fear in them. On page 17, it is demonstrated when Chief Bromden is explaining about how the Acutes and the Chronics are to stay on their side of the Day room. The nurse uses the Chronics as an intimidation to the Acutes, to not misbehave. This fear is set into the Acutes to behave and made to believe it is for their cure and if they do not cooperate, they will end up not being able to function, possibly mumbling and stumbling and/or with a catheter running down thier leg. The nurse has instilled a fear into the current patients to not cause disruptions; the patients know the Big Nurse gets very irritated if the smallest thing gets out of order on her ward (p.25).
The nurse is able to manipulate and take away Billy Bibbits freedom mentally by a few different ways. First, she knows his mother and uses that to keep Billy in line in fear of disappointing the nurse or his mother. Nurse Ratched brings up how she spoke to Billy’s mother several times in the book, to show her power over him and use his fear to defeat him. The biggest example, of this is when Billy is in the Seclusion room with Candy. Billy, a thirty something year old boy, controlled by his fear and need to people please. Miss Ratched discloses how she is very disappointed in Billy. “Oh, Billy Billy Billy---I’m so ashamed for you.” … “Oh Billy,” the nurse said, like she was so disappointed she might break down and cry. “A woman like this. A cheap! Low! Painted---“…(p.271)
The Big Nurse goes on to embarrass and emasculate Billy of how she is going to tell his mother and she couldn’t keep the secret from her because they were such good friends. However she goes on to destroy his new found man hood mental by stating how is his mother going to take this and this is going to Billy’s mother ill. Billy was made to feel shameful for exercising his manhood with McMurphy’s help, Billy was not able to handle to shame of facing his mother so he gave in to Nurse Ratched by telling on the others and blamming it all on them because of his fear of his shame. However, even him telling on the other patients, specificslly McMurphy the Nurse continued to emasculate him by placating him and saying how poor Billy, the others manipulated poor, poor Billy. This fear and shame led to Billy’s ' self-destruction and he slit his throat, killing himself, while waiting for Dr. Spivey (p.272-274).

Physically Physically taking away freedom from someone is not an easy task, unless you are Nurse Ratched. The Orderlies are Miss Ratched’s evil pawns sent to do her bidding. The best comparison would be to the monkeys from the Wizard of Oz, sent to spy and help keep things stay in line and to help do the bidding of the Big Witch or in OFOCN, the Big Nurse. She hand picked out the Orderlies that had just enough hate and could tune into her evil ways to help humiliate and make life intolerable for the patients. For instance, with Chief Bromden and other patients they would tie their sheet so tight so they could not move and trapped in the bed not being able to freely move as they sleep (p.75). Another way Nurse Ratched subjugates the patients physically is through the cup of little red pills she has issued to them, before they go to sleep. These pills as stated on page 75, in Ken Kesey’s Novel, OFOCN, “When you take one those red pills you don’t just go to sleep; you’re paralyzed with sleep…” (p.75)
Chief Bromden went on to explain how there were nights when he witnessed horrible acts on the sleeping, knocked out patients.
Physically they are unable to travel about the ward on their own, for instance, they cannot brush their teeth whenever they want, and they have to wait until 6:45am, because the toothpaste was kept locked in the cabinet per ward policy. (p.83) The patients were not allowed to stay in bed whenever they wanted or they were not able to leave the cafeteria when they were finished if it was before 7:30am per the hospital ward rules. This rule took away their physical ability to move about as men or even as humans, they were told this was all apart of their therapeutic treatment and their cure. (p.83)
Another way, in which Nurse Ratchet takes away, their freedom physically is being able to punish the patients at her discretion with the use of fog, medication, and specifically the threat of the EST (electroshock therapy) room or even a possibility of a Lobotomy. For example, McMurphy was sent to the Disturbed ward for Electroshock therapy after sticking up for George, The Captain, who is afraid of dirt and and a fear of soap, after the Big Nurse issued an order for the men who went on the fishing trip to be scrubbed and cleaned, and removal of all the bugs they could have contracted from the high seas. (p.235-238) This was her way, a symbol, of having them wash their sins away. The nusrse also has the ability to whether they can leave the premisis or not. If she feels it is not therapeutic she denies the request, instatnly after stating she will discuss it with the staff. Going to back to the discussion of EST, the patience were posseesd with a fear to not get out of order or they would be sent to a series of EST or even the seclusion room, for simple things such as askign for their cigarets, instead of them being rationed. The physical subjugation the patience endure by the nurse is in part due to their own personal fear set up in their minds from not being able to deal with the outside world and exploited by the Big Nurse.

Spiritually Spiritual subjugation is hitting a person in the gut, to take away someone’s spirit you leave them feeling lifeless. One of the ways, the nurse takes away their spirit is leaving the patients unable to to think in peace. The music, the recorded continuous music, is blasted so loud the men can’t concentrate and be alone with their own thoughts. The nurse feels this clogs their head mixed with the fog and keeps them submissive. When McMurphy arrives he automatically notices there is no joy or laughter within the ward. He wonders why. Even when he tries to make a subtle or a blantant attempt to make the other patients laugh, he fails. Although this falls under mental as well, the fact of the amtter that when they came back from the fishing trip, the men were all a bit different and able to feel somewhat whole again. That is until the Big Nurse has a converstation with the other patients without McMurphy, trying to infiltrate the new found spirit and hope given to them by McMurphy by leaving thoughts in their mind that McMurphy wasn’t their friend but in fact, a low life scoundrel just out to get their money, by showing them records of their accounts (p.231). The nurse took Chief Bromden’s spirit away by assuming he was deaf and dumb, as many others have done in the past. Although the Chief was described as a large man, he told McMurphy that he was much bigger than himself. This line of thinking is attributed to his loss of spirituality. Also, as harding states they are led to believe they are just rabits, which they are led to believe they are rabits because they can’t deal with the out side world, which the Big Nurse plays upon and playcates them. The nurse take their spirtual being by making them feeling less than adequate and to the point where, even though most of them can leave the ward at any time and isgn themselves out, they don’t because the Big Nurse makes them feel like they have not been cured, even though that’s what they are there for is to be cured and be able to move on and coexist in the real world and live well adjusted sane lives. In conclusion, the Big Nurse’s personal issues from being a war nurse has led her to have control issues in the ward and subjugate the patients mentally, physically and spiritually.
This theme as discussed through the examples discussed above is clearly evident. However, in the end the Big Nurse loses because the men finally gain their manhood and sign themselves out, the ones who did not kill themselves or who were not lobtomized. With the death of McMurphy, , the symbol of freedom after the labotomy, as the Big Nurses, nemisis, the patients gained their confidence back and went to the real world and out of her care. The chief, gained his “bigness” back thanks to McMurphy and was able to gain his freedom by breaking out by the very way McMurphy told him in spite of the nurse. Ultimitely, through out the Kesey’s novel, the Nurse Ratched demonstrated her evil ways and hate towards the patients, by undermining, emasculating, and palycating the men in every aspect of their life, by making them feel she was a good mother type and was doing everything for their cure, when in fact it was underlying reasoning of revenge in some way and cooperation with Combine on the inside and outside
world.

References
Kesey, K. (2003). One flew over the cuckoo 's nest. New York: Penguin Books.

Subjugate. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster Retrieved August 30, 2014.