One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, the story is narrated by the Chief who recounts the tale of protagonist – Randle Patrick McMurphy. McMurphy is admitted to the mental institution and befriends the other patients in his ward and begins a grim struggle with Nurse Ratched. At the core, the story is about the struggle between order and chaos, and there is no freedom without a little chaos. Yet to maintain order there must be oppression. Whereas McMurphy flies at the seat of his pants, Ratchet is an authoritarian stoic. When McMurphy came to the ward he had disrupted the routine for which it followed as with asking for schedule changes and inspiring resistance during therapy sessions. He teaches the others to have fun and encourage
them to give into human desires which are only natural as with wanting to watch the World Series or drink. He convinces them that they are not only sane, men, but also real people. As day by day passes, the routine is shown to be imprisonment. Some of the patients are self-admitted as they felt unfit to function in society, but the schedule makes them dependent ensuring they stay the way they are though their diagnoses could be false.
Before the climax in events, McMurphy had escaped the ward and steals a hospital bus to take his friends on a fishing trip. Here the men are shown to be complete as people once more. During the trip Chief says, “Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.” Here Chief implies that due to the pressures of society it leads people to insanity as with the seeing of that which would make one lose faith in humanity or to no longer want to live on this planet making him to not want to deal with reality and ultimately leading him to be “plumb crazy” similar to Chief’s experiences. Chief shows how McMurphy laughing in the face of danger is what keeps him sane.
In the end, R.P. McMurphy gets a lobotomy which turns him into a literal potato and Chief euthanizes him to set him free in turn immortalizes him as a symbol of hope to the other patients. As “a little change never hurt”, order has been restored to the ward though the patients still gamble as a small gesture of rebellion.
them to give into human desires which are only natural as with wanting to watch the World Series or drink. He convinces them that they are not only sane, men, but also real people. As day by day passes, the routine is shown to be imprisonment. Some of the patients are self-admitted as they felt unfit to function in society, but the schedule makes them dependent ensuring they stay the way they are though their diagnoses could be false.
Before the climax in events, McMurphy had escaped the ward and steals a hospital bus to take his friends on a fishing trip. Here the men are shown to be complete as people once more. During the trip Chief says, “Because he knows you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy.” Here Chief implies that due to the pressures of society it leads people to insanity as with the seeing of that which would make one lose faith in humanity or to no longer want to live on this planet making him to not want to deal with reality and ultimately leading him to be “plumb crazy” similar to Chief’s experiences. Chief shows how McMurphy laughing in the face of danger is what keeps him sane.
In the end, R.P. McMurphy gets a lobotomy which turns him into a literal potato and Chief euthanizes him to set him free in turn immortalizes him as a symbol of hope to the other patients. As “a little change never hurt”, order has been restored to the ward though the patients still gamble as a small gesture of rebellion.