One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest By Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a Novel Written in 1962 by Ken Kesey. Set in an Oregon psychiatric Hospital, the narrative serves as a fly on the wall view of the institutionalization of madness at the time. As well as serving as an eye opening look into the treatment of the ‘insane’ in 1960s America, the novel also touches on an array of political undercurrents and sociological themes relevant to mental health social work, such as the treatment of mental distress, power, oppression and stigmatization.
From a brief analyses of the novels narrator, Chief Bromden, The ward Nurse, Ratched and the involuntary committed Randle McMurphy, this paper aims to show how Kesey’s novel is much more than a critique of the psychiatric hospital but instead
The dominance of machines in the chief’s hallucination could be said to represent modern society, as a machine, it could be said is inimical, the opposite of everything that is natural (Hillegass 1974). Like the patience on the ward, we are all part of this machine, and acquired to conform. Modern Society is as a ruthlessly uniformed and efficient machine, one in which he describes as the Combine, a name that Bromden likely gives to symbolize the oppressive forces of authority and society, namely the doctors or authorities that placed him and his fellow inmates in the hospital. The combine, it could be said, makes us all conform to its narrow rules. Individuality is seen as strange, therefore squeezed out of people, meaning the natural, joyful expressions of life are
It could be said that he symbolizes the natural, joyful expressions of life that the combine and the nurse are trying to squeeze out. The gambling, love of sports, open sexuality, could all be said to be motifs of living, masculinity, individualism and risk. This along with the ability to be “himself”, sets him apart from the repressed group of men whom placed themselves voluntarily under Ratched’s authority (Hillegass 1974). As a revolutionary it could be disputed whether McMurphy succeeds or fails, he fails on the pretense that eventually the Nurse and the hospital eventually grinds him down and ultimately leads to his death, but overall his does succeed. Through empowerment he teaches the others on the ward to be self-sufficient and stronger, mainly the chief, whom finds his strength and voice and eventually escapes from the hospital, which could be a symbol of recovery. McMurphy becomes almost a Christ figure; hereby he sacrifices himself for the strength of others, for as the others begin to become stronger he in turn becomes weaker (Hillegass 1974). The ability to be “himself” is eventually lost, which in turn empowers the others further. This is because McMurphy becomes a reminder of what they once were, vegetables, non-beings, conformists. Living in fear of what has become a symbol of authority and everything