One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Freedom Analysis

n One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey uses the ward as a representation of society as a whole. The patients are the citizens and the nurses and aides the government. Within this society, many of humanity's inherent freedoms are taken away in the name of security and mental health. The restriction of these freedoms are actually detrimental to the health and standard of living of the patients. This can be plainly seen in the depictions of the patients themselves. Some important characters to examine are Billy Bibbit, Chief Bromden, and McMurphy. Each patient mentioned represents a specific freedom taken away from the patients, in addition to the rest, that has a profound effect on their mental health and well-being. Throughout the book,
Billy appears to be the healthiest besides Harding. Billy solely has a severe stutter, nothing that requires commitment to a mental hospital. As the book goes on, the reader begins to realize Billy is incapable of being independent.
He has the constant presence of his mother watching over him and preventing him from truly experiencing life. When Billy begins to wonder if he will ever escape the clutches of his mother and enjoy life she responds with this, “'Sweetheart, you still have scads of time for things like that. Your whole life is ahead of you.' 'Mother, I'm th-th-thirty-one years old!'” (Kesey 247). She attempts to delude him into believing that he is simply too young to be granted independence. It is a cycle that will never allow Billy to be free. It has reached the point where Billy has convinced himself that he is not able to live on his own and committed himself to the hospital. When McMurphy came into the ward, Billy began to attain a sense of self-reliance. He believed that he could survive on his own. Billy's confidence is seen the morning after his night spent with Candy. Immediately after being caught, Billy has not stutter as he explains the situation to Nurse Ratched. In this moment Billy regained his independence. He was confident in his actions from the night before and did not care what Nurse Ratched thought. But Billy's regained freedom would undermine Nurse Ratched's power in the ward. Therefore,
instead of cultivating his newfound confidence, Nurse Ratched tears it apart at the mention of his mother's disapproval. As soon as Nurse Ratched mentions telling Mrs. Bibbit about his late-night activities, Billy's confidence crumples. The threat of his mother is too much for Billy's confidence and he is reduced to begging and blaming others for his actions. The constant threat of his mother watching him is akin government surveillance. The constant presence of the government monitoring each and every action we make causes us to choose our decisions carefully for fear of imprisonment. It gives the government the ability to control all of our actions. We cannot express ourselves freely for fear or reprisal from the government. The lack of privacy takes away our independence and ability to live life to the fullest. The right to be independent is one freedom that should not be sacrificed in the name of security. Chief Bromden had a different freedom repressed. Chief has been ignored all his life, unable to express himself through speech due to him being constantly ignored. His freedom to express himself has been taken away. The restriction of his freedoms continued throughout his stay at the mental hospital. The other patients do not even attempt to talk to Chief until McMurphy shows up. Chief Bromden is safe at the hospital but he is barely living. He doesn't talk to anyone or do much of anything besides the chores the aides have him do because he's assumed to be incapable of anything else. It is only when McMurphy comes to the ward and realizes that Chief isn't what everyone says he is that he is able to finally express himself. “McMurphy leaned his head down near mine where I had to look at him. 'Is that right? You deef, Chief?' 'He's de-de-deef and dumb.' . . . 'By God, Chief, you may be big, but you shake my hand or I'll consider it an insult'” (Kesey 27). The other patients never even bothered to talk to Bromden. His entire life he was considered to be not worth the time or effort to talk to. As a result, he is left alone with his thoughts for nearly his entire life. Humans are a pack species, we do not do well in isolation. People have a basic desire to expresses themselves among their peers. It helps regulate their views of the world in relation to everyone else. Chief is unable to partake in this fundamental human experience because society has determined him to be deaf and dumb. Nurse Ratched and all the members of the ward have written him off as not worth their time. It is only when McMurphy arrives at the ward that someone even bothers to talk to him. McMurphy alone makes the effort to get Chief to open up. Society sets many people aside as unworthy of the time to talk to because they don't act the way everyone else does. Who is to say their ideas are not as valid as ours? Each person in the world has a unique view on life from their personal experiences that should be shared. When certain citizens within society deem specific groups of people to be unworthy of being listened to, the group expands. And eventually, the government, like the ward, will attempt to silence some of these people for sharing hard truths. People like Edward Snowden have been persecuted for sharing what they believe to be wrong about the government. The ability to share one's opinion, even in criticism against the government, should be a fundamental freedom that is not given up in the name of national security. The book illustrates how important it is for Chief to exercise that right. Without outside interaction, his entire world in shrouded in fog and he experiences manic hallucinations. The simple experience of interacting with another human being helps him deal with his mental illness.